Healthy Banana Oatmeal Bars
Published 6/20/2019 โข Updated 6/9/2020
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It’s time to kick the refined grains and sugar and make these delicious and healthy banana oatmeal bars! This amazing oatmeal bar recipe is made with a mixture of ground oat flour and buckwheat flour and sweetened with banana and honey.
If you love oatmeal breakfast bars then you’re also going to be smitten over our oatmeal peanut butter cookie bars, lemon blueberry crumble bars, and healthy strawberry oatmeal bars.
We Love Oatmeal Bars!
Who’s ready for the most delicious way to start your day? AKA Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars! We also refer to these guys as Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars because…well, they have chocolate chips and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
We first posted these bars back in 2015. The photos were sub-par and the recipe needed some tweaking. So? We’re bringing them back and making them better than ever! Honestly, we didn’t have to do THAT much to this oatmeal bars recipe to make it even better. The flavors are on point and they’re super moist for a GF flour blend.
Make Your Own Oat Flour
The base of this recipe is a combination of ground oat flour and buckwheat flour. Instead of spending a lot of money on ground oat flour, I actually make my own at home! All you need is a high-speed food processor and some rolled oats. Genius, right? These bars are sweetened with banana (duh), a little bit of honey, and applesauce. No need for refined grains or coconut sugar in these babies! Yeehaw. We did choose to use dark chocolate chips, but you can leave them out or use whatever kind of chocolate or cacao chip you prefer.
Here’s What You Need
- oat flour
- buckwheat flour
- rolled oats
- coconut sugar
- chocolate chips
- banana
- applesauce (option to sub more mashed banana)
- honey (option to sub maple syrup)
- egg whites
- coconut oil
Banana Oatmeal Bars Tips
Here are some tips and tricks for making the most perfect healthy oatmeal bars!
Parchment paper
If you’re an avid baker then you know that parchment paper is what’s up! We highly recommend lining your square pan with parchment paper AND spraying it with nonstick cooking spray for the best results.
How to check if they’re done baking
No one likes an overcooked baked good. Use a toothpick and stick it in the middle of your bars. If it comes out clean, you know your bars are done. If you see some batter on the toothpick, keep on baking.
How to store banana oatmeal bars
To store these baked oatmeal bars, let them cool completely. Then, transfer them into an airtight container or gallon-sized plastic bag and store them in the refrigerator for 3-5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Can I eat banana oatmeal bars for breakfast?
Good news! These can actually be considered oatmeal breakfast bars because they are THAT healthy! Made with 100% whole grains and unrefined sugar, you bet your bippy you can eat these for breakfast.
I don’t have applesauce, what should I do?
Don’t have applesauce? Just use a 1/4 cup more mashed banana and you’re good to go!
I don’t like banana, what can I swap it with?
Not a banana fan? Option to swap 1 medium mashed banana with about 1/2 cup of applesauce or another pureed fruit.
More oatmeal bar recipes
- Banana Berry Baked Oatmeal
- Peanut Butter Banana Baked Oatmeal
- Strawberry Oatmeal Bars
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Healthy Banana Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1/2 cup ground oat flour*
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 1.5 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips, + more for topping
Wet Ingredients
- 2 large egg whites
- 1 medium banana, ripe and mashed
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup uplain, nsweetened almond milk
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
Instructions
- First, preheat oven to 350ºF and an 8×8-inch* pan with parchment paper. Spray with coconut oil cooking spray.
- Next, in a large bowl mix together dry ingredients, minus the chocolate chips, you’ll add those last.
- In a medium-size bowl, mash the banana until pureed and then mix in the wet ingredients, minus the coconut oil.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until combined. Add melted coconut oil and dark chocolate chips and mix one more time.
- Transfer batter into baking dish and option to add more chocolate chips to the top. Bake at 350ºF for about 20-23 minutes.
- Let cool for 30 minutes to an hour before slicing. Enjoy with nut butter and fresh banana slices.
