Do you have some brown bananas on your counter top that you’re wondering what to do with? If you do, I have a great, easy recipe. If you don’t, you need to save a few and let them get spotty. Do it.
These banana oat bars taste just like banana bread in a bar form. And making them could not be easier. You have six simple ingredients. Mix them all together, press it into a baking dish and bake.
12 minutes later you have chewy, moist bars that are great for breakfast, snacking, or even dessert.
These bars are vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, and have no added sugar. You won’t believe that all the sweetness comes from the bananas and dates. They are perfectly sweet without any added sugar or sweeteners.
I made these on a whim because I had some spotty bananas I wanted to use, but we love them so much they’ve already been elevated to regular recipe status. I love how having to take wheat out of my diet is forcing me to branch out in the kitchen. There’s been some delicious results.
PrintBanana oat bars {vegan, gluten-free, nut-free}
These bars are vegan, nut free and GF! Great for a healthy snack!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 9 bars 1x
- Category: Snacks
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 cup dates, finely chopped
- 3 (very ripe) bananas, mashed
- 1 1/2 cups brown crispy rice cereal
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (get certified GF to keep it GF)
- 1/2 cup oat flour (if you don’t have oat flour, just blend some oats in your blender until it is a fine flour)
- 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil, or baking oil of choice
- Optional add-ins*: raisins, chocolate chips, walnuts
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8×8 or 9×9 square baking dish with parchment paper. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Transfer the mixture into a baking dish and using the back of a wooden spoon or a spatula, press the mixture down well. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes, or until the top is just starting to get golden brown. Allow to cool before slicing into 9 squares. These can also be cut into granola bar shapes if you prefer. I like these best stored in the refrigerator. Enjoy!
Notes
*I didn’t try any of these add-ins, but I think they’d be delicious.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 183
- Sugar: 16.5g
- Sodium: 1.3mg
- Fat: 4.5g
- Carbohydrates: 35.6g
- Protein: 2.6g
Keywords: healthy snack
Healthy Living Playbook!
I tend to get a little lazy with my bananas and they sit around brown- Drives the husband crazy! …..Maybe I’ll appease him and use them up with this yummy recipe! Looks like a perfect snack for the busyness that is about to come into my life! 🙂
You read my mind, Yes I do have about ten brown bananas o my countertop! This looks perfect 😀
I love how having to take wheat out of your diet is forcing you to branch out in the kitchen too!
These would be such a good morning snack!
I love the simplicity of this recipe! Vera’s third birthday is coming up soon and this will be a perfect treat for her to bring along to day-care.
Ooh–that’s a great idea. I may have to do the same thing for Meghan’s preschool for her birthday in September.
I have been following your blog since September 2010. I love your recipes. I am truly excited to make these bars. I have a two month old baby girl who is sensitive to proteins like dairy, gluten, nuts, and eggs. I have been having a hard time finding foods to make that don’t have those ingredients in them. Thanks for posting this recipe!
Thanks, Robyn! You’ll notice all of my recipes lately don’t have dairy, gluten, or nuts. My little guy (7 months) is also sensitive. We’ve been lucky that he can handle eggs.
Wow, these look great for such a simple recipe. Awesome!
These turned out super delicious. I just tried a bite after they cooled and im going to have to go back downstairs for another larger piece. I used coconut oil which added a nice hint of flavor. Looking forward to taking them to play group tomorrow.
They are definitely addicting! Thanks for coming back to let me know what you thought. 🙂
Maryea,
Do you have an approximation of the volume of bananas? I’m guesstimating 3 bananans would yield 1 cup; would you say that’s accurate?
It was actually a generous 1.5 cups.
Oh! That’s quite a difference; thanks so much for clarifying. 🙂 These are on my long “to-make” list today so I appreciate the quick response; I probably would’ve screwed them up just using a measly 1 cup. I’m psyched to try these out!
PS Just tripped over your blog, and I already love it. The posts that include parenting anectdotes are my favorite, esp. the ones that involve making treats for the little sweet tooth sweetie you have on your hands. 🙂
This recipe is not GF even if there is a certified GF mark on the oats. Fact is that oats are part of a group of grains that contain gluten. Saying it’s GF won’t help for it won’t work for a true coeliac. It will cause one to become severely ill and might end up in hospital.
