These Zucchini Oatmeal Snack Bars with Chocolate Chips make a wholesome, gluten-free snack that the whole family will love!
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Heads up: This recipe was originally published in 2013. I am updating today with new photos. Enjoy!
I have to start this post by saying how much I love the Internet. I was feeling so alone when I wrote my last post about kids and snacks. Then I read all of your comments and remember: there are others like me. Thank you for reminding me that I am not the only crazy mama who doesn’t want her kid eating Oreos and Capri Suns.
Since we’re on the subject of snacks, I’ve got a good one for you. Here in southwest Ohio we had a coolish spring with lots and lots of rain. Not so good for moms with kids itching to get outside and play in the mud puddles, great for the farmers.
For the past few weeks, we’ve gotten entire bags of extra zucchini, summer squash, and cucumbers with our CSA box since their crops have been so good this year. We could have zucchini for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And we do.
I’ve been roasting zucchini, grilling zucchini, sautéing zucchini, and baking with zucchini. These snack bars are one of my baking creations.
They fit the bill for a healthy, real-food snack. They are made without flour or refined sugar, yet taste like sinful zucchini bread. It’s a win!
If you’re worried about your kids getting weird about the green flecks, you can peel the zucchini first and they will be less noticeable. My kids don’t mind as long as they see those chocolate chips. 😉 
You also can’t go wrong with a one-bowl recipe. This couldn’t be easier–you dump all of the ingredients into a bowl, mix, and bake. YES.
Happy baking!!
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Zucchini Oatmeal Snack Bars with Chocolate Chips
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 16 bars 1x
Description
These Zucchini Oatmeal Snack Bars with Chocolate Chips are easy to whip up in one bowl and are full of nourishing ingredients!
Ingredients
- 4 cup rolled oats
- 2 cups shredded zucchini or summer squash
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 medium banana)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 4 tablespoons flaxseed meal
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2–3/4 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking dish and set aside.
- Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish and use a spatula or the back of a wooden spoon to press it down into the pan very well.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until the top is golden brown. Allow to cool before cutting into squares. These keep best in the refrigerator.
Notes
I prefer to use the grater attachment for my food processor to get shredded zucchini. A hand grater works fine as well.
I love freshly grated nutmeg because I love the flavor it lends. If you are pressed for time, skip it and use regular ground nutmeg.
I prefer coconut oil and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. I have also used avocado oil and it works well. Other milks should work fine, also.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 198
- Sugar: 14
- Fat: 7 grams
- Carbohydrates: 30 grams
- Fiber: 3
- Protein: 4
One more thing. These are spectacular warm, right out of the oven. They aren’t quite as snack-bar-like, however, until they fully cool and their texture firms up more. Once cooled, they are chewy, not crunchy.
I haven’t tried freezing these yet, but with all the zucchini I have left in my fridge, I’m pretty sure I’ll be making another batch and putting it in the freezer. I’ll let you know how it turns out! Update: They freeze well! I have frozen a batch and then microwave them as needed. If you don’t use a microwave you can also reheat in the oven. 🙂
If you make these, I would LOVE to see it! Please snap a picture and share it on the Happy Healthy Mama Facebook page or your Instagram feed and tag me @happyhealthymama! 🙂
You may or may not have noticed, but I love using oats to create delicious and healthy snacks and breakfast ideas! Here are some more of our favorites:
Apple Peanut Butter Snack Bars
Blueberry Banana Oat Bars
Pear Oatmeal Bars
Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal Muffin Cups
Would you like to save the recipe for Zucchini Oatmeal Snack Bars for later? Here’s an image to save to your Pinterest recipe board! Please let me know if you try these!
I made this today for breakfast and it was delicious! I made a double batch so that we could freeze one of them. What a great use for extra zucchinis. Instead of four cups of oats for each batch, I subbed in a mixture of seeds and shredded coconut. I also used diced apples instead of mashed banana as I didn’t have any on hand. I love how forgiving this recipe is and allows you to use what you have available. Thanks so much for sharing!! I would definitely make this again..
This is my second time making these! Delicious! This time I didn’t have enough honey and substituted half maple syrup and they turned out great! Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you so much for the feedback! 🙂
These are absolute golden. made a small portion for trial and error..it was an error on my part. i had just a single bite
Make a full batch next time! 🙂
LOVE LOVE your blog. It answered a lot of prayers haha ;). I have reskimmed but am not sure there was ever a post to answer the freezer question. I have made these bars many times but curious…did you ever try freezig them? Thanks!
I sadly am not a banana fan–do these have a banana flavor or is the banana just helpful as a binder? Any thoughts on what I could substitute? Unsweetened applesauce maybe?
The banana is there to add a little more sweetness. I think applesauce would work fine. Let me know if you try it!
Hi! Love love love having found your recipes! THANK YOU!!! Gives me hope with my 17mo. I am using carrot and doing a half batch in case he hates them (cannot imagine he will!). I want to make it normal this time to see how it goes and tweek in the future. To replace oil with applesauce, do equal amounts? Also, has anyone frozen these yet? I read the posts a few days ago but don’t remember anyone saying so. Thanks!
