Breakfast Bites
You know it's a good recipe when you keep coming back to it again and again. There's more than one reason we have been making these breakfast bites for years.
They are so easy to make. They're actually so easy your kids can help make them! And we all know- if they make it, they'll be more inclined to eat it!
They require very few ingredients. Oats, banana, and peanut butter. That's it!
They pack well. Although the title is "breakfast", these go great in a lunch box for school or packed in the car for a road trip.
They are loved by toddlers and adults alike. Their soft texture makes it easy for littles to eat, but are great for older kids too!
They are nutritious. These are perfectly sweet by using only banana. I always cringe a little when I see the added sugars of a typical granola or breakfast bar. Here it's just natural fruit sugars (and a few chocolate chips if you wish;). Oats provide fiber and complex carbs, while the peanut butter adds fat and protein. And I love that I get to sneak in some flax seed to get those omega-3's. All in all, you have yourself a well-balanced, highly nutritious bite!
They can be customized and flavored in so many ways. I love it when you have a base recipe that you can change depending on what you have in your pantry.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 16-20 minutes
Yield: around 25
Ingredients
4 ripe bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 tablespoons flax seed meal
3 1/2 cups oats
Chocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mash bananas.
Add peanut butter and flax seed meal. Stir.
Add oats and mix. You can also add chocolate chips here, but I prefer to add just a few to the top of each bite before baking.
Drop scant 1/4 cup of mixture onto a greased cookie sheet, leaving space between each breakfast bite. It may be a tight squeeze to get them all on one sheet.
Push a few chocolate chips in the top of each bite (optional).
Bake 16- 20 minutes.
Recipe Notes:
This recipe is so very flexible. Here are some ideas to mix things up:
Add a little cocoa powder or cinnamon for a flavor boost.
Change out the chocolate chips for craisins or chopped nuts. Want it extra peanut buttery? Do peanut butter chips!
Switch out some of the oats for shredded coconut.
Substitute peanut butter for almond butter. You might need to scale back on the almond butter since it is not quite as thick as the peanut butter.
It may seem silly to add just a few chocolate chips to the top, but I find we greatly decrease the amount used this way. And I'm all about reducing sugar intake! Especially when no one notices the difference.
Add a splash of vanilla.