With my return to baking, I realized all the cookies and muffins in my freezer are months old. That just didn’t look appetizing. It was time to bake something new! I tagged a recipe for Chocolate Banana Breakfast Bars and wanted to adapt it to add a fruit and subtract the chocolate. Just to make it a little more guilt-less. Even with the added fruit, these were pretty sweet for breakfast.

I also doubled this recipe and baked it in two square pans. One batch for me to freeze for breakfasts, one for a friend with a new baby.

Blueberry Banana Breakfast Squares

Adapted from Eat Live Run

makes about 12 bars

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe banana
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup chopped banana chips
• 2/3 cup blueberries
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 cups quick cooking oats

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large bowl, mash the banana with a fork and then add the canola oil and brown sugar. Mix well until there are no sugar lumps left.
• In another (smaller) bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and oats. Mix wet into dry ingredients and add banana chips and blueberries.
• Spray cooking spray into a square 8-inch pan and pour in batter.
•  Bake for 25 minutes, or until edges are golden. Let cool before cutting into squares.

I wouldn’t really call these healthy for breakfast, they were a little sweeter than I was expecting. I also didn’t love the texture of the banana chips, but I don’t really enjoy them plain.  You could easily leave them out or sub a nut for crunch or leave it out. They were a nice alternative to a muffin with the same idea, and tasted best over tart Greek yogurt.

After slicing, I put mine in the freezer about two days later to help them stand up to crumbling a little better. They were a bit sticky to the plate I put them on, which was probably a result of the oil and bananas.

Did you also realize these are vegan? A pretty good snack idea for a vegan one!