Name: Healthy Oatmeal Bars
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 22 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Gluten Free
Ingredients: 1/2 cup oats (quick or old-fashioned); 1/3 cup oat flour or ground oats; 2 heaping tbsp peanut butter; 1 banana; 1 tbsp maple syrup; 2 tbsp water; 1/3 cup almonds; pinch of salt; 1-2 oz dark chocolate, chopped; 1/2 - 1 tsp nut butter

If you take a look around this blog, you’ll know I’m a real fan of quick and easy oat recipes that you can eat on the go and even meal prep. Well, here’s another one you can easily make for breakfast or snacks – these easy healthy oatmeal bars aka flapjacks (in British) aka oat bars. You’ll need only simple, wholesome ingredients and almost no effort in order to make this tasty healthy breakfast recipe.

About These Healthy Oatmeal Bars

No gluten, no flour, no dairy and no refined sugar were involved in the making of these vegan baked oatmeal bars. You’ll find they’re sweet, chewy and so much better for you than anything store-bought.

They’re super easy to put together too – all you need to do is mix the ingredients together, spread the mixture in a baking pan, bake and cut into bars! That’s it!

I actually made these in an effort to stop buying those packaged bars full of fake syrup. I usually get those when I forget to eat and my blood sugar dips low like Christina Milian. Speaking of, I recently watched her in a movie on Netflix, it was good. Better than most romantic movies there.

So trying to prepare for when I know I’ll be on the go the entire day, I decided to make my own healthy bars using oats, bananas and almost no added sugar. I drizzled some chocolate on top and magically, my son loves them too.

And this is the story of how these healthy oatmeal bars were brought into the world. There – a magical story you’d never forget, I’m a good storyteller, I know. Steven Spielberg, watch out, I’m coming for your salary. Is it bad I don’t even know what Steven Spielberg does?

Healthy Oat Bars Ingredients

Now let’s take a look at what we’ll need in order to make these!

Oats. I used a mixture of quick oats and oat flour to put the bars together. Old-fashioned oats might work as well.

Almonds. I love my bars chewy, so I added some roughly chopped, almost whole almonds to the mixture. You can use whatever nuts you love, sub with seeds, or skip them altogether if you don’t want to have them in the mixture.

Nut Butter. You can use any type of nut butter you’d like for this recipe – peanut, almond, hazelnut – whatever you love.

Banana. Use a really ripe banana for this recipe – it will provide enough sweetness so that you don’t have to add too much maple syrup.

Maple Syrup. I always like to taste the mixture before baking and found it needed a little more sweetness. That’s why I decided to add a tablespoon of maple syrup here. So my suggestion – do a taste test after everything is you’ve mixed everything together and add some sweetener of choice if you need to.

Dark Chocolate. I need my daily dose of chocolate that’s why I decided to drizzle some dark chocolate mixed with almond butter over the bars. You can leave it out, but if you’re a fan of chocolate – I highly recommend it!

How To Make Healthy Oatmeal Bars

Making these healthy baked oatmeal bars is a pretty straightforward process. Here’s what you need to do:

Mash the banana really well until it’s like a puree. Then add in the nut butter you chose and mix until combined.
Add in the rest of the ingredients – everything except for the dark chocolate and almonds. Add a little bit of water and a pinch of salt – it will help to bring out the sweetness of the bars. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes (this will allow the oats to soak up the moisture). Then add in the almonds.
Preheat your oven to 350F/180C and line a small baking pan with parchment paper. Spread the mixture evenly, but make sure it’s not too thin – it’s okay if it doesn’t cover the entire pan.
Bake the bars for about 12 minutes or until you achieve your desired color (they’re rather golden than brown)
While they’re baking melt the dark chocolate and then mix it with a little bit of nut butter.
Take out the baked mixture, let it cool off for 10 minutes and then slice into bars.
Drizzle some melted chocolate all over and refrigerate for about 40 minutes or until the chocolate has firmed up.

There – your oat bars are ready to enjoy!

How To Store and Meal Prep

These healthy oatmeal bars will be good at room temperature for a day or so, but I like to keep them in the fridge to extend their shelf life. Put them in an airtight container and store for 2-3 days.

If you want to meal prep the bars and are not on your own – make sure to double the recipe, as it doesn’t make a ton.

On The Go

These oat bars are great for on-the-go! Simply pack them in an airtight container and grab when you need one!

More Options

Not only healthy, these bars are also super versatile. You can take the base and switch add-ins like add:

coconut shavings
dried fruit (you might even skip the maple syrup here)
use different nut butter and nuts / seeds
add vanilla or cinnamon

And so much more – just feel free to experiment and make sure to taste test the batter before baking. Since it’s vegan – you don’t need to worry about eating the raw mixture, so go ahead and play around!

More Healthy Oatmeal Recipes On The Go

I hope you enjoy these healthy oatmeal bars if you decide to make the recipe! If you love them, you will probably also love these tasty and healthy on-the-go oatmeal recipes: