I’m sharing today’s recipe in collaboration with Nature Valley™ and Safeway. Nature Valley sells delicious nut-filled snack bars that are clean-eating friendly, and they give these homemade granola bars their nutty crunch!
In high school, I ate so many granola bars that I nearly single-handedly forced the local grocery stores to restock their snack shelves multiple times each week. Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration… But I did pile almost every box of my favorite flavors on display into the grocery cart whenever we stopped on that aisle!
Our school scheduled a short 10-minute snack break at the start of 3rd period classes, and I always pulled out my first granola bar of the day then. I typically chose something soft and chewy, usually with chocolate chips or chunks (yes, I was a chocoholic even back then… it’s why I wrote my Healthier Chocolate Treats cookbook!), and I slowly nibbled on it while my classmates crunched on pretzels or potato chips.
For lunch, I packed a granola bar instead of desserts like cookies or cupcakes to finish off my meal. For that second snack, I gravitated towards crunchier varieties, the complete opposite of my mid-morning choice, like Nature Valley™ Oats ’n Honey. I broke off tiny pieces, trying to make the sweet flavors of the snack last as long as I could!
When I arrived home from school, I headed straight for the pantry for a third granola bar. By the afternoon, I started craving something soft again, although fruit-filled instead, and after ripping open the wrapper, I bit off tiny pieces while I cracked open my math textbook and started on my homework.
Yes, I devoured at least three granola bars every day… What can I say? I love to snack!
When I recently stopped by the grocery store to pick up more oatmeal for baking cookies, I passed by the snack bars located on the same aisle. Since that brought back memories (and snack cravings!) from high school, I decided to hold off on the cookies and made these Healthy Banana Nut Granola Bar Bites instead. They’re soft and chewy with the same flavors as the ever-popular banana nut muffin, and they’re much healthier than the snacks of my childhood—and really easy to make!
The base of these granola bars consists of two main ingredients: old-fashioned oats and brown rice cereal. I know, I know… You’re probably looking rather quizzically at your screen and wondering why in the world would Amy put rice cereal in granola bars! It actually adds a nice texture and helps hold the bars together for a fraction of the calories of extra oil. If you can’t find brown rice cereal, regular ol’ rice cereal will work just fine!
For the fruity flavor, you’ll mix in mashed banana. Try to use the darkest, ripest, spottiest banana you can find! Those bananas will have the most intense fruity flavor, and because they’ll also be sweeter, you’ll only need to add a tablespoon of honey to the bowl. And for a little protein boost, you’ll mix in some Greek yogurt, too!
It’s impossible to have banana “nut” granola bar bites without the nuts! To make the decision much easier (I couldn’t pick just one type of nut!), I diced one of Nature Valley’s Roasted Peanut & Honey Simple Nut Bars that I found at Safeway to add to the bowl. With just 7 ingredients, all of which are clean-eating friendly (that’s so hard to find in store-bought snacks these days!), I love keeping a box of these nut bars in the pantry for quick snacks. And because they contain peanuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds, they make it really easy to add a variety of nut flavors to our homemade granola bars without hunting down those individual ingredients at the grocery store. Win-win!
Now simply press the mixture into your pan, pop it in the oven, slice into squares, and…
Time for a snack!
Psst… If you’re a snackaholic like me, I highly recommend trying Nature Valley’s other flavor of their Simple Nut Bars too, Almond Cashew & Sea Salt! I found both varieties at my local Safeway, and they’re perfect for quick grab-and-go clean eating snacks. Be snacksational—and stay healthy at the same time!
| Healthy Banana Nut Granola Bar Bites | | Print |
- 1 ½ cups (45g) crisp brown rice cereal
- 1 cup (100g) old-fashioned oats (measured like this and gluten-free if necessary)
- 1 tsp coconut oil, melted
- ½ cup (130g) mashed banana (about 1 large)
- ¼ cup (60g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp (15mL) honey
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 (33g) Nature Valley Roasted Peanut & Honey Simple Nut Bar, finely diced
- Preheat the oven to 300°F, and lightly coat an 8”-square pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, combine the rice cereal and oats. In a separate bowl, stir together the coconut oil and mashed banana. Add in the Greek yogurt, honey, and salt, mixing until thoroughly combined. Stir in the cereal mixture. Gently fold in the chopped Simple Nut Bar.
- Gently press the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 300°F for 14-17 minutes or until light golden and the center feels firm to the touch. Cool completely to room temperature in the pan before slicing into squares.
Melted unsalted butter, or any oil, may be substituted for the coconut oil.
Try to use the ripest, spottiest banana that you can find! If yours is more yellow than brown, you may want to add more honey to taste.
Maple syrup or agave may be substituted for the honey.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
This post was sponsored by General Mills and Safeway. As always, all text, photographs, recipe, and opinions are my own.
Do I need to keep these in the refrigerator?
I highly recommend it! Otherwise, the granola bar bites will start to develop mold if stored at room temperature after about 2 days. I’m excited to hear what you think of them! 🙂
I got the same Q 😉
I highly recommend it! Otherwise, the granola bar bites will start to develop mold if stored at room temperature after about 2 days. I’m excited to hear what you think of them Amber! 🙂
Calorie count?
The full Nutrition Information for all of my recipes is included beneath the recipe box! 🙂 I’m excited to hear what you think of the granola bar bites Susan!
Amy these look fab! Just wondering, but do you have any recipes for plain ol’ healthy banana bread? Trying to keep my calories low but I’ve been craving true banana bread recently! Love your blog so much xx
I do Annie! You can find my banana bread recipes here. 🙂 In the future, the best way to find a specific recipe is to click on the “Recipes” tab at the top of my blog or use the Search Bar (located on the right side, if you’re viewing on a computer, or the bottom of my blog, if you’re viewing on a mobile device). That will give you an answer much faster than waiting on a response from me! 😉
Disappointed that you would make us shop at Safeway for this. What is the point of the product? Otherwise, I would love to make this!
thanks.
Oh goodness, I didn’t mean for it to sound like you HAD to shop at Safeway! I wanted to let you know that I found the Nature Valley bars at Safeway to hopefully make locating them easier. You can find them at many other grocery stores, even Target and Walmart, not just Safeway! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think of these granola bar bites if you try them!
So happy to have found your blog. Have not made them yet but will soon.
Love all your stuff. yum yum
Thank you for your kind words Sharron! I can’t wait to hear what you think of the granola bar bites!
These look awesome. I have several bananas that need used up so I might have to make batch of these! Plus, I love bananas by themselves, but banana-nut is one of my favorite combos. Sweet & salty… that’s where it’s at!
YES!! Amen to sweet and salty — it’s one of my favorite combos! (Sweet and spicy is a very close runner-up!) I’d love to hear what you think of the granola bar bites if you try them Melissa! 🙂
I think it’s childish to complain if a person endorses a company made food that is paying them, when the recipe is free to the complainer. I used regular pecans, as I had them on hand and they worked fine. Great recipe, thanks.
Thank you so much for your kind words Vanessa — I’m truly touched. ♡ I’m so glad you enjoyed the granola bar bites!
Processed ingredients to make a healthy bar? I think not
There actually aren’t any processed ingredients in these snack bars Nina! 🙂
Why do you use the yogurt? Is it possible to make it dairy free? What could I use instead? Thank you!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Amanda! I actually go over the purpose of the Greek yogurt in the text of my blog post above the recipe. I know it can be easy to miss! 🙂 If you’d like to make these dairy-free, then the best substitute would be dairy-free yogurt (i.e. soy- or almond-based), and the next best substitute would be additional mashed banana. I can’t wait to hear what you think of these granola bar bites!