Morning Glory Breakfast Bars

Morning glory breakfast bars fully loaded with oats, walnuts, almond butter, carrots and raisins. Hearty and filling. Vegan and gluten free.

This post was supposed to be a recipe for some lovely little spiced carrot cupcakes. You see, it was my birthday last week and I wanted to make you (me) something special. They were going to light and fluffy, totally healthy, slightly sweet and topped off with a orange and maple coconut cream frosting. Something that says, I’m 28 now, and I want a sophisticated cupcake.

Except they weren’t. They weren’t any that. They were wet and gooey and gummy, better used as door stops and paper weights than any treat for a celebration. Three times over. Three different trials, three different recipe tweaks, but none worthy of the dream-like cupcakes I was hoping to share with you all. So, there are about 3 dozen sticky carrot cakes in my freezer if anyone’s interested. We are slowly making our way through them, and as I absolutely hate throwing food away, I have been trying to salvage them by slicing them in half, toasting them and spreading with almond butter – turns out, not so bad. not too bad at all. And thus, a new recipe was born – morning glory breakfast bars.

I took all the flavors and ingredients I used for the muffins, altered it slightly and set out to make a soft yet crunchy morning glory breakfast bar. A delicious and nutritious snack any time of day.

Morning glory breakfast bars fully loaded with oats, walnuts, almond butter, carrots and raisins. Hearty and filling. Vegan and gluten free.


MORNING GLORY BREAKFAST BARS

Fully loaded to keep you going and sneaking a little veg into your morning meal always makes you feel like a nutrition super hero. Vegan and gluten free. Makes 8-10 bars.

Ingredients

1/2 cup natural unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup all natural almond butter
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
5 tablespoons coconut oil, melted (+ 1 tablespoon for brushing)
2 tablespoons ground flax
1 cup shredded carrots
2 1/2 cups rolled oats, choose certified gluten free if necessary
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sultana raisins
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of fine sea salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F / 175 C

Toast oats, nuts and seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat until slightly brown and fragrant. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in cinnamon, salt and raisins.

Combine all the wet ingredients in the food processor. Shred the carrots first, about 2 small carrots should yield one cup, change out the blade but the keep the carrots in the blender and add in applesauce, almond butter, almond milk, coconut oil and ground flax. Blend until well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Press the mixture into a  8 x 11 baking dish, lined with parchment slightly overhanging the sides. Using a flat bottom surface, (measuring cup, metal spatula, etc.) smooth out the top and press down evenly so that the bars and nice and compact. Drizzle over with the extra melted coconut oil and spread across the top of the bars, this will make them nice on brown.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until top and sides are golden. Let cool completely, then using the sides of the parchment paper remove from the pan (I let mine cool off overnight) Slice into bars, I got 10 bars out of my batch, but depending on the size you want you could get 8-12 I’d say. Keep the bars in a sealed container for about a week, or store in the freezer.


Let me in on your kitchen creations – tag your photos #happyheartedkitchen and share the love!

9 Comments

  • Reply
    Melissa @ Nourish By Melissa
    April 8, 2014 at 3:27 pm

    Wow these look great! I need to make some granola bars soon for snacks during school since I don’t have much time to make anything on the spot! thanks for sharing!

    • Reply
      Jodi Kay
      April 10, 2014 at 7:26 am

      Thanks Melissa! Cut these into a snack size bar and they would make a great mid morning school snack to keep ya going until lunch ;) If you try them let me know! J x

  • Reply
    Gwen
    April 14, 2014 at 7:47 pm

    Making these today! Yum!!

    • Reply
      Jodi Kay
      April 15, 2014 at 5:25 am

      Awesome! Hope you enjoy them, Gwen! J x

  • Reply
    Sweeter Life Club
    May 9, 2014 at 7:35 am

    Yummy……like this delicious apricot loaf cake recipes because it’s healthy and tasty.

    Apricot Loaf Cake Recipes

  • Reply
    Clipping Path
    May 13, 2014 at 5:33 am

    Excellent blog, and this article is just excellent too

  • Reply
    Rough Measures
    May 4, 2015 at 4:26 pm

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    Nutty Breakfast Bars | live love kale
    January 10, 2017 at 2:54 pm

    […] Was feeling like something different than my normal breakfast routine, but also wanted something was healthy and didn’t feel like a dessert. These are the perfect compromise, and they’re super filling too! Make with your favorite combo of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit, and enjoy! Inspired by this recipe here. […]

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