Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

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 Oatmeal Breakfast Bars are like a bowl of oatmeal, sweetened with chunks of raisins and banana, baked into a bar.

Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

 

Mornings are hectic at my house, and I don’t always have time to sit down and eat breakfast. I know breakfast is “the most important meal of the day” but there are a thousand reasons why I usually end up skipping breakfast.

It turns out skipping the first meal of the day doesn’t necessarily help you in any way, but especially when you are hungry enough to eat a cow at 11:30, and lunch ends up looking a little like this:

 

I realize I need to get back on track with healthy eating, but it is just not easy to find the time to sit down to breakfast every morning.

 

Oatmeal is my first choice of breakfast, but it is not super convenient.  To make oatmeal an easier breakfast for busy mornings, I experimented with baking it into bars for a healthy portable breakfast. It turned out, Oatmeal Breakfast Bars are not only a fairly healthy and delicious breakfast, but freeze beautifully. Make a pan or two Sunday evening, cut these bad boys up and freeze them, and you have breakfast all week.

Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

Yield: 6
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes

Oatmeal Breakfast Bars with banana, peanut butter, and raisins make a filling breakfast for those mornings you have to eat on the run.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups old-fashioned oats
  • 1 cup flour
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup applesauce
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 large banana, diced
  • 1/4 cup golden raisins, I roughly chopped my raisins

Instructions

  1. Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. Lightly coat an 8x8 inch square pan with cooking spray.
  2. In a medium bowl, stir together the oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. In a separate large bowl, combine the milk, applesauce, egg, honey, peanut butter, and vanilla.
  3. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and stir to combine. The batter will be very wet. Fold in the diced banana and golden raisins, then pour into the prepared baking pan.
  4. Bake for 35 minutes or until thickened and golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  5. Cool, cut into bars and serve or wrap for freezing.

Notes

Once cooled, the breakfast bars can be wrapped individually in plastic and kept in the refrigerator for 5 days or frozen for up to 4 months. To reheat: A quick ride for 5 seconds in the microwave, and you have a hot nutritious breakfast to go. If Frozen: You can microwave them for 15-20 seconds from frozen, or put them in the fridge to thaw overnight, and give it a quick 5 second warm up in the microwave when you are ready to eat.

What I love most about Oatmeal Breakfast Bars are they are not overly sweet. It is seriously like a bowl of oatmeal, sweetened with chunks of raisins and banana, baked into a bar. They are dense and filling, So no more hangry mid-day assaults on the pantry.

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13 Comments

  1. Very good. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins and added some slivered almonds. Didn’t use all the honey not needed. Will make these again.

  2. A little late, but I made these today 🙂 Very nutritious.
    But I have one question. Are they supposed to still be a bit soft en mushy? Because it almost seems like they’re not quite done, even though I’ve had them in the oven for about an hour…
    Thanks for the recipe though! Still quite tasty 😉