This recipe is for curry soup not zucchini bars, would like the recipe for the bars.
The recipe for curry soup is just in the comments, if you look at the top of the page, the post is for zucchini bars. Thanks!
Hi, Maryea,
I made these zucchini snack bars today with my almost 4 year old daughter. It was really fun to do together. I wanted to mention, too, that I only had one egg so crossed my fingers and did the full recipe, adding maybe a tablespoon of rice flour to help bind things, and they turned out great. I suspect that even without the rice flour these would have turned out fine with just one egg. I added raisins, and they added just enough additional sweetness. Thank you for your great blog!
You’re welcome! Thanks for letting me know you tried these. 🙂
I made these a few weeks ago and added some dark chocolate chips and a few handfuls of raspberries I needed to use. I’m making the again this morning, sadly without the raspberries.
Sounds delicious!
Hi!
I just found your blog but I already like it a lot! Homemade, organic, healthy, and delicious are keywords I try to live by 🙂 I have a 14 months old son who is allergic to eggs as well as milk protein. When I cook I usually sub eggs for chia seeds and milk for oat milk, but I was wondering if you have any other ideas about what to sub eggs with? I thought I’d make these bars tomorrow – they sound delicious!
I usually use “flax eggs” when I want to make something without eggs. 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal+3 tablespoons water. I hope you enjoy the bars!
I know sometimes we can substitute applesauce for oil, do you think that would work on this? Thank you A good friend made these over the weekend and I loved them, just wanted to trim the calories a little.
I do think it would work. Let me know if you try it! 🙂
Looks great! Quick question: do you melt the coconut oil when you use it for baking? Or room temp where it is still solid-ish?
I appreciate your blog, esp the mspi information, it has helped me get to the bottom of my little guys digestive problems. One month no soy or dairy for me, and he is a whole new, happy, healthy baby!
Sorry for the late reply on your comment; it got lost among all the comments from my giveaway week! If I melt my coconut oil or not depends what I am using it for. If I am using it where a regular vegetable oil would be used, like canola oil, or melted butter, I melt it. If I’m using it where softened butter would be used (like in creaming for a cake), I don’t melt it. For these bars, I melt it. I hope that helps!
I’m so glad to hear your little one is doing better! 🙂
I don’t have any zucchini in my house right now, but I think grated carrot would be awesome in these too! Thanks 🙂
Yes, definitely!
These bars look great! Im very excited to try them. Thank you so much for your blog. My 1 yr old daughter is allergic to dairy and soy since birth so it has been a year of trying new recipes for me. I’m very thankful to find so much information on blogs like yours! And by the way, your children are adorable!
Thanks, Rebecca!
Yes yes yes!
I know I always tell you I love your blog…well…this is another example why!
Love that these are GF…and are a healthy snack for my toddler!
Thank you!
You’re welcome! 🙂
AMAZING! I’m so excited to give these a try, it just so happens I have a fresh zucchini sitting in my fridge just begging to be turned into a snack bar!
Perfect!
I absolutely love you blog. You are such a down to earth mom and person. Your recipes are simple, kid friendly and for adults. Nothing too complicated. I have tried many of your recipes. Love the coconut flour rasberry muffins (by the way, can I use other berries in place of the rasberries? Fresh blueberries?). I have my 2 cups of shredded zucchinig ready in the fridge to try these. THank you
Thank you, Diedre! Your comment totally made my morning. 🙂 I do think other berries would work in place of the raspberries.
OMG–so excited about these! I’ve been eating zucchini like it’s going out of style, and I’d love to change it up with this recipe. By the way, I forgot to comment on your snack post, but I agree with you completely. I was at the pool snack bar today with the girls I babysit and I was pretty appalled at the amount of soft pretzels, pizzas, nachos, and “smoothies” (aka sugar water) all the kids were chowing down on.
Let me know if you try these!
I know what you mean. Sometimes I wish I lived in a place where healthy foods are more common. Here it’s all junk food everywhere.
These look great and very kid-friendly! Can’t wait to try them!
Here is the answer to all of your zucchini problems! 🙂 I use unsweetened almond milk. I sometimes make double or triple batches and then freeze them (prior to adding the milk).
ZUCCHINI CURRY SOUP
1 pound well-washed, unpeeled zucchini (4 cups sliced)
2 T chopped onion, shallots or leeks
1 T olive oil or butter
1 3/4 cup chicken broth (1 can)
1/2 t salt dash pepper
1 t curry powder
1/2 cup milk or half and half
Slice zucchini and place in large skillet or dutch oven with onion and garlic. Saute in butter for 5 minutes. Add broth and seasonings. Cover and simmer for appx. 15 minutes. Cool slightly. Put in blender in small batches and blend. Return to pan – add milk and heat gently – do not boil. Serve hot or cold.
Wow–this looks great! Thanks for sharing!