In case of allergies you can’t be too cautious about it. For instance when i eat just a fraction of a hazelnut, a walnut or almond i end up with a blocked throat that causes me to be unable to breath and get rushed to the ER for admittance at an ICU unit for several days.
My best friend has coeliacs and just a crumb of gluten or eating from a plate that has been washed thoroughly still makes her so ill she ends up in hospital with severe pain and dehydrated for she’s just having diarhea and vomits constantly.
So what i’m trying to say is that oats are NEVER GF and you should be VERY VERY cautious about what you have in your recipes before posting it online saying it’s GF or otherwise free of allergens.
I don’t understand how something can be labeled certified GF and still have gluten. Don’t they test it for gluten in order for it to be certified gluten-free? I suppose if someone has celiac disease they know what they can and cannot eat and if they know that oats will make them sick, they won’t eat them even if a blogger has mistakenly labeled a recipe gluten-free. I certainly don’t want to be irresponsible in my labeling of recipes, yet I will need to find a more definite answer before I say a recipe like this isn’t gluten-free. Everything I have read says if the oats are certified gluten-free, they are just what they say they are. If you have a reputable source that says otherwise, I would love to read more about it. Thanks!
Oats *are* gluten-free naturally. They are typically grown near to and processed with gluten containing grains such as wheat or barley. As a result, they are hugely cross-contaminated.
GF oats, on the other hand, are grown away from gluten grains and processed in dedicated GF facilities.
Here is more info on this matter: http://www.cureceliacdisease.org/archives/faq/do-oats-contain-gluten
I am not only celiac, I also have a severe wheat allergy. I’m able to eat GF oats without issue. So rest assured – using GF oats is not only safe, it makes for some yummy food. Raisin oatmeal cookies anyone? 😉
Thank you, Cherie! This is how I understood it. Thanks for clarifying. 🙂
I agree with you, my wife is highly allergic to gluten, & I have been making food for her with certified GF oats for over a year now, NEVER has she had an issue!
These were great! A lot of the satisfaction of eating a slice of banana bread but half the fuss (okay, maybe chopping those dates was a little fussy). I added a handful of walnuts and a good sprinkling of cinnamon to the batter, yum.
I love the additions you made! Glad you enjoyed these. 🙂
is the brown crispy rice cereal like rice crispy cereal?
Yes, except it’s made from brown rice instead of refined white rice. You can find it in the natural cereals section of most grocery stores. 🙂
Could you just add more oats if you don’t have the crisp rice cereal?
The texture won’t be quite the same, but yes, I think that would work.
MMMM….. Couldn’t wait for them to cool – so yummy warm! I didn’t have rice cereal so I just added more oats and it worked! I also put in 1/2 scoop of my chocolate brown rice protein powder. Added chocolate chips in half of the pan for my boys so they can take them to their wrestling meet tonight. Thanks for the great recipe!
You’re welcome!
If I can’t find dates, what would you use to sub it out? I usually use honey. Thoughts?
I would use chopped raisins in place of the dates if you can’t find dates.
Fantastic recipe. It’s an addictive bar
I saw the bananas as I was scrolling through the Internet and got idea! I went to the pantry and cleaned out all the leftovers from the holidays, I know it’s April, but I came up with a handful of three different nuts, a quarter bag of choc chips, some raisins, dates and dried cranberries sooooooo, I threw it all together with your recipe. I didn’t have the cereal, but it is delicious!!!!! This is now my base recipe for oatmeal bars 🙂 thank you!
What did you use in place of the cereal?
Thanks for the recipe my 1 year old daughter loved it, i want to ask how many days i can store it in the refrigerator?
They will last about a week in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Great! Thanks
I made this a few weeks ago and it quickly became a hit with my family. Lovely as a breakfast slice with yoghurt! And it uses up my old bananas!!!!
Yay! So glad to hear it, Lyn. 🙂
Hi what dates did u add¿¿ is it fresh dried or candied ¿¿ thanks…
I used dried, pitted dates.
I made this recipe with blueberries instead of dates, and it turned out great!
Thanks for this. Very nice to find a healthy bar recipe that doesn’t call for nuts.
These are so good that I’m going to try a savory version with veggies for a quick, light lunch.
Thanks again!
★★★★★
So happy to hear this! Love the idea of trying a savory variation. Please let me know how it turns out!