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
Julie H. of Spinach and Sprinkles says
August 6, 2012 at 10:41 amI 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! 🙂
[email protected] of Sugar Free says
August 6, 2012 at 10:41 amYou read my mind, Yes I do have about ten brown bananas o my countertop! This looks perfect 😀
Candy @ Healthy in Candy Land says
August 6, 2012 at 11:01 amI love how having to take wheat out of your diet is forcing you to branch out in the kitchen too!
Kelli H (Made in Sonoma) says
August 6, 2012 at 12:14 pmThese would be such a good morning snack!
Ann-Louise says
August 6, 2012 at 1:45 pmI 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.
Maryea says
August 8, 2012 at 7:45 amOoh–that’s a great idea. I may have to do the same thing for Meghan’s preschool for her birthday in September.
Robyn says
August 6, 2012 at 3:58 pmI 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!
Maryea says
August 8, 2012 at 7:45 amThanks, 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.
Heidi @ Food Doodles says
August 8, 2012 at 8:17 pmWow, these look great for such a simple recipe. Awesome!
Briana says
August 15, 2012 at 10:07 pmThese 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.
Maryea says
August 17, 2012 at 9:05 amThey are definitely addicting! Thanks for coming back to let me know what you thought. 🙂
Liz says
September 27, 2012 at 2:12 amMaryea,
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?
Maryea says
September 27, 2012 at 7:54 amIt was actually a generous 1.5 cups.
Liz says
September 27, 2012 at 11:06 amOh! 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. 🙂
Cindy says
January 31, 2015 at 4:46 pmThis 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.
Maryea says
February 1, 2015 at 7:46 amI 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!
Cherie says
April 29, 2015 at 12:14 amOats *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? 😉
Maryea says
April 29, 2015 at 5:57 amThank you, Cherie! This is how I understood it. Thanks for clarifying. 🙂
Rick says
April 3, 2018 at 7:27 amI 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!
Christine says
February 7, 2015 at 9:41 pmThese 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.
Maryea says
February 9, 2015 at 7:12 amI love the additions you made! Glad you enjoyed these. 🙂
Jaime says
March 10, 2015 at 1:46 pmis the brown crispy rice cereal like rice crispy cereal?
Maryea says
March 10, 2015 at 9:29 pmYes, 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. 🙂
Christy Williamson says
November 10, 2015 at 11:41 pmCould you just add more oats if you don’t have the crisp rice cereal?
Maryea says
November 11, 2015 at 10:32 amThe texture won’t be quite the same, but yes, I think that would work.
Christy Williamson says
November 11, 2015 at 1:53 pmMMMM….. 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!
Maryea says
November 11, 2015 at 6:11 pmYou’re welcome!
Magdalena says
December 21, 2015 at 9:01 amIf I can’t find dates, what would you use to sub it out? I usually use honey. Thoughts?
Maryea says
December 21, 2015 at 9:21 amI would use chopped raisins in place of the dates if you can’t find dates.
Diti says
April 19, 2016 at 9:56 amFantastic recipe. It’s an addictive bar
Monique says
April 19, 2016 at 6:17 pmI 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!
Gina Dwyer says
January 1, 2018 at 7:22 pmWhat did you use in place of the cereal?
Hamda says
September 28, 2016 at 4:09 pmThanks for the recipe my 1 year old daughter loved it, i want to ask how many days i can store it in the refrigerator?
Maryea says
September 29, 2016 at 2:51 pmThey will last about a week in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Hamda says
September 29, 2016 at 2:58 pmGreat! Thanks
Lyn says
April 27, 2017 at 10:00 pmI 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!!!!
Maryea says
April 28, 2017 at 6:07 amYay! So glad to hear it, Lyn. 🙂
gema says
July 2, 2017 at 7:29 amHi what dates did u add¿¿ is it fresh dried or candied ¿¿ thanks…
Maryea says
July 2, 2017 at 10:27 pmI used dried, pitted dates.
ej says
January 13, 2019 at 1:28 pmI 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!
★★★★★
Maryea says
January 14, 2019 at 10:46 amSo happy to hear this! Love the idea of trying a savory variation. Please let me know how it turns out!
Sushma says
November 18, 2019 at 9:44 pmLooks super yum 🙂
Can we replace the crispy rice cereal? Any suggestions?