Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Bars

The peanut butter banana oatmeal bar is a simple yet healthy breakfast/snack bar. Better yet? You can prepare this the day before to not clash with your morning rush.

That’s not even the best part:

Despite being basic, it has numerous room for improvement. The seeds alone have so many possible substitutes.

So, without further ado, let’s make it!

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Optional Stuff

These are some things you can do to make the peanut butter banana oatmeal bar a bit more exciting. It may take more time and effort, but it’ll be worth it.

For this recipe, using the blender is actually optional! I just used the blender to compare using fine oats (flour) vs. regular rolled oats.

 Luckily, this is more of a preferential aspect. Personally, I like the coarse consistency of non-blended oats.

You can also toast your oats and seeds. This will have a bit of crunchy texture to it. Simply bake the oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds for 10 minutes in a 325ºF (163ºC) oven.

Substitutions and add-ins

Instead of maple syrup, you can use a liquid sweetener of your choice. This ingredient is like the “glue” of the peanut butter banana oatmeal bar. So, something like simple syrup, caramel, caramel, etc.

For butter, you can switch it to coconut oil for a healthier alternative. 

By the way, if you’re allergic to peanut butter, feel free to change it with other nut butter or even seed butter.

You can also switch up the pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. Any seeds or nuts of your choice will be an excellent idea. In fact, this is so much like a granola bar recipe. 

Wait, scratch that; it is indeed a granola recipe—oats, syrup, nuts, seeds? It checks out.

Speaking of which, here’s what you can add to further improve your peanut butter banana oatmeal bar. Dried fruits are an excellent addition to this recipe. You can use raisins, dried cranberries, dates, etc. Moreover, you can also use chocolate chips.

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Bars

Recipe by Zoey GarciaCourse: Breakfast, SnacksCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

16

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Total time

30

minutes

The peanut butter banana oatmeal bar is a healthy breakfast or snack bar perfect for anyone busy. It’s very straightforward to make, and it won’t cost you a fortune. More importantly, you can control what goes in your granola.

Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats, gluten-free

• ⅓ cup all-natural peanut butter, unsalted

• 2 fresh bananas

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• ½ cup maple syrup

• ½ tsp vanilla extract

• ¼ cup butter

• Pinch of salt

• ¼ cup pumpkin seeds

• ¼ cup sunflower seeds

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
• In a small pan, mix the maple syrup, vanilla extract, butter, salt, and peanut butter. Cook in medium heat until the butter turns to liquid.
• Mash the bananas in a small bowl.
• In a separate bowl, toss all the ingredients. Using a spatula, blend together until cohesive.
• Line your small baking pan (about 7 inches) with parchment paper. Lightly grease it for easy removal later on.
• Place your mixture on the pan and press it softly with your spatula. Then, you’d have to use a harder object such as a cup to press the oatmeal firmly.
• Bake it for about 15 minutes.
• Once you bring it out, let it cool completely.
• Slice it up nicely in 16 even square pieces. You can also just cut it up into 8 parts, lengthwise.
• Serve and enjoy!

Notes

• Recipe inspired by Lauren Sharifi.