Low-Calorie Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

Over the weekend, as we planned out our meals for the month (we meal planned for the entire month of January…what a relief to have that all done and in place!), we knew we wanted to include some make-ahead breakfast meals for the next month. They needed to be healthy, easy-to-make, and convenient to prepare during busy mornings when we often use fast food or something junky as our crutch. And I wanted to bake something so I could use my pretty bakeware. 

Charles made a batch of breakfast burritos we can stick in the microwave on busy mornings. And I made these low-calorie Chocolate Banana breakfast bars (because healthy eating, in my opinion, should still include chocolate!).

They are, of course, easy to make! 🙂 Here’s how to make them, and also a few suggestions for making them even *more* diet-friendly.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups oats
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup chocolate chips (I just cut up a candy bar I had left over from Christmas because I don’t trust myself with an entire bag of chocolate chips!)
1 whisked egg
1 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 small banana, cut into small pieces

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350. Mix all dry ingredients together (oats, salt, cinnamon, chocolate chips). In a bowl, whisk egg and mix in milk and vanilla. Combine all ingredients together and mix. It will be pretty wet! Gently fold in the banana.

Spray a small casserole dish with cooking spray and pour in mixture.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.

Let cool and cut into 8 squares (or bars).

My non-official (but probably pretty accurate, because I used a calculator) calorie calculation puts these at right around 140 calories apiece.

You could make them even lower-calorie (and more Weight Watchers-friendly) by substituting the chocolate with blueberries and the whole milk with a low-fat milk.

You can wrap them individually so you’ll always have something to eat on-the-go!

You can find all the ingredients you need to make these at Market Street. 

Happy shopping and healthy eating! 🙂