I’m so excited about this recipe, which is adapted from Justafrugalfoodie‘s baked oatmeal. I’ve been wanting to add some new healthy “treat” snacks to my children’s lunchbox rotation because I’ve been stuck on muffins for a while. Justa noted that her recipe wasn’t quite sweet enough, so I decided to add a banana and change some of the proportions to put together a chewy granola bar that we could eat on the go. My kids loved it. Unfortunately, I loved it too, so these aren’t going to last long in our house.
Store-bought granola bars, even the “organic” ones, are so full of sugar and other unnecessary ingredients and preservatives. They’re also expensive and over-packaged. These bars are simple to make and they cost a fraction of what you’d pay for granola bars at the grocery store (see price comparison here).
Ingredients:
1 ripe banana, mashed
½ cup applesauce
2 eggs
½ cup non-dairy milk (or use dairy if you want)
½ cup maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
3 cups rolled oats
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 cup blueberries
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 inch glass pan.
- Mash the banana in a large bowl. Add the remaining wet ingredients and stir together.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the dry ingredients.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined.
- Fold in the blueberries and walnuts.
- Bake for 35 minutes and cool on a rack before cutting into bars.
Check out my other version of these bars that uses pumpkin and cranberries. Also, you may be interested in my favorite homemade Larabar recipes. It’s amazing how much money we can save by making things ourselves!
Linking to Allergy Free Wednesday, Breakfast Ideas Mondays, My Meatless Mondays, Frugal Food Thursdays, Snacktime Saturday, Gluten Free Fridays.
I *LOVE* the addition of Maple Syrup! Genius!!
Do you think honey instead of maple syrup would give a similar result?
Yes, I think honey would work very well in this recipe. Let me know how it comes out if you do try it!
I just made this with honey instead of maple syrup and it tasted great!
Great! Thanks for letting me know. I’m glad you liked it.
Any ideas of how many calories in each bar and do they taste bananaee?? I don’t like the taste or smell of ripe bananas that is why I am asking???
I’m not sure about the calories, but yes, you do taste the banana. I recommend you try leaving out the banana and adding another 1/4 cup applesauce or milk. You may want to increase the maple syrup a bit for sweetness.
Do you think you could add more applesauce and take out the egg? I am always looking for good vegan options.
I think it would taste great with 1 cup of applesauce and no eggs. Alternately, you could try flax eggs (1 tablespoon flaxseed meal plus 3 tablespoons water per egg).
This looks like a great recipe. Always great to have some variety with the homemade grab and go snacks! Thanks for sharing : )
Thanks – I agree about the grab and go snacks! It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut. I’m enjoying your lunch series this week.
Hey, thank you so much for this recipe. My husband always comes back from work at 5 pm all famished. Not wanting to spend time in the kitchen again in between meals (I cook fresh lunch and dinner everyday), I resort to the easiest option of packed or processed snack. now this looks it might work. do you have some savory vegetarian options as well that can be an evening snack?
Thanks! Check out my macaroni and cheese muffins for a savory snack: http://realfoodrealdeals.com/2012/05/01/macaroni-and-cheese-muffins/. You can make a whole batch ahead of time and then freeze them.
Awesome recipe! How do you store these?
Thanks! I cut the batch into bars and then store them in an airtight container for up to two days. Because they are moist, they will get moldy by the third or fourth day. I usually freeze half the batch and take them out as I need them.
Thanks!:) Very good to know! When you take them out of the freezer, how do you thaw them? I figure for lunches they’ll thaw in time, but say if I want a quick snack immediately. Just microwave it?
Sorry for all the questions, I’m very new to making “real” food!!
I’m happy to have your questions! I leave it out on the counter to thaw, and it’s good to go within about 30 minutes. I don’t have a microwave, but I’m guessing you’d be fine to zap it for a short time (try 10 seconds at at time).
Thank you so much for this recipe. I love chewy bars and yummy blueberries. I made this a few times. The first time I only had honey and used that instead of the maple syrup – didn’t like it too much. Next time I used the maple syrup and it was delicious. This last time I omitted the applesauce (I had a really large banana) and added 1T of coconut oil and it was absolutely perfect. I know adding the coconut oil adds to the fat content, but I have a deep love for coconut oil. Thanks again!
As a side note, I also froze some of them and they were fine defrosting on the counter or heating up in the microwave.
I’m so glad you liked them! I love coconut oil too, and the maple syrup really makes a difference.
Do you think this would work with frozen blueberries?
Yes, this will definitely work with frozen berries.
Thanks! I made these last night and just enjoyed one (okay, two) for my morning snack. I left out the applesauce by accident and they were still quite moist. My rolled oats stash was lower than I thought so mine were half steel-cut. And I used a wonderful local amber honey instead of maple syrup, since I had a big jar staring at me. When you make that many changes does it still count as “your” recipe? LOL. Nonetheless I am thoroughly enjoying them!
I’m so glad you like them! It’s a very flexible recipe as you’ve discovered. I love the idea of steel cut oats – I’ll try that next time.
These look tasty!!
Thanks, Jessica! These are delicious.
These look fabulous and super healthy! Thanks for linking up to Snacktime Saturday!
I’m adding these to my to-do list!
Thanks for stopping by and linking up to Snacktime Saturday. For some reason I always thought snack bars like this were a lot of work but this looks great. My kiddo would definitely be into these!
These look fantastic! I will be making these asap, but might sub (less healthy) chocolate chips for blueberries so my picky chocoholic preschooler will eat them
Thanks f
-Dana
Good luck! You can’t lose with chocolate chips.
YUMMY! I have this on my to make list! Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party last week! I have tweeted your recipe!
I hope that you’ll join us this week to share more yummies! Also, be sure to stop back by to see who the winner of the Planet Rice will be! The winner will be announced at GFF #9 Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com
My 5 year old (and now my 2 year old) eats packaged granola bars every morning, because lets face it, I can’t get up early enough before kindergarten to get real food into him. I would love to make a homemade healthier, cheaper bar. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find your recipe! However, I was quickly dissapointed because my son is severely allergice to egg. Do you have any ideas on what I could replace it with that would still work? I am so bad in the kitchen…In muffiins I replace egg with applesauce, but I don’t think that would work here. Any ideas would be appreciated!!
Food allergies can be so challenging. You can make a substitute “flax egg” for baking. To make a flax egg, add one tablespoon flax meal to 3 tablespoons water. Stir together and let it sit for a few minutes. It will take on the consistency of an egg white. Good luck and let me know if it works for you!
Have you ever tried to make these with soaked oats? I’ve just recently started experimenting with soaking grains and I thought it might work well with this recipe (which we LOVE in my house!)
I’m so glad you like it! We do soak our oats for oatmeal, but I haven’t tried this recipe with soaked oats. Great idea – I will next time.