Tips & Notes
- You can make your own oat flour by placing rolled oats into a high-speed blender or food processor and processing until ground into a fine flour.
- If you only have a 9×9-inch pan, you will need to decrease the bake time by a few minutes.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Helloooo Sunday Fun Day! I thought I would chat a little bit about our 2018 plans for Fit Foodie Finds. We’ve been having some really great conversations with other food bloggers and experts in the industry. One of the main topics as of late is something called SEO, search engine optimization. Basically, it’s an acronym to determine how searchable your website is AKA how easy is it for readers to randomly stumble upon FFF recipes on Google and Pinterest.
Fit Foodie Finds is 7 years old and you know what that means? We’ve got a lot of content on this website (thousands of posts and hundreds of recipes!)! A bulk of this year is going to be spent on going back to those hundreds of recipes and making them better. If you look back at recipes like THIS and THIS…you can see that 1. I didn’t really know how to write a recipe let alone test and develop one and 2. my photography is hilariously hideous.
We’re also going to be focusing on adding the macros (nutrition) to every recipe on FFF. Get excited. Oh, and this doesn’t go JUST for recipes, it goes for lifestyle posts, round-ups, and workouts! Don’t worry, we’ve still got lots of brand new recipes and workouts in the pipeline. So, here’s to 2018 and making something that’s good even better!
Eating one of these right now and it’s absolutely delicious!! I added homemade chai spice on the top and it completes it perfectly! My only regret is not putting more chocolate chips in!
Love the chai spice addition! Perfect for fall ๐
Can you substitute the almond milk with anything? I’m allergic to nuts but this recipe sounds delicious and I would love to be able to give it a try
You could try cows milk or soy! Or any kind of jut free milk will work โบ๏ธโบ๏ธ
Recommendation to sub in place of coconut ingredients, we have an allergy? Thanks! Can’t wait to try them!
Um these look like the ULTIMATE afternoon snack!! Now just have to wait for a few bananas to brown… I am so excited to try!
!!!!! They are seriously the best. Planning on making another batch this week!
Oh how I love the combo of banana, oatmeal and chocolate! Can’t wait to try these!
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If I were to make it with the whole wheat flour mixture, how much of each should I use? Thanks!! They look AMAZING!
I should have added this in the post. So originally when I did it, I used like 3/4 cup whole wheat and 1/4 cup all purpose flour. Give that a try and let me know!
Oh. My. These look so dang delicious! I need to try them asap. I wonder if I could replace the eggs with chia…hmm
You could try! I tried it without egg or chia and it worked ๐
These look lovely and I am getting ready to make them but, why egg whites? Can I just use a whole egg?
You can try and use the whole egg. You may need to sub out some of the other liquid though, I haven’t tried it so I can’t give you exact measurements!
My Coffee is pretty lonely right now…. it DEFF could use one of these!!! ๐
๐ ๐ Seriously, best thing EVER.
Oats are not gluten free. As an celiac since 1998 I have never been able to use”gluten free oats” without a serious response from my stomach and rear. When will bloggers learn what is truly GF and stop spreading false recipes like this. I had my grandmother upset that I would not eat some cookies she made because of oats. I told her they give me problems and she shows me the recipe stating that it’s GF. After a 30 minutes argument I had to leave since she’s convinced that the cookies were fine.
Hi JC! Thanks for your comment. There are certified gluten-free oats out there, but if you are a celiac and know your body, you just have to be careful!
I don’t even know what to say anymore, I have said it all before -because your food is always perfection. People say perfection doesn’t exist, yet it exists on this blog…… And……… In Ryan Reynolds! LOL!
Yah weirdo. THANKS ๐ Wish you could eat ittttttttt.
My oh my, these look delicious! I always spot your recipes on pinterest, and I’m so impressed with how healthy and yummy they look. Thanks for sharing!
NewEnglandOutlook.com
๐ This makes me happy! Thanks for stopping by. Going to check out your blog right meow!