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Mix your veggies and chocolate with this healthy Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread Oatmeal Bars recipe! They’re super moist and nutritious but taste like a decadent piece of summer. Plus it’s a whole serving of vegetables!
Picky eaters. We’ve all got em’ in our lives. That, or you are one. (Hi. Welcome. Yes I hid veggies in your baked goodies. Sorