Simple Quinoa Breakfast Bars
These simple quinoa breakfast bars are flavored with toasted coconut and chocolate chips, making for a healthy and delicious on-the-go breakfast treat that you and your kids will love!
Hi everyone! My name is Alyssa and I’m the blogger behind, Simply Quinoa, a healthy food blog featuring wholesome and delicious recipes, all with a little quinoa twist. That’s right, every single one of my recipes has quinoa in it!
Since you’re a reader here on SHK, then I’m sure you already know how awesome quinoa is. It’s a complete vegetable protein – making it great for vegetarians and vegans! – and it’s a complex carbohydrate meaning it will digest more slowly and help keep you full for longer. Quinoa is also packed with hard to find minerals like manganese, magnesium and phosphorus.
So basically, quinoa is a true superfood!
While I love to incorporate quinoa into all of my meals, my favorite way to enjoy quinoa is with breakfast. I think it’s the ultimate breakfast food. It will give your kiddos energy when they go to school and it will fuel you through a long workday ahead.
These quinoa breakfast bars are the perfect example of a balanced, nutritious and delicious breakfast. We combine protein-rich quinoa, fiber-rich oats, low-glycemic coconut sugar, with some banana, flaxseed, nut/seed butter, toasted coconut and a few dark chocolate chips. They’re flavorful, slightly sweet and have a brownie-like consistency.
Unlike many packaged granola or breakfast bars, these are naturally low in sugar and fat and are high in the things – like fiber and protein – that keep us feeling full, fueled and energized. And let’s be honest, that’s exactly how we want to start the day, right?
They’re also very super to make. You just mix all the ingredients together, pour them into a square pan and bake them for 20 – 25 minutes. I recommend making them the night before so you can allow them to cool completely – they’ll be much easier to slice that way. And once you have sliced them, you can simply store them in an airtight container.
And while I adore their simplicity, my favorite part about these breakfast bars is that they’re totally portable. So many of us have busy mornings and little time to prepare a nutritious meal! These are a great option to quickly get you out the door. You can wrap them up and take them with you on the go, or even just hand them to your kiddos as you’re all getting ready in the morning.
These Coconut + Chocolate Chip Breakfast Bars are the ultimate breakfast treat. They’re free from gluten, dairy, eggs, soy and can be easily made nut-free. I know you and your family will absolutely love them!
BIO
Alyssa is the blogger behind Simply Quinoa, a gluten-free website dedicated to healthy food, always with a little quinoa twist. I love showing people how to make healthy food easy and delicious!
Simple Quinoa Breakfast Bar Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup oats, dry
- 1 cup Quinoa, cooked
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon flaxseed, ground
- 6 tablespoon water
- 2 medium banana
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup coconut flakes
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips, semisweet
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9” square baking pan with parchment and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (minus coconut and chocolate chips).
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flax seed meal and water. Let stand for 5 minutes until the mixture begins to gel. Beat in banana, nut/seed butter and vanilla.
- Pour wet ingredient over dry and stir together until fully combined. Fold in coconut and chocolate chips.
- Transfer mixture to the baking pan and smooth the top with a spatula.
- Bake on the center rack for 20 – 25 minutes until mixture has started to brown and is springy to the touch.
- Remove and let cool completely in the pan. Once cooled, transfer to a cutting board and cut into squares.
- Store in an airtight container for 3 – 4 days.
Nutrition
www.superhealthykids.com
Natalie Monson
I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.
Learn More about Natalie
Hello. These look delicious. You mention in your blog that they could be made but free but I can’t see where you suggest what to sub out for the almond butter. Please help! 🙂
Hi Sabrina! Thanks for the comment. To make them nut-free, simply substitute with a seed butter instead (sunflower, pumpkin, flax, etc.). Hope you love them!
I love your recipes- simple, healthy and delicious.This one looks very healthy too.my question is –
can I use plain sugar instead of
coconut sugar. Also, can I omit coconut flakes, will it still be ok?
I these look great! Just to clarify, if it 1cup of uncooked quinoa which is then cooked, or is it 1 cup of already cooked quinoa (so approximately 1/2 cup of the raw product?) Thanks
Hi there – you can certainly use regular sugar, although I would suggest brown sugar rather than white since the granules are closer in size. I think white sugar will work, they might just be a slightly different texture. Also, feel free to omit the coconut flakes (or you could add in whatever you’d like in it’s place!). Let us know how they turn out for you 🙂
Hi! I love your recies (and quinoa)! I tried to sign up for the free ebooks, but every time it said that the page wasn’t there ??? Thanks for this recipe though!
Oh no! I’m sorry about the trouble. Try this link and let me know if you still have issues: https://queenofquinoa.leadpages.net/shk-welcome/
We’d love to try these but can’t do oats. Any substitution ideas? Thanks!
