These chocolate chip baked oatmeal breakfast squares are like eating a giant chocolate chip oatmeal cookie for breakfast, straight from the oven!
❤ Just 7 ingredients
❤ You can make them the night before
❤ Leftovers freeze really well
❤ Great for a healthy meal or snack on the go
❤ A wholesome & filling breakfast
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Don’t forget the chocolate chips
My favorite chocolate chips, that I use almost exclusively in my own recipes, are Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ve probably noticed I love to add mini chocolate chips to recipes, both for taste and presentation.
Just look at this gorgeous dark chocolate Brownie Baked Oatmeal!
It’s much easier to spread mini chips out evenly in baked goods so you get chocolate in every single bite, whereas with larger chocolate chips you might get one bite with chocolate and then another with no chocolate at all.
People often write in to ask me how I can eat chocolate chips as a vegan.
The Enjoy Life chips I recommended above actually are vegan, non-GMO, and free from 14 common allergens, including gluten, soy, eggs, dairy, and nuts. (They also come in Semi-Sweet Mega Chunks and Dark Chocolate Morsels.) You can find the brand in many regular grocery stores or online.
Breakfast on the go
Of the thousands of recipes I’ve posted here on the blog, my mom will tell you that these breakfast squares are her all-time favorite.
She calls them “boatmeal” (for baked oatmeal) and will often text me on the weekend that she’s made another batch to take into work every morning during the week.
Because leftovers freeze well, you can easily plan ahead and freeze whatever you aren’t going to eat within 4-5 days, to keep an instant healthy breakfast on hand for rushed mornings or any time you don’t feel like cooking.
Step One: Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Step Two: Spread into a parchment-lined 9×13 pan.
Step Three: Bake at 350 F, then slice into bars or squares, and breakfast is ready for the whole week!
Above – watch the video how to make chocolate chip breakfast squares
Chocolate Chip Breakfast Squares To-Go
Ingredients
- 4 cups rolled oats
- 2 2/3 cup applesauce or mashed banana
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup or more mini chocolate chips – I love Enjoy Life Mini Chips
- 1/4 cup oil, nut butter, or additional water
- pinch stevia or 1/2 cup pure maple syrup, honey, or agave
- only if using stevia, 1/2 cup additional water
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 9×13 pan with parchment. In a large bowl, stir all ingredients until well-mixed. Smooth into the pan. Sprinkle additional chocolate chips on top if desired. Bake on the center rack 28 minutes, then do not open the oven door but turn off the heat and let sit in the closed oven an additional 20 minutes. Slice into bars or squares. Leftovers can be refrigerated 3-4 days, or freeze the bars to have on hand any time you need an instant healthy breakfast you can take on the go!View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
**Giant Chocolate Giveaway**
I’ve teamed up with Enjoy Life Foods to offer a very lucky reader an entire year’s supply of their vegan baking chocolate.
To Enter: Just leave a comment on this post sharing about how you’d use the chocolate chips – in cookies, brownies, muffins, bars, eaten straight out of the bag…
Sadly, I’ve been told that I cannot enter my own giveaway, or I would be all over this!
More Healthy Recipes With Chocolate Chips:
Katie, thanks for all your lovely recipes! We are big fans of your chocolate chip cookie pie, and would use Enjoy Life chips in that recipe, among many others!
What do you think about adding hemp seeds to this recipe?
Lisa
I literally eat those every morning and I never get tired of them, they’re so good 😭 I dip them in coconut joghurt and it’s simply the best thing ever, thank you sm for this recipe, much love from Germany
Just made these for the first time and they are delicious. I was wondering about making it a little less soft. Mine is like a bowl of oatmeal. Thinking I would like more on the cookie/crisp side. Any thoughts? Thank you!!
Thank you for making them 🙂 These are supposed to be soft like muffins, not crispy like granola bars, so maybe something like these strawberry oatmeal bars would be more of the texture you’re hoping for? https://lett-trim.today/strawberry-oatmeal-bars/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Found the recipe to be very sweet when using bananas- could probably go without the sweetener at all.
I’m about to use those yummy mini chips in your baked oatmeal recipe! 😋 love your recipes!
This was the first recipe I’ve made off your blog. I have recently started having problems with severe acid reflux, and a very wide range of foods can trigger it. I wanted a “safe” (low fat, low acid, otherwise trigger-free) substantial snack/meal substitute I can easily carry around with me. Made these bars and they are perfect! I did make a couple adjustments to the recipe: I used dates instead of chocolate chips (sadly, chocolate is a trigger food for me), and I used ¾ cup mashed banana and made up the rest of the volume of banana + oil with plain 2% yoghurt, simply because I needed to use it up… Added cinnamon, ginger, and pumpkin pie spice. The bars came out soft yet holding their shape, sweet but not cloyingly so (I used maple syrup as the sweetener), and satisfying. I love how well they held together; most of the “healthy” oat bar recipes I’ve tried over the years have come out a lot more crumbly. I made a half batch in an 8×8 pan, following the baking instructions as written. I plan to keep a container of the bars individually wrapped in my freezer so I can throw one or two in my bag when I head out for the day. I think I’ll be making a lot more of your recipes!
These are great! I love making them with unsweetened applesauce and adding in some cinnamon, a few chocolate chips, nuts and craisins. I love how easy they freeze and I can easily take one out for breakfast and eat it warm or cold. Thanks for the recipe.
For Christmas cookies. Chocolate chip banana bread. Pancakes. Toddler snacks. Trail mix. Midnight snacks. Chocolate chip cookies. Buckeyes. My dairy free lactation cookies.
I have 4 grandkids, a son and a daughter in law who are all dairy free, nut free and so on. So I would use these in everything I make that calls for chocolate chips.