Banana Oatmeal Bars: A Fast, Easy, Healthy Breakfast

'Tis the season to be hectic. 
I don't know about you, but amid all of the awesomeness of the holiday season, I'm just pooped. Truth be told, my husband and I are relieved when the kids want cereal with milk and a banana or toast with a banana for breakfast these days. My kiddos choose their breakfasts and lunches in advance, which certainly makes things easier for me because I don't have the added stress of thinking about what to serve (let alone dealing with an argument about it). That said, I still have to prepare and serve those meals and unfortunately, there are no holiday fairies that take care of that for me. 

It's times like these that make Banana Oatmeal Bars so very amazing. 

These things are so easy to make, my kids do it themselves now, which frankly is one of the greatest holiday gifts ever. One batch makes 9 bars in our house – but it can make 16 more if you cut them smaller. My kids generally eat two apiece with breakfast. With just four ingredients, they're simple to prepare, quick to serve, and full of healthy goodness. Trifecta! In fact, putting two of these on a plate with some fruit is even easier than serving a bowl of cereal with milk. These bars also make for wonderful snacks! They're dairy free, gluten free, vegan and naturally sweet thanks to those super ripe bananas. 

Download the image below and add it to your LaLa Breakfast Food Library and/or your LaLa Lunchbox Food Library so that your mornings are just a teensy bit easier. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have about that. 

Banana Oatmeal Bars

3 super ripe (aka brown) bananas
2 cups of rolled oats (not instant)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
* optional: 1/2 cup of one of these: dried cranberries, raisins, nuts, pumpkin seeds or chocolate chips

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8×8 dish with parchment paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas until they are smooth.
3. Add the oats and mix to combine.
4. Add the vanilla extract and salt and mix until the ingredients are evenly distributed.
5. Pour into baking dish. Bake for 25-28 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes and enjoy.

Here are some other recipes you might like: 
Banana Sweet Potato Muffins
Banjo Muffins
Oatmeal Muffins
Banana Pancake Kebabs
 

Let's keep in touch! Follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter to see what we're up to! 

Red Lentil Pasta

Grocery shopping is always an adventure. Ok fine, sometimes it's a chore, but I've always kind of enjoyed it if I'm not in a hurry. I love to choose my own produce and meat. I like to see for myself what new products are out there. The other day, I chatted with a woman in the pasta aisle while I was picking out dry pasta for carbonara (note, this is totally unusual for me. I'm not one to chat up strangers at the grocery store). She was putting several boxes of a pasta I hadn't seen before in her cart - it's single ingredient pasta by a company called Tolerant Foods, and it's gluten free, non-GMO and organic, made from legumes. 

Wow. As it turned out, this woman is gluten free and loves this stuff. I'm not gluten free but I love to try new foods. I checked out their website and you can buy their products online. They are pricey... but you can sign up for their mailing list if you'd like and get a $2.00 coupon.

And so began our red lentil pasta adventure. My littlest one is fond of flavors that my older kids avoid like the plague, like sun-dried tomato and peppers. This red lentil pasta experiment was just for us two. I soaked one ounce of sun-dried tomatoes in water for about 15-20 minutes, then drained and chopped them. I also chopped two scallions and 1/3 of a bell pepper. 

Meanwhile, I brought a pot of water to a boil and added the red lentil pasta. I let it cook for 9 minutes (the box says 8-10 minutes). I reserved 1/4 cup of the cooking water and drained the rest. While that cooked, I sautéed the tomatoes, peppers and scallions in olive oil for about 5 minutes. 

I added the reserved cooking water and the drained pasta to the sautéed veggie pan and stirred to combine the ingredients. 

I scrambled an egg and added it to the pan after I turned off the flame to make the sauce richer. This was unnecessary. I'll leave out the egg next time. 

Success! The little lady and I both enjoyed this lunch! I'd buy this pasta again and plan to experiment with loads of recipes with this red lentil pasta and with their black bean pasta.

Red Lentil Pasta with Peppers and Sun-Dried Tomato
6 oz red lentil pasta (the only version I've seen is from Tolerant Foods)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 bell pepper, chopped
1 ounce sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in water, drained and chopped
2 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Cook the pasta as directed on the package. Before draining, reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking water. Drain the remaining pasta completely and set aside. Meanwhile, sauté the vegetables in olive oil over medium heat for approximately 5-6 minutes. Remove from heat. Add the reserved cooking water from the pasta, return to a low heat and let the pan bubble so that some of the water evaporates. Add the pasta and stir. Add chopped basil, salt and pepper to taste. ** I added a scrambled egg here but I don't think it's necessary. ** Serve and enjoy immediately.
 

p.s. - these opinions are my own. I am not paid to this brand or compensated in any way to mention them here. 

Banana Oatmeal Bars: Breakfast, made simpler.

I'm a morning person. To me, that means I get up and have energy, even on nights when I get less than 6 hours of sleep. Stressful mornings drive me up a wall. But realistically, there are so many moving parts in a house with three kids in two different schools and while I understand how hard it is to get everyone up and at 'em, I keep wondering what we can do to make the mornings a little easier on everyone. Breakfast is the one meal that my family has where we are all reliably together. As a gal who grew up on family dinners but can't yet get it together to make that happen with my family of five, I rely on breakfast as our time to connect. The food needs to be ready quickly so that we maximize our time at the table. 

