If a busy morning routine keeps you from sitting down to enjoy a whole breakfast, you might think about grabbing a granola bar from a box in the pantry. Can those bars really be healthy? Unfortunately, many mainstream snack and breakfast bars are packed with preservatives and artificial sweeteners. Hardly a worthy breakfast choice. When hard-to-pronounce ingredients fill the nutrition facts, make your own breakfast bar full of real, healthy food. With wholesome oats, bits of freeze-dried strawberries and flakes of dried coconut, these vegan and gluten-free Strawberry Granola Bars with Coconut Flakes are the perfect on-the-go breakfast or midday snack.
Ingredients
1 ½ cups quick-cooking oats
2/3 cup mashed banana (about 1 ½ bananas)
½ cups unsweetened shredded coconut
½ cup freeze-dried strawberries, chopped
2 Tbsp. coconut palm sugar
1 Tbsp. chia seeds
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
¼ tsp. coconut extract
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a baking pan (8” x 8”).
- Mix together banana, apple sauce, coconut extract and vanilla extract. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and mix until combined.
- Pour mixture into baking pan. Flatten with a spoon or spatula.
- Bake for 12-13 minutes. Once completely cooled, cut into 10 bars.
- Store refrigerated in an airtight container.