Easy Oatmeal Bars (4 Ingredients!)

Here’s an easy oatmeal bar recipe! Irresistibly delicious, these healthy breakfast bars are ideal for busy mornings and snacks.

Here’s a perfect recipe for breakfast and everything in between. This ridiculously simple no-bake oat bars Recipe! These goods large Winners in our house and quickly consolidated in the weekly directory. Packed with peanut butter, honey, and old-fashioned oats, these breakfast bars make a healthy breakfast or snack that you or your family can feel good about. In fact, I had to remind myself not to sneak them in as a treat.

Variation: Try our favorite Peanut Butter Oatbars, No-Bake Energy Bites, or Peanut Butter Energy Balls!

Ingredients for this oatmeal bar recipe

These oat bars just have 4 ingredients + salt (because salt is a given, right?). This makes them easy to prepare anytime… and we do. Here’s what you need to craft them:

• Old-fashioned oatmeal: It’s the standard oatmeal you’re used to, not steel-cut oats! Because it has the texture of rice, it’s not a substitute here.
• Peanut butter: Use creamy peanut butter with no added sugar. If all you have is sweet, leave out some honey. Use sunflower butter as a substitute for nut allergies.
• Honey: The honey adds a warm, golden flavor and a nice gooey texture. See our notes on vegan substitutes below.
• Cinammon: The cinnamon adds just the right amount of complexity.

Of course, you need a little salt to round off the perfect taste. Be sure to use kosher salt, as it adds milder flavor to food than table salt.

How to make no-bake bars: some tips

Here we like a good no-cook recipe: and not just because you don’t have to wait for the cooking time! No-bake recipes are as close to failure as you can get. Here are some tips for making this oatmeal bar recipe:

• Use a small glass to flatten them perfectly. You will mix the ingredients together and then place them in a square pan with parchment underneath. Flatten them as much as possible, then roll over them with a small glass. It gets the most even texture.
• Freeze first! Freeze the mold for 15 minutes, which will set the bars in place. They will still be a bit soft at this point.
• Cut into bars. Then cut them into bars. You can consume them right away, but we prefer to wait another hour in the fridge for them to fully set.

Make large or small oatmeal bars (we prefer the small ones)

One of the things we like about this recipe is slicing the bars smaller: to have more! Here are some pointers to the benefits of small oatmeal breakfast bars:

• Make 32 rectangular bars for more servings and fewer calories and sugar. The sugar in a small bar is only 1 teaspoon and it’s still a super satisfying snack or treat. We prefer this size for versatility (although the photos show the squares).
• Make 16 square breakfast bars. If you’re eating them as a breakfast bar, you’ll probably want a larger bar to be more filling. Of course you can only eat 2 small bars!

Variant of vegan oat bars

Want to make vegan oat bars out of it? We generally use maple syrup as our liquid sweetener of choice, which is vegan. But in this recipe, the flavor and texture of the honey is an integral part of the structure of the oatmeal breakfast bars. Here is our favorite vegan sweetener:

• Try agave syrup for vegan oat bars! It’s a bit thicker than maple syrup, so it’ll seem a bit more like honey.
• You can also try maple if that’s your only sweetener. Just keep in mind that the bars taste best straight out of the fridge.

When to eat oat bars…for breakfast, as a snack, or anytime!

Yes, we love these oatmeal bars because they’re perfect for between-meal times when you’re hungry and don’t want to take an unhealthy option. Here are some ideas we recommend:

• Breakfast: Grab them on the way out or crumble them over Greek yogurt
• The taste: Get one out of the fridge anytime
• Sweet treat: It’s everything we need to feel like a satisfying indulgence without splurging. They are especially good for kids (our son loves them!)

Nutritional information for oatmeal

What’s so good about eating oats for snacks and in oatmeal breakfast bars? Well, there’s a lot of good in these whole grains. Here are some of the benefits you get from oats (source):

• Rich in vegetable proteins. 1 cup of raw oats has 11 grams of protein, which is about 20% of your daily needs!
• Rich in fiber. 1 cup of raw oats has 8 grams of fiber, which is about 30% of your daily requirement.
• Very rich: Oats can reduce appetite and help you eat fewer calories overall.

More oatmeal recipes

As a “foodie” and cookbook author, it may sound silly, but one of my favorite dishes is oatmeal! I eat it every day and it’s always satisfying and filling. It is ideal for a healthy breakfast and of course gluten-free snacks. Here are our best oatmeal recipes:

This oatmeal bar recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten free. For vegan, plant-based and dairy-free, see notes in the recipe.