Pumpkin Banana Snack Bites make the perfect after school or post workout treat; made with simple ingredients and full of pumpkin flavor, it will be hard to resist just one!
We’ve been on a snack kick lately in our house and for good reason: with the warmer weather, Joey and I have been outside running around and burning more energy than usual. Therefore, Mr. Joey seems to be HUNGRY! A lot more hungry than he was when we were cooped up inside all winter. Mom’s hungrier too— it takes a lot to chase him around. Joey and I are learning to tread that fine line between snacking too much OR too much food at snack time, which in turn affects his appetite at lunch or dinner. I think these pumpkin banana snack bites are THE perfect compromise for Mom’s worrying about the snacking situation.
I had every intention to make my friend Lindsay’s Sweet Potato Banana Bites this weekend and realized I didn’t have sweet potato. But I had plenty of canned pumpkin! So I played around with her recipe a bit to make it my own, and voila: pumpkin banana snack bites. If you don’t like pumpkin, don’t worry; the pumpkin flavor isn’t too strong. The same goes for the banana. And if you or someone in your family has a peanut allergy, substitute the peanut butter for any nut butter. And did I mention these are gluten-free? Honestly, pumpkin banana snack bites are a snack for EVERYONE!
I think there’s a time and a place for snacking— especially when it comes to kids snacking. I definitely don’t want Joey to fill up on food before a main meal. What I can tell you is that at lunch and dinner Joey doesn’t eat THAT much, regardless if he has a snack or not a few hours before the meal. But without the snack, he has a major meltdown and screams for food. That doesn’t mean I’ll give him dinner at 3:30pm. It means he’ll get a snack, and dinner at 6:00pm. And as long as his snack includes wholesome, nutritious foods [such as these pumpkin banana bites], I’m OK with that.
- ½ cup of canned pumpkin puree
- ½ cup of peanut butter
- 1 medium banana, mashed
- ½ cup of old fashioned oats
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- ¼ cup of chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 375. In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mix well.
- Spoon into greased mini muffin tin pans. Bake for 20 minutes.
This recipe also doubles as my Recipe Redux for April. April’s theme is “spring cleaning”— participant’s were encouraged to look through our fridge, pantry, freezer, etc., find an ingredient that’s been hanging around for awhile, and use it in a recipe! After taking an inventory of my pantry, I brought out my trusty vanilla extract and put it to good use with these pumpkin banana snack bites.
Looking for some more snack-spiration? I make a batch of these no-bake chocolate protein bars every week. Joey’s favorite snack is these milk and cereal bites. And if you don’t feel like baking, mixing, or freezing, you can use my top 10 energizing snacks list as a reference for easy grab n’ go snacks! And don’t forget to check out other recipes from Recipe Reduxer’s below!
