Gluten Free Banana Breakfast Bars

My kids are actually not super-picky eaters. But, especially when they were little, I had to use my stealth cooking skills to get them to dig into certain foods. One of those was quinoa. Luckily, I started sneaking into Cinnamon Apple Breakfast Bars and Pumpkin Breakfast Bars, and they happily devoured them in the morning. So I added another favorite fruit and started making these Banana Nut Breakfast Bars.

And this version might just be the one they love the most! They are great plain, but my kids actually like to eat them on a plate slightly warmed with a bit of butter or even a drizzle of maple syrup or a smear of almond butter. Add a blueberry smoothie, and you can also get in a serving of spinach with that quinoa–a mom win!

Why You’ll Love Banana Nut Breakfast Bars

• Super easy to whip up. Combine the dry ingredients, combine the wet ingredients, mix it all together, and bake.
• Great for meal prep. They are good in the fridge for a week, and longer if you freeze them. Then grab one for a portable breakfast on-the-go. They are soft and chewy, but firm enough to hold together if you want to grab one on the way out of the house.
• Allergy-friendly. Using certified GF oats makes these gluten free breakfast bars, and they also don’t contain any dairy ingredients. You’ll see below my recommendations to make them nut-free, and I even expect they would work well with one of these egg substitutes for baking. Let me know if you try it!

Recipe Ingredients

• Quick cooking oats – Be sure to use certified gluten free oats, if needed.
• Quinoa – cook quinoa using your favorite method (see How to Cook Quinoa for five different ways to cook it). and cool completely
• Baking powder
• Ground flax seed – you can purchase flax meal or grind flax seeds whole in your blender.
• Cinnamon
• Honey – can also use maple syrup or agave.
• Overripe bananas – mashed, you’ll need 2 or 3, depending on the size.
• Egg – an egg, egg whites, or liquid egg or egg white substitute in this recipe, and it will turn out fine. Use the equivalent of one egg or two egg whites.
• Almond butter – you can also use another nut butter or sunflower seed butter to make them nut-free
• Vanilla extract
• Walnuts – chopped and lightly toasted, if desired. Again, if you need your banana breakfast bars to be nut-free, you can omit them, substitute with pumpkin seeds if you’d still like that bit of crunch, or try chocolate chips!

How much dry quinoa do you need to make 1 cup of cooked quinoa?

Quinoa typically triples in volume when you cook it. So if you want to make exactly 1 cup of cooked quinoa, you will want to cook 1/3 cup dry quinoa in 2/3 cups of water or other liquid.

However, I recommend making a bigger batch because you can keep it in the fridge for up to a week and use it in a number of other recipes, like Berry Quinoa Yogurt Parfaits, Cheesy Quinoa Bites, or Mango Avocado Quinoa Chicken Salad.

Tips for Success

• Line the pan. Technically, you can just coat your 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. But lining it with parchment paper makes the bars much easier to remove once they are cooled so you can cut them into nice squares.
• Bake to perfection. You’ll know they are done when they are browned on the top and feel firm when you press in the middle.
• Use the right knife. A serrated knife with a gentle sawing motion will give you the cleanest cut.
• Eat plain or top them. My kids actually like to give them a drizzle of peanut butter or almond butter, or, for a real treat, a little maple syrup.

Proper Storage

• Countertop or Refrigerator. You can keep the bars at room temperature in an airtight container for a day or so, but I would recommend storing them in the fridge, where they will last several days to a week.
• Warm them up. These banana nut breakfast bars are fine to eat cold or at room temperature, but you can also warm them slightly in the microwave.

Can oatmeal breakfast bars be frozen?

Yes, these bars are freezer-friendly. Store them in a plastic freezer storage bag or an airtight container, removing as much of the air as possible. Kept frozen, they will be good for up to two months. If you leave them longer then that, they are still safe to eat. But the quality and flavor may be affected.

It is not necessary to individually wrap the bars. But to keep them tasting their best, I would recommend wrapping or packaging them in groups of two to four.

More Make-Ahead Breakfast Recipes

• Gluten Free Carrot Zucchini Mini Muffins
• Frozen Oatmeal Cups
• Ham, Broccoli and Cheese Egg Muffins
• Gluten Free Protein Pancakes