Banana Nut Oatmeal Breakfast Bars! Chewy, crunchy, and crave-worthy, these wholesome bars just made breakfast a breeze.
Healthy and brimming with feel-good ingredients, these delicious Banana Nut Oatmeal Breakfast Bars are the perfect on-the-go treat when you need something fast and satisfying. Lightly sweetened and full of banana nut bread deliciousness, these breakfast bars hit the spot!
Whole Food Plant Based, Vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.
Hi there, Ameera here!
Sometimes you need something quick for those crazy mornings when life comes at you fast. These tasty breakfast bars are just that.
Bake and freeze, remove one from the freezer for breakfast and by the time you get to work, it’s thawed, and ready to eat. For a special treat, lightly heat in the microwave for that “fresh out of the oven” feeling!
You gotta give this one a try!
Tips for Success:
- Flavor Profile: Flavorful, healthy, and delicious, these lightly sweet oatmeal breakfast bars are reminiscent of banana nut bread. The peanut butter flavor is very subtle and is masked by the other ingredients.
- Walnuts/Pecan Alternative Topping: You can add the chopped walnuts or pecans right into the batter if you wish. Or you can try this alternative topping – we placed the chopped walnuts into a small bowl, added one Tablespoon of maple syrup, mixed well to coat all the chopped nuts, then we sprinkled the maple syrup coated chopped walnuts all over the top of the batter and lightly pressed them down to secure them. We loved this tasty alternative topping.
- Mixing Well: Take the time to really mix the ingredients well to ensure all the oats are thoroughly coated with the wet ingredients.
- Parchment Paper Liner: Line the baking dish with parchment paper to cover the bottom, allow excess paper to go up two of the sides and hang over the edge for easy removal of the oat bars. Pro Tip: Crush the parchment paper in your hands, then carefully open it back up. Spread it out on a flat surface with your hands and smooth it out, then place it into the 8 x 8 baking pan. This helps keep the parchment paper in place while you transfer the oat mixture into the baking pan.
- Removal from Pan: Make sure you run a sharp knife all along the edges of the pan where the parchment paper isn’t covering the edges to ensure that the bars don’t stick to the sides when lifting it from the pan.
- Natural Peanut Butter: We used a natural unsweetened peanut butter simply because it is cheaper than almond butter or cashew butter. The peanut butter flavor is masked by all the other ingredients.
- Peanut Butter Substitutions: Feel free to substitute with cashew butter, almond butter or sun butter.
- Sweetness: This oatmeal breakfast bar is lightly sweet.
- Molasses: We used Grandma’s Unsulfured Original Molasses. Feel free to use your favorite molasses. We do not recommend black strap molasses. You can leave the molasses out of the dish if you wish. The molasses adds excellent depth of flavor and is reminiscent of brown sugar.
Leftovers and Freezing:
Leftovers will generally keep 3 days in the refrigerator. Store in a covered container.
This breakfast bars freeze well.
Pantry Products:
- Molasses: We used Grandma’s Unsulfured Original Molasses. Feel free to use your favorite molasses.
- Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
Kitchen Products:
- 8 x 8 baking pan
- Parchment paper
We certainly hope you give these tasty bars a try! If you try them, please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us! We would love to hear from you.
PrintBanana Nut Oatmeal Breakfast Bars
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Cook Time: 25-28 Minutes
- Total Time: 35 Minutes
- Yield: 9 Bars 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Oven
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Healthy and brimming with feel-good ingredients, these delicious Banana Nut Oatmeal Breakfast Bars are the perfect on-the-go treat when you need something fast and satisfying.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 3 cup rolled oats
- 2 to 3 Tablespoons maple sugar (or date sugar, coconut sugar) *
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon (+/-)
- Pinch nutmeg (optional)
- Pinch ginger powder (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt *
Wet Ingredients:
- 4 medium ripe bananas (2 cups mashed)
- ½ cup natural unsweetened peanut butter
- 2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon molasses *
Other Optional Ingredients:
- ½ to ¾ cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
- 1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place the oven rack in the center position.
- Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Place all the remaining Dry Ingredients into the bowl, whisk until well combined.
- Place the bananas into a medium-sized bowl, mash the bananas until smooth. It’s perfectly fine to have some very small chunks of bananas remaining. The bananas should look like pudding after thoroughly mashing.
- Add the all the remaining Wet Ingredients to the mashed bananas and mix well to evenly distribute all the ingredients.
- Add the Oat Mixture to the Banana Mixture, stir well for several minutes until all the ingredients are well mixed and incorporated.
- Stir in the chopped walnuts (see notes)*, then transfer the mixture to the parchment paper lined 8×8 baking pan. Press down to create a level, even surface.
- Place in a preheated 350 F oven for 25 to 28 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven, allow to cool for at least one hour to firm up, then loosen the edges not covered by parchment paper using a thin-bladed knife, score, cut, serve, and enjoy.
Notes
*Please reference the blog post for Tips for Success, Pantry Items Used, Storage and Freezing, and Kitchen Products Used.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Serving: 9
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I eat oatmeal everyday for breakfast, so I had to try this. We had a piece of it with coffee, once it cooled. I ‘warned’ (lol) my hubbie that it wasn’t sweet. But he said he really liked it!
I especially liked it the next day and days after when it was stored in the fridge. Yum!
A great way to have my oatmeal when the weather gets warmer. And also a good little treat to go with coffee.
Hi there Sandra,
YAYYYY!!! We are so happy that you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you so much for taking time to leave us an awesome review.
-Ameera and Robin
hi – i love this idea but don’t actually love bananas so I’m wondering if you have something similar that doesn’t use them. Or could i maybe just substitute applesauce? thanks.
Hi there Jacquie,
We apologize that this review got away from us. Not sure what would be a good substitute for the bananas as this recipe is all about the bananas. Thank you.
-Ameera and Robin
My husband loves these for early breakfast. (He has another breakfast a couple hours later after morning chores.) They are so filling, we cut them in half again, making 16. He also loves the apple walnut cookie scones, the blueberry breakfast cookies and the carrot cake cookie. Tomorrow I’m making blueberry bliss balls. Thanks for all the great recipes!
Hi there Teri,
WOOO HOOOO!!! We are thrilled that your husband loves this recipe. So happy that he also enjoys our other recipes as well. Totally made our day! Thank you so much!
-Ameera and Robin