I rely on an easy ready-to-go breakfast since I like my sleep and I don’t usually leave myself enough time to make breakfast. My morning routine usually consists of waking up around 5:30am having a cup of coffee, checking into my challenge group, doing my 30 minute workout, shower, get ready, leave for work, have my superfood shake on the way to work, and once I get to work I have my breakfast with a cup of tea.

Ingredients:

3-4 cups of rolled oats

½ cup chia seeds (or flax seeds)

1 cup vanilla protein powder (or whatever flavor you desire)

1 cup of coconut oil (melted or semi-melted)

½ cup of honey (or maple syrup)

1 tsp Pumpkin spice (or cinnamon, or both)

1 tsp vanilla

1 can of organic pumpkin puree

Optional ingredients: ½ cup no salt/no sugar peanut butter, flax seeds or milled flax seeds, dark chocolate chips, carob chips, or dried cranberries. You can replace pumpkin puree with 2-3 ripe bananas. You can add or remove any ingredients to your liking, which is the beauty of these oat bars. Just make sure you stick to healthy alternatives to avoid extra calories.

If it doesn’t seem like you have enough wet ingredients to dry ingredients you can add a tbsp of milk (I usually use almond milk) or a tbsp more of coconut oil, but make sure you mix everything together for a couple minutes before assessing since it might take a little bit to mix it together.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the dry ingredients together first (oats, chia seeds, spices, protein powder) and make sure it’s mixed well. In another mixing bowl put all of the wet ingredients together (pumpkin puree, coconut oil, honey, and vanilla) and make sure those are also well mixed.

Pour the mixed wet ingredients in with the mixed dry ingredients and fold them together until you don’t see any dry ingredients not mixed in. I like to use a rubber spatula but feel free to use whatever utensil works best for you.

Line a 9”x13”x2” baking pan with tin foil and use coconut oil baking spray to coat the tin foil in the pan. Once all of the ingredients are mixed together place the mixture into the baking pan, lined with tin foil and coated with coconut oil, and spread it around until there is an even layer is packed down in to the pan.

Place the pan into the oven for 15-20 minutes. None of these ingredients really need to be baked, but it makes the oat bars set together nicely.

Once you take the pan out of the oven let them cool for about 30 minutes to an hour. After it cools you can take the foil right out of the pan and place it onto a counter top and start cutting it into the bar size of your choice. I like to make one cut length wise in the center then about an inch to an inch and a half apart width wise. They usually make about 12-14 bars, but it depends on how you cut them. If you make bigger bars it will make less, and if you make smaller bars it will make more. I like to place each cut bar into snack sized ziplock bag, but I know the use of plastic is not the first choice for some people, so feel free to package them for your lifestyle to make it grab and go.

Let me know how they turn out by posting a picture in the comments! Don’t forget to subscribe and get my latest recipes and tips!