Oatmeal Breakfast Bars with Wild Blueberries

By: The Real Food Dietitians Posted: 8/21/23

Breakfast just got better with these soft Oatmeal Breakfast Bars, which can be hand-held or eaten with a fork. Featuring antioxidant-rich frozen wild blueberries, this make-ahead breakfast can make your mornings easier, tastier, and healthier all at the same time! Whether you’re looking for something to make back-to-school season less chaotic, need healthier options in the morning, or just want to get out of a breakfast rut, these Wild Blueberry Breakfast Bars can solve the problem. 

This post was created in partnership with Wild Blueberries of North America

Can You Make Your Own Breakfast Bars? 

When busy seasons of life come your way, an easy breakfast is just the thing to make mornings a little smoother. These Oatmeal Breakfast Bars with Wild Blueberries check all the boxes for make-ahead prep, great taste, good nutrition, and on-the-go convenience. You’ve likely seen many breakfast bar options on the shelf at your local grocery store and wondered if you can make your own. The answer is yes! This recipe for DIY Breakfast Bars results in soft and tender breakfast bars that you can eat right out of your hand, or if you have a little more time, sit down to enjoy a piece with a fork, topped with some yogurt, a drizzle of nut butter, more wild blueberries or banana slices, and some chopped walnuts. 

Ingredients to Make Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

Here’s what you’ll need to gather to make a batch of these gluten-free breakfast bars: 

• Old-fashioned rolled oats – use old-fashioned oats instead of quick oats or steel-cut oats, both of which would not result in the right texture for these bars. Oats are naturally gluten free, but if you’re making these bars for someone with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, ensure the oats were made in a factory that does not also process gluten-containing grains to avoid cross contamination
• All-purpose gluten-free flour blend – our go-to’s are Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1:1 Flour and King Arthur Measure for Measure. Regular all-purpose flour may also be used if you don’t need your breakfast bars to be gluten-free 
• Baking soda
• Ground cinnamon – you’ll need 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Fine salt – you’ll need ½ teaspoon salt
• Banana – use a yellow or spotted brown banana; may sub ½ cup applesauce
• Eggs
• Butter – may substitute coconut oil for a dairy-free option
• Maple syrup – honey may also be used as a natural sweetener option, or may sub ¼ cup brown sugar 
• Pure vanilla extract
• Frozen wild blueberries – find these in the freezer case and look for “wild” on the package
• Walnuts – may sub pecans or another favorite nut
• Optional toppings – you may want to serve these bars topped with yogurt, almond butter or peanut butter, additional fresh fruit and nuts, chocolate chips, or a dash of cinnamon

To make these breakfast oat bars, find the ingredient list with exact measurements in the recipe card below.

How To Make These Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

These yummy wild blueberry baked oatmeal bars come together in these quick steps: 

1. Prep your space: Preheat the oven and grease a 9-inch square baking dish with cooking spray, butter, or line with parchment paper.
2. Mix the dry ingredients: Mix the oats, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. 
3. Mix the wet ingredients: In a separate mixing bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, maple syrup, and vanilla.
4. Combine the dry and wet ingredients: Gently fold the oat mixture and the banana mixture together. Next gently fold in the add-ins: walnuts and wild blueberries.  
5. Add toppings and bake: Spread the batter evenly in the prepared baking pan and top with more wild blueberries and walnuts. Bake for 22-26 minutes or until golden brown and the center is baked through (a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean). 
6. Cool and cut into squares: Let the bars cool at least 15 minutes before cutting into squares. If desired, top servings with yogurt, a drizzle of peanut butter, additional fruit, and a dash of cinnamon. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. 

For the complete directions, ingredient amounts, and nutrition analysis that lists calories (kcal), protein, carbohydrates, total fat, saturated fat, fiber, sugar, sodium, and cholesterol per serving, scroll down to the recipe card below.

Recipe Tips For Success

These two tips will help ensure your breakfast bars come out exactly right every time: 

1. Rather than letting them come to room temperature, keep the wild blueberries in your freezer until just right before you add them to the batter, which also helps prevent the juice from the blueberries bleeding into the bars and making them appear too dark
2. When you add the wild blueberries to the batter, fold them in very gently so they don’t discolor the bars

Pin now to make them later!

The photos in this blog post were taken by Rachel Cook of Half Acre House.

This is a sponsored post. Although we received compensation for this post, the opinions expressed here are – as always – 100% our own. Thank you for supporting the great companies we work with thereby allowing us to continue creating high-quality recipes and content for you.

For ultimate success, we highly recommend reading the tips in the full blog post above. All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish a recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words. Link back to the source recipe here on The Real Food Dietitians. Thank you!