4-Ingredient Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

You can whip these oatmeal breakfast bars up in minutes, then enjoy them for breakfast all week. Packed with whole grains, good fats, and a touch of sweetness from the chocolate chips, they’re the perfect way to start the day!

This is a great recipe for people who want to eat healthy, and don’t want to spend a ton of time on it. These no bake peanut butter oat bars are fantastic as a healthy snack or as a quick, on-the-go breakfast!

What’s in healthy breakfast bars? 

One of the best parts of this recipe is its wholesome ingredients. There’s just a few, and you may even have these simple ingredients hanging around right now!

• Oatmeal: You can use rolled oats, quick oats, or even old-fashioned oats for this. Each oat type changes the texture of the final product. I prefer the texture of quick oats. 
• Banana: The riper the better! Overripe bananas are sweeter than just ripe ones, so bring on the spotty bananas!
• Peanut Butter: You can use natural peanut butter for this, or just go with good old Jif. Creamy peanut butter works best, as it’s the binder that holds everything together. Crunchy peanut butter tends to make bars that fall apart. You can also sub this for almond butter or sunflower seed butter. 
• Chocolate Chips: These are really optional, and can be replaced with the mix-in of your choice. Nuts, dried fruit, and even coconut flakes all work here. If you want to keep things vegan, you can even use vegan chocolate chips!

Start by mashing your banana in a large mixing bowl. I use a fork to mash the banana, but you can also use a mixer, if you’d like. 

Add the oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chips to the mashed bananas. Mix them together well until you have a nice sticky dough.

Step 3 | Press it Down

Put your bars in the refrigerator to set up. For best results, they’ll need a couple hours to chill. Once they’re set up, you can remove them, cut them into 16 pieces, and enjoy your homemade peanut butter oat bars!

Variations

This simple recipe is perfect for playing around! You can change your mix-ins and add a variety of flavors to your oatmeal base. Here’s a few ideas: 

• Add extract: You can add vanilla extract, or even butter or almond extract, to get a different flavor option. Add 1 tsp of extract to your oatmeal base. 
• Add sweetener: if you’re not afraid of added sugar, you can add 1/4 cup of white or brown sugar to the oatmeal base. In place of sugar, you can use a few tablespoons of maple syrup, agave, or even a little stevia!
• Mix up the mix-ins: Change the flavor and nutrition level of these bars by changing the mix-ins. You can add fresh fruit, including fresh blueberries, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, or ground cinnamon (this gives you a great banana bread flavor!). 

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