A delicious soft oat bar recipe packed full with sweet strawberries. A tasty and healthy snack for toddlers and older kids!
My little boy has turned into an absolute food monster recently. I can't believe that at just 2 years old he's already eating me out of house and home... and that's saying something considering I always have food to hand! He seems to be particularly fond of snacks so I've been making an effort to try out some new homemade snack recipes on him and these Strawberry Oat Bars have been a big success!
The base of these oat bars are made with my standard mixture of oats, nut butter (I used peanut butter here but almond or cashew butter works well too), coconut oil and honey. I then added some chopped fresh strawberries to give it a delicious summery flavour.
These bars are gluten, dairy and egg free and are packed full of slow releasing carbs and protein; enough to keep my little man full until dinnertime!
One thing I should point out is that these Strawberry Oat Bars are very soft. They are not crunchy or chewy like a normal granola bar so don't be disappointed! However, this does make them ideal for younger kids and toddlers as the softness makes then really easy to eat.
If you try this recipe please do let me know what you think. And tag me in a picture on Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #myfussyeater. I really love seeing all your pictures of my recipes and your little ones enjoying them!
Strawberry Oat Bars
- Prep Time: 2 mins
- Cook Time: 18 mins
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Snacks
- Cuisine: European
Description
A delicious soft oat bar recipe packed full with sweet strawberries. A tasty and healthy snack for toddlers and older kids!
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp coconut oil
- 2 tbsp nut butter
- 3 tbsp honey / date syrup / maple syrup
- 125g / 1.5 cups rolled oats
- 100g / 0.75 cups chopped strawberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c / 350f. Grease and line an 8x8inch dish with parchment paper.
- In a saucepan melt the coconut oil. Add the nut butter and honey and stir until all the ingredients have melted together.
- Pour this mixture into a large bowl. Add the oats and mix well.
- Gently fold in the strawberries and then transfer the mixture to the lined dish, pressing down the top with the back of a spoon.
- Bake for 15 minutes until the edges are just starting to brown.
- Leave the oat mixture to cool to room temperature in the dish, before putting it in the fridge for 30 minutes. This step is very important. If you don't do this the mixture will fall apart when you try to cut it!
- Cut into 8 large or 16 small slices.
- Serve immediately or keep in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Kat says
Followed recipe exactly and gave extra time in the fridge and fell completely apart. Still tasty but quite sweet.
Mary says
I used Greek yogurt instead of oil, cooled completely in the pan then chilled in the fridge for an hour before cutting. These were great!!
Vicky says
Great idea Mary, so happy you enjoyed them.
Christine says
Tastes ok, but had to serve it in a bowl as it completely crumbled and fell apart. Followed the directions exactly and they didn’t hold up well at all. Works well as a granola in yogurt though.
Mrs B. says
Always have and always will make my kids a special Valentines packed lunch to take to school, the older ones absolutely hate it, but seeing these they will make a great addition without being to over the top, as for the younger ones ill go full Valentines LOL.
Vicky says
What a lovely thing to do every year, I'm sure the older ones love it really! please feel free to share all your valentines lunch box creations with us on social media, we love seeing each and every one.
Michaela says
Delicious but didn’t really work. We ended up having it with yoghurt and it was yum, but more of a dessert/treat than an everyday snack.
Angela M says
My toddler (1.5 yr old) likes these. I used avocado oil instead of coconut oil, and used a strawberry purée (probably 3/4 cup) and whole banana. I baked it in a mini muffin pan and it yielded about 20.
Leah says
Delicious but just completely crumbled to bits after letting it cool and removing from the tray. Followed recipe exactly so I don't know what went wrong
Krystal says
Flavour wise and preparation total thumbs up!
We had the same problem with the crumbling though and I followed the instructions to a T so not sure what we need to do to make Not fall apart x
Vicki Bradshaw says
I don’t have nut butter will ordinary butter be ok
Vicky says
We haven't yet tried this, but if you do please let us know how it turns out.
Anonymous says
what is nut butter exactly?
Indri says
If I don't have coconut oil, can I substitute it with butter instead?
Bianca Carey Spencer says
Hi Indri, we've not tried it with butter so not sure. If you do try it with butter let us know how it turns out. x
Mojoblogs says
This looks really delicious. I love strawberries! This is gonna be perfect for me! Thank you for sharing this recipe 🙂
Chloe says
I used bluebrries and rasp for one set and banana and coconut for a second, subing butter as coconut oil is expensive haha, still waiting on them to cool but they are very soft still and look delish
Chisom says
OMG! I tried this recipe and all i can say is woooowww!
I ate half of it before my son woke up. LOL soo trying this again and again and again!👌👍
Billie says
I use this all the time, winner.
Gemma Da Silva says
Amazing! Tastes delicious and my 15 month old loves them too!
Ana Luisa says
Muchas gracias por compartir la receta!
Hice ayer y en verdad me encantó! Espero pronto hacer la receta de brocoli con huevos y queso.
Abrazos desde Chile! 🙂
Gina says
Really nice and moist. Froze well too.
Anonymous says
Recipe is good, however falls apart easily. Had it with greek yoghurt & was delicious. Requires more butter and honey to keep it together!
Demi says
Tried to make these! So delicious but went soggy a little on the bottom so I put in oven again and they worked amazing! Next time going to try less Coconut Oil and chop my strawberrys smaller. But so happy with these.
Vanessa says
This is amazing! I made it with honey and natural peanut butter and added frozen (but defrosted) raspberries. My 1 and 3 year olds loved it, and my husband did too. I had to tell him to stop eating it because it’s for the kids, and I’m now making a second batch where I’ve also added shredded coconut, and half has wild blueberries, and the other half has chopped up dried apricots (less messy for the kids).
L1l says
Have made this recipe loads for my kids and was just coming to see if anyone had tried frozen raspberries in them as I have some to use up and strawberry crop from the garden has finished! Thanks for sharing!
Vicky says
Fab! we haven't given frozen raspberries a go, please try and let us know how they work out. Thanks so much for coming back to share your review. x
Nikki says
Delicious! I made mine with almond butter, honey and frozen raspberries, no idea if my toddler will eat them but I certainly will!! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Laura says
Absolutely delicious!
Only comment would be that we didn't cut the strawberries up small enough/had a few bits clumped together so they made parts of the dish soggy and fall apart ( still eaten in a flash though!)
Trying again today with smaller bits of strawberry and a little less honey.
Ciara Attwell says
Hi Laura, I don't use any honey in my recipe so this might have changed the consistency of the bars.
Sara says
Same thing happened to me - maybe specifying how big the strawberries should be would be good. I've also thought about using dried strawberries next time.
Minna @Kiddielicious Kitchen says
Homemade oat bars are great and these look so delicious!
Ciara Attwell says
Thank you Minna!
Lucy says
I had to substitute the nut butter and coconut oil for regular butter due to allergies and I added chia seeds and apple for some extra texture/flavour and they turned out amazing!!!
My kids loved them and even I ate a few myself 🙂
Little tip if you do substitute with butter like I did: skip the pan steps and just mix it all in a bowl then continue from step 3 🙂
Emma Lofthouse-Burch says
These look so good, I am definitely going to be giving them a try x
Ciara Attwell says
Thank you Emma!
Suzann Mason says
Can you freeze these?
Ciara Attwell says
Yes you can. Wrap them individually in parchment paper and freeze them in freezer bags or containers!
anna says
Hi,
my ĺo has to a nut allergy, any idea what I could use instead?
Ciara Attwell says
Hi Anna, you could try sun butter instead.