These sound so good. I have some bananas I am waiting to finish turning brown for banana bread but they just might be turned into bars instead!

Great recipe! My husband is on a kick right now of making his own granola bars, so I sent him the recipe!

Hi Susan, hope you like these. I am surprised at how sweet they are without any added sugar or honey.

This looks awesome! I definitely want to try this. And so healthy! Thanks for stopping by my blog and sharing!

mom2my9, let me know how it turns out, hope you like it.
E-

Ooh – these look great! I’ll be adding these to my meal plan soon…

Hi Katie, thanks. I like that these don’t have added sugar. Thanks for visiting.

This is a great recipe. I eat gluten-free, so as long as the oats were gluten-free it would work perfectly.

I’m starting a new blog carnival on August 31 – Slightly Indulgent Mondays – fabulous food made a little bit healthier. Your submission doesn’t have to be gluten or sugar free, just a little healthier in some way. I’d love for you to participate!

Hi Amy, this is great for gluten free oat eaters. I’ll stop in and check out the carnival, thanks.

Sounds wonderful. Like the idea of the coconut, I like anything made with coconut.
Geri

Geri, interestingly, I am not a big coconut fan and dislike the candy bars with coconut; but I like it in this recipe and in ambrosia fruit salad.

[...] of my favorite standbys are the Healthy Oat and Banana Bars from the Modern Gal blog. These bars are great because the riper the bananas the better they taste. [...]

These look yummy! You may want to specify, however, that in order for these to be gluten free, you have to make sure and buy gluten free oats, as most oats are contaminated with gluten. Just a thought! Thanks!

Hi Kelsey, indeed the oats need to be certified as gluten free or a brand that you’ve found reliable. Thanks for visiting.

I made this with a quarter cup of choc chips and no pumpkin or coconut for my kids…they love it! Thanks

Liza, chocolate chips sound good! Thanks for letting us know.

HI, do you have a suggestion if I can’t use applesauce. My son can’t eat fructose so no apple or pear.
Thanks,
Jen

Hi Jen,
The applesauce is actually a substitute for fat (such as melted butter or coconut oil). I have made them with coconut oil when I didn’t have applesauce. You can also try a bit more banana or canned pumpkin.

Hi Elizabeth,
Do you have any suggestions for those of us who don’t eat coconut? I have been searching the web high and low for a HEALTHY (and in it’s purest form) for a bars recipe loaded with oats… And yours is amazing! Anything I can substitute for the coconut? Not because it’s bad for you, just because I’m not a fan. Thank you SO much for putting good and healthy recipes out there!

Kristina, just skip the coconut. In this recipe, they are there really for the taste.

wow… looking forward to trying these!
I am also not a fan of coconut… should I just add more oats?
Thanks for the recipe! I think I will add it to my blog in the near future!

Hi Jacinda, you can just skip the coconut entirely, or add 1 or 2 Tablespoons more of oats. Keep in mind the oats are absorbant, so I wouldn’t add too much to start. It’s quite flexible.

My bananas must not have been overripe or big enough – the bars came out dry and not very sweet… the bananas were mostly yellow, a few brown spots. I added a drizzle of extra honey to the mix, but it wasn’t enough. I may try drizzling them with chocolate to compensate now!

Hi Sarah, next time I would add more very ripe bananas if these seemed dry (or cut back on the oats ratio). You can also add applesauce and some butter or oil. If you were expecting a sweetness as in commercial granola bars or cookies, you will need to add sweetener.

These were awesome! My husband likes them but also thinks they need a little more flavor. What do you do to add cranberries to the mix? I like that they are not full of sugar or fats, and so does my husband!

Hi Hannah, If you like dried fruit, I think you can stir in dried cranberries, dried cherries or dried blueberries. Just stir the dried fruit (about 1/2 cup) and mix to distribute throughout before pressing into a pan. Also, a touch of cinnamon will add flavor.

I’m also thinking that crystallized ginger may be good, but I haven’t tried it. Finally, you can add a teaspoon of an extract flavoring, such as vanilla, or to be bold almond or banana extract.

Elizabeth,

I think I am going to try that next time. I did end up doing three bananas instead of two, my mistake, so next time I am only going to do two. I did put the cinnamon in the recipe. Are they supposed to come out kind of chewy or more crunchy? If they are supposed to come out chewy how can I make them crunchy? Thanks! Again, I love this recipe, and so happy that I found one without brown sugar, sugar, or butter. When you do not eat that stuff you feel so much better!

Hannah, if baked as bars, this is mostly chewy. Since my favorite parts are the edge pieces, I have been making small disks, so that there is a lot crunchy edges. If you are not using any added oil, the best way to get crunchiness is by having edges and nuts.

I want to make the dough into cookies and bake three cookies each morning for my breakfast. Do you think that would work, or does it have to be cooked right away since it has bananas in it? Maybe I should make the cookie balls and then freeze them.
Thank you for posting this recipe. I haven’t tried it yet but these are the exact ingredients I was hoping for.

Cindy, I bake them, then store in the fridge and warm up a small serving each day. I have not tried freezing. However, my instinct is to bake first and then freeze, because I think the freezer will change the texture of the banana. Anyone else try this?

I do wish you had calorie count on all your recipes. Just because right now I’m watching calories and it would be nice to know.

Hi Yvonne, my understanding from another source is that 1/8 of this recipe has about 220-250 calories, and about 6-7 g fat, but given the various variations of the recipe people are trying you may want to enter your recipe into Fitday or Livestrong and see if that is right.

It is added junk free, but certainly not calorie free; portion control is still recommended.

I baked these and froze them right away. Typically, I put them in my lunch the night before and they are great the next day.

I entered all of the ingredients into my Lose It app and if made into 12 bars, I got around the following:

Calories: 125
Fat: 6.3
Sat Fat: 2.3
Chol: 0
Sodium: 1.8
Carb: 16.3
Fiber: 3.1
Sugars: 3.6
Protein: 2.9

Annie, thanks for the calorie info!