Healthy Breakfast Squares
I’ve been playing around with this recipe for awhile. I love something sweet in the morning, but in effort to improve my overall diet, I’m trying not to go too sweet or too unhealthy first thing in the morning. I do love the Quaker Oat Breakfast Squares, but wanted to come up with my own version that may be a bit healthier. Likewise, I’ve been wanting to bake something with molasses as of late. Thus, this little creation came about. I also recently discovered my son is allergic to eggs, so i tried these with and without the egg and the difference was not even noticeable. The result was a soft, not too sweet, hearty breakfast square that would be perfect paired with a nice hot cup of coffee. I will continue to refine this recipe and try different variations, but its definitely my go to breakfast bar for now.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup regular oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oil (I used Smart Balance)
1/3 cup molasses
1 tsp vanilla
3 very ripe bananas
1/2 cup raisins
In large bowl mix flour, baking soda, salt, flax seed. In separate bowl, mix together sugar and oil. Add molasses and vanilla and mix well. Add mashed up bananas to sugar mixture. Slowly add in flour mixture until well combined. Stir in oats and raisins. Batter will be thick and rather sticky. Spread into greased 13×9 inch baking dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Squares will rise only the slightest bit resulting in a soft chewy dense bar.
There is definitely room for variation in this recipe, especially with the fruit. If you don’t have bananas, or your bananas aren’t ripe enough (resulting in the mixture not being moist enough), try and add some applesauce until you get the right texture. Batter will be thick and sticky, but should not be too dry. Also you can add raisins, nuts, chopped apples and cinnamon, cranberries, chocolate chips, cinnamon chips, caramel chips, dates, dried cherries….the possibilities are endless.
Enjoy!