Experts say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It needs to be healthy and balanced so that kids make it to lunch. I've said it before: to make life easier on busy parents, breakfast likely needs to be assembled at least in part, the night before (and of course, chosen in advance). Voila! These Banana Oatmeal bars fit the bill. In a nutshell, it’s like making oatmeal with bananas. Only you do it in advance. And there’s no messy pot to clean. And it’s super easy, with just four ingredients, absolutely yummy, and a very healthy meal.

I have seen various iterations for bars like these. Many have seeds or nuts or raisins or dried fruit and those are certainly great options or additions. I’ve tinkered with several recipes to create this one that my family devours - and it's a straightforward recipe to make with kids. I love that it doesn’t require elaborate steps or ingredients or even things like flour, eggs or milk. There are four ingredients! This is nut free, dairy free and vegan and has great fiber, potassium and protein. There is zero added sugar. And for those mornings when we’re literally running out the door with part of breakfast tucked into a paper towel, these really come in handy. They also double as a fantastic mid-day snack for parents and kids alike. 

Will these eliminate your morning stress? No. But they may lighten the load, and that can make all the difference.  

Banana Oatmeal Bars

3 super ripe (aka brown) bananas

2 cups of rolled oats (not instant)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon salt

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8×8 dish with parchment paper.

2. In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas until they are smooth.

3. Add the oats and mix to combine.

4. Add the vanilla extract and salt and mix until the ingredients are evenly distributed.

5. Pour into baking dish. Bake for 25-28 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes and enjoy.

Here are some other recipes you might like: 
Guide to Safe, Nut-Free Lunches
Banana Sweet Potato Muffins
Banjo Muffins
Banana Pancake Kebabs
Carrot Soup with Ginger and Sweet Potato

Let's keep in touch! Follow us on Instagram,Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter to see what we're up to! 

Silver Dollar Choco Chip Coconut Cookies

I cook a lot. Several meals a day, every day. I bake a lot too, but that's just to feed my sweet tooth. I've been dairy-free for 6 weeks and it seems to be helping my 3 month old baby's reflux, so I'm going to keep at it for a while. The hardest adjustment has been my morning coffee: oat milk doesn't taste nearly as good as cow's milk in there and I just cannot deal with black coffee. I try not to consume too much soy (Here's one post that nicely sums up my issues with soy) and I don't eat nuts so soy milk and almond milk are out. 

Anyway, long story short, besides coffee, the rest has been pretty easy. And it's not hard to make dietary sacrifices when I see such improvement in my little one. I'd even give up cookies and coffee for that. Along the way, I've been testing out dairy free breads and cookies. Some have been epic fails. Some have been delicious. The other day I made these vegan chocolate chip cookies (modified recipe below) and my husband proclaimed them awesome. In fact, he tweeted: "So my wife goes dairy free and the cookies get better. It’s like a magical fairy lives in my kitchen. 

Yay. These cookies were really good and super easy. I made them with my 2 year old, who had a grand old time tasting the dough. I was skeptical, admittedly. They have no leavening ingredients and flax seed meal. It all seemed a tad weird, frankly, but we pushed forward and voila! Yum. I made them small -- silver dollar size -- the original recipe said I'd yield 12 cookies but we made 36. I love small cookies -- it's a win-win for everyone. These fit nicely in the palm of my 2 year old's hand. More cookies, better portion size, great for kids' lunches. Thanks to the coconut oil, these were not only flavorful but also nicely crispy. And because of their small size, the crispiness wasn't odd. I used these dairy free chocolate chips which melted nicely (as you can see above). This is definitely a recipe I'll make again. 

Enjoy!

Silve Dollar Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

• Yield:12 cookies
• Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• ⅓ cup virgin or extra virgin coconut oil
• ¼ cup+ 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup+ 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seed meal
• 3 tablespoons warm water
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup+ 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup dairy free chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Combine flax seed with water in a small bowl and set aside.

3. Cream coconut oil with evaporated cane juice and brown sugar until well blended.

4. Add flax seed mixture and vanilla extract. Beat until well blended.

5. Add flour and salt in three stages, scraping the bowl after each new addition.  Mix until smooth.

6. Fold in chocolate chips and spoon 36 tablespoon sized dough balls onto a baking sheet.  Slightly flatten each dough ball by pressing down on them with the back of a spoon.

7. Bake in center rack of oven for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Banana Muffins - Dairy Free and Egg Free

My little guy is turning 2 on Friday. Hooray! In preparation for his party, I bought fun cupcake liners yesterday and when he found them on the kitchen counter this morning, he pleaded, "Mama! My want a muppin peez." Really, how can you say no to that? 

As it happens, we had four bananas that were desperate for muffin making, so we set to work. My son gets a big thrill out of pouring and stirring -- this particular batch has about three times the recommended cinnamon - but he was having such a good time, I just let it go. They still taste pretty good! And with no added sugar, these are a nice snack. 

Years ago, my daughter went to preschool with a child who had dairy and egg allergies so I found and refined a recipe for vegan banana muffins that I could safely bring into her classroom. It has become my go-to recipe any time I'm baking with my kids. They love to lick the bowl so this egg-free recipe is a winning solution for everyone. 

Dairy and Egg Free Banana Muffins

Ingredients: 

• 4 super ripe bananas

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/2 c vegetable oil

• 1 c applesauce 

Preheat oven to 350. 

Mix all dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside. In another bowl, mash the bananas. Add vanilla extract, vegetable oil and applesauce and mix together. Add dry ingredients to wet ones and stir to combine. We like leaving the banans slightly chunky. 

Pour into muffin pan lined with cupcake liners and bake for approximately 22-24 minutes. Makes about 12 muffins. 

Let cool for 10 minutes and enjoy! 

--