Fruity Oat Breakfast Bars

Before I had kids, I used to think it would be easy to get my kids to eat fruit and vegetables. Ha! Turns out it’s not as easy as I thought! Does anyone know how they manage to figure out exactly where the vegetables are in a mouthful, and spit them out? Just too clever.

Since Clem got wise to my fruit and veg tactics, I’ve had to come up with some smart ways to get the good stuff into him, and that usually means hiding as much as I can in the things he loves. Thankfully, anything sweet and carb-loaded is delicious to him, so I came up with these fruity oat breakfast bars to sneak more fruit into him without him realising. (And while we’re on the subject, check out this great post from Kiddy Charts on how to develop healthy eating habits in your kids.)

Fruity oat breakfast bars, perfect for getting toddlers to eat more fruit.

We love eating these for breakfast, but they also make great on-the-go snacks, and they don’t stain so can be eaten in the car or the pushchair without fear of mess getting everywhere. Plus, they’re much more affordable than ready-made cereal bars from the supermarket, and they’re easy enough to make that you can do it with ‘help’ (!) from your tiny person.

The possibilities for flavours are endless. The ones for this post were made with pineapple, because that’s what we had left over, but you can top with any fresh or dried fruit. Berries would be wonderful, especially as the juice would soak into the oaty-ness!

Dried fruit is great for getting toddlers to eat more fruit.

Fruity Oat Breakfast Bars

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Yield: 12 bars

You will need:

Baking tin (approx 25 x 30cm)
Butter for greasing
2 ripe bananas, mashed
3 eggs
450g natural or greek style yoghurt (or you can use kefir!)
120ml honey (maple or agave syrup if your little person is under one)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
400g oats
1 tbsp mixed spice
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
150g mixed dried fruit
50g flaked almonds
100g fresh fruit

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan. Grease your tin with the butter.
In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, yoghurt, honey and vanilla extract.
Add the oats, mixed spice, baking powder, salt and 3/4 of the dried fruit.
Pour the mixture into the baking tin and top with the remaining dried fruit, flaked almonds and fresh fruit.
Cover the tin with foil and bake for 30 mins.
Slice and serve!