How to study for finals: sit down with your notes, turn on Netflix, watch the Office until 10 pm, make banana bread muffins 

I bought a bunch of bananas to eat after my workouts.. and then finals week came around and the gym was just not an option. So… I made banana bread.. muffins. Muffins are always more fun

I (per usual) used a Cooking Light recipe but made a few substitutions:

Parkay for butter (for we had no butter)
Greek yogurt for regular yogurt
1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup all purpose flour instead of 2 cups all purpose flour

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 large eggs 
• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas) 
• 1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Cooking spray 

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.
Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon batter into a muffin pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 15 to 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

and then my roommate’s boyfriend’s dog tried to eat them

Pumpkin Cranberry Breakfast Bars

Yield 6 
2 cups rolled oats
¾ cup pureed pumpkin
½ cup apple sauce
¼ cup dried cranberries, chopped
1 tbsp honey
3 tsp Stevia brown sugar blend or 1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp vanilla 

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix together pumpkin, apple sauce, honey, 2 tsp brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix together oats and cranberries. Pour wet ingredients over oats and mix thoroughly, making sure all oats are covered. 

Line a 9x9 cake pan with parchment paper and spray with non-stick spray (paper should be long enough to go up sides of pan to make it easier to life bars out). Spoon oats into cake pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle remaining teaspoon of brown sugar blend on top. 

Bake for 15 minutes. Lift out oats using sides of parchment paper and transfer to cooling rack. Let cool for 10 minutes and cut into 6 bars.