I think you could try any sort of flakes that work for you – quinoa, spelt, buckwheat, etc. You could also try using a flour, but I’d start with just 3/4 of a cup and see how the batter looks. Let me know how it works out!
Could you make and freeze these?
I have a question about the quinoa. Do you measure a cup, cook it and use that amount or do you cook the quinoa and measure a cup. It’s bigger when cooked, so just looking for clarification. Thank you.
I was also wondering if these can be frozen?
Is there anyway you can publish the nutritional information for your recipes? Thanks
Hi Elaine,
We analyze the recipe that we use in our meal plans here: https://www.superhealthykids.com/meal-plan-memberships/ The rest you can actually use a tool at nutritiondata.self.com to get all the info you need.
You say that these are dairy free….but the semi sweet choco chips..? Those include milk in the ingredients list. Little misleading, unless I am not seeing the directions to use something like Enjoylife chips which I have to use due to allergies. They are dairy , nut, and soy free. Recipe looks great besides that. 🙂
This was my first time baking with a few of these ingredients (almond butter, flaxseed meal). The bars stayed very moist, almost sponge-like. Is this the expected result? I was hoping for something a bit drier, almost a granola bar texture.
I was looking for a breakfast bar recipe for my son’s lunchbox, and also trying to use up the remainder of my quinoa, so this recipe was perfect! I’ve failed miserably on 2-3 quinoa recipes previously and decided I just don’t like quinoa until I made these last night! I followed the recipe to a T and baked for an extra 5 minutes as I used an 8″ square pan. While it was cooling down, I couldn’t stop taking bites, it was so delicious! My two young boys also LOVED it, so I’m very happy to give quinoa another shot :).
Is it 1 cup Quinoa Before cooking or after. ? If I cook 1 cup of dry Quinoa it equals 2 cups. Please clarify,,,
What can I use instead of Oats please.
I can’t use oats.
As others have asked…But I see no response, 1cup quinoa then cooked? Or 1cup of already cooked quinoa? The recipe is a bit unclear.
The recipe says: 1 cup quinoa, cooked.
So you need to measure 1 cup of quinoa after it’s cooked.
I was really excited to make these bars but am confused about the quinoa measurement. I see others asked the same question without a response:(
It is 1 cup of cooked quinoa – so you will cook the quinoa first and then measure 1 cup.
This recipe looks great! Could I substitute egg for the flaxseed and water?
Does this really have 30g of sugar per serving? That seems like way too much for a kid friendly breakfast recipe?
Nutritional facts say “per serving” but 483 cal and 30 g sugar seems high for each serving. Is it per serving or per recipe?
Hi Marsha! Thanks for bringing that to our attention! Our system defaulted it to 4 servings, but it should actually be about 12 servings. Depending on how big you cut them, you may even be able to get 16.
I left out flaxseed, water and coconut and substituted cocoa (2tsp)for chocolate chips. My little ones enjoy them but can I freeze them?
These look SO GOOD and I really wanted to try them but I’m allergic to banana.
Do you know of a good substitute? I was thinking apple sauce, but it would probably be too watery. Maybe leaving the water out would work… ?
These realy look delicious! Excited to try it for my kids….can I use honey instead of sugar? And chia seeds instead of flaxseed?
I love the idea of these but my kids hate bananas. Do you have a suggested substitute to get the same texture?
These were delicious! My kids gobbled them up! THANK YOU!
Can these be frozen?
There is no mention of the quinoa in the recipe directions. Is it 1C cooked and use what that yields or just I C of cooked quinoa
I added it with the wet ingredients.
Do u use rolled oats or porridge oats pls?
Hi Katherine, we use rolled oats in these bars.
I’m super excited to try this recipe. I was wondering if honey could be substituted for the coconut sugar?? Our little one hasn’t had sugar yet, besides that in fruits, and I’d like for him to be able to eat these as well. Thank you!
Hi there! we haven’t tried this substitution but it would probably work! Keep in mind honey is quite a bit sweeter than coconut sugar (with a much higher glycemic index.) And also honey may not be given to babies under 1 year, for safety reasons.
I didn’t have flaxseed, so I mixed an egg in with the banana (omitted the water), and then followed the rest of the recipe and they turned out great. I ate like 6 or 7 bars the first hour!
could I use canned pureed pumpkin instead of banana?
Yep! That should work just fine! Let us know how they turn out!
Made these today. The quinoa should be completely cooled before being added to the rest of the dry ingredients.
Also, the pan size should be ammended to 9×13 instead of 9″ square. The bars were way too thick and did not bake through well even after extending baking time by almost double.
Family’s rating is just so-so on these.
Hi Alyssa, Can’t wait to make these. You said in the comments that you used “rolled” oats. Which type of rolled oats? Old fashioned rolled oats are much larger and thicker than quick cooking rolled oats.
Thanks!
We used old-fashioned oats!