Banana Oat Breakfast Bars
Originally written in 2015. Updated with recipe card, pictures, and kid friendly cooking in 2019!
On the Daniel Fast (no refined sugars, dairy products, meat, or leaving agents) breakfasts are usually not too difficult. We have found a few fruit bars that suffice and we usually have tea. However, we still often miss a good, filling, and hearty breakfast. We are such breakfast people- eggs, biscuits, bacon, hash browns— you name it! Because of this, the lack of warm and “carby” breakfasts has been a struggle.
This recipe is SUCH a health nut recipe! I never would have thought I’d enjoy it. It is egg-free, sugar-free, and has no leavening products. It has no dairy products— yes, that includes butter! Every recipe we saw was not quite Daniel Fast friendly, so we had to do a ton of reworking. To add a nice crunch, William had the brilliant idea to include chia seeds! We also added a few spices on the second round of baking and tried baking it for less time at a higher temperature, which resulted in more flavorful and crunchier bars.
Also, there is SO much you can do to make this recipe your own! If you’re not on the fast, try adding in some honey or agave for some additional sweetness. You could also add chocolate chips for a more versatile (and kid friendly) bar!
Also, if you are not planning on adding refined sugars, try to use extremely ripe bananas. I am talking about the ones that are on their last leg that nobody ever wants because of all the bruises. The riper bananas have a higher natural sugar content and this will help with the sweetness of the bars. Although the bars will go bad faster, you can always refrigerate or even freeze them to increase their “shelf life”.
On cooking these with my toddler sous chef: This is a very kid friendly recipe! We have been working on our knife skills using safety knives so she chopped all the bananas and mashed them. From then on it’s just mixing ingredients. I measured everything out and let her pour it all into one bowl and mix it together. She also greased the pan and helped me spread it into the pan.
Banana Oat Bars
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon unrefined coconut oil
- 6 ripe bananas
- 5 cups rolled oats
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar *see note
- 1/4 cup ground flax seed, or flax meal
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1 cup chopped walnuts **see note
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder ***see note
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup water
Instructions
-
Coat a half sheet jelly roll pan (a bit bigger than 13×9) in the coconut oil.
-
Chop the bananas and mash them together in a large bowl.
-
Add the rest of the ingredients to the bananas and mix together thoroughly.
-
Spread the banana mixture into the greased pan and smooth out so that it is as even as possible.
Bake.
-
For crunchy bars: Preheat oven to 360F. Cook first for 30 minutes, take them out of the oven and let them cool. Cut into desired bar shape (we do 3 x 6 grid for 18 bars). Flip carefully and bake for another 20-30 minutes.
-
For soft bars: Preheat oven to 180F. Cook first for 40 minutes, take them out of the oven and cut into desired bar shape (we do 3 x 6 grid for 18 bars). Flip carefully and bake for another 40 minutes.
Recipe Notes
*You can easily leave out the coconut sugar or replace with honey, agave, any sweetener of your choice.
**We leave out the walnuts as the kids’ daycare is nut-free and we like these for quick school breakfasts.
***I use cocoa powder here when cooking with my toddler, but you can trade it out for nutmeg if you want a more traditional spiced flavor.
