{Best ever}Healthy oatmeal bars recipe

Let’s get straight into it. Healthy oatmeal bars make such an amazing substitute for traditional breakfast when you are on the go, or just need a delicious healthy snack.

When it comes to healthy snacks in my home, I always know when a recipe is a hit on miss based on the reaction I get from my teen girls. We (make that they) have tossed aside lots of healthy recipes because they would rather reach for the cookie jar than have second helpings.

I knew this healthy baked oatmeal bars recipe was a winner when they completely ignored the cookie jar, and reached for more servings of the blueberry oatmeal bars.

I would like to say that this healthy oatmeal bars recipe contains butter and brown sugar. I know that most people looking for healthy recipes think that this is bad for them. Allow me to explain before you leave, thinking, this is unhealthy for you.

Butter and sugar in small amounts such as in this recipe form part of a balanced diet. I have always said that we don’t get fat by eating one bad meal, we get fat by consistently eating more calories than we burn. 

More oatmeal recipes:

3 breathlessly yummy overnight oats with chia seed

Healthy oatmeal cookies with raisins

Insanely delicious banana split breakfast

This recipe is an occasional treat but, if you can’t enjoy food in moderation, nor control how much you eat, then the problem is you, and not the food.

I would also like to add that I recently read an article which clarified facts on butter in Harvard Public Health magazine. It talked about how misplaced and misleading are campaigns which prioritize reducing saturated fat consumption, rather than focusing on foods and overall diet quality.

 The article went on to state that findings  published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition stated, ‘’…that people who eat the highest levels of saturated fat have the same risk of heart disease as those who eat the lowest.”

I have said all this to say that we need to understand how many calories and nutrients we need to eat a day for a balanced diet. We’ll realize that demonizing and cutting out food groups like fat and carbohydrates actually does us more harm than good.

Okay, lecture over. Let’s bring back the good vibes and enjoy the blueberry oatmeal bars.

*This post may include affiliate links. You can read my full disclosure here.

Healthy oatmeal bars recipe quick tips

The texture of healthy oatmeal bars is moist and soft and not crunchy. If you would like to them a bit crunchier you can place them back into the oven after cutting into squares and lower the temperature to 320°F.

The taste is not too sweet but if they turn out too sweet for you, you can leave out the sugar in blueberry sauce.

You can store the oatmeal bars in an airtight container and they will retain freshness up to 3 days.

Use old fashioned or rolled oats instead of instant oats. Instant oats will become mushy because they already processed and loaded with sugar.  

Best ever healthy baked oatmeal bars recipe

You will need the following for this recipe:

For the blueberry sauce

1 cup blueberries

¼ cup water

¼ cup brown sugar

Pinch of salt

For the oatmeal bars

1 cup old fashioned or rolled oats

¼ cup brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup unsalted butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F for 15 minutes while you prepare the blueberry sauce.

On the stovetop, place blueberries, sugar, and water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat.

Cook for 5 minutes or until the sauce begins to thicken, using a potato masher to crush the blueberries.

Remove from stove and set aside to cool.

Grease an 8-inch square pan or line with parchment paper.

Place flour, oats, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and combine.

In another bowl, whisk butter, vanilla extract and sugar, and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix well.

Transfer ¾ of the mixture into the baking pan and spread evenly. Set aside ¼ of dough for later.

Bake for 10 minutes, and remove from oven.

Spread the blueberry sauce evenly on the batter in the pan. Lay the remaining dough on top of the sauce. If you want an extra layer, you can leave out a little sauce and spread it over the new layer of the oats mix.

Return to the oven to finish cooking for another 20-25 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow the oatmeal bars to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, before slicing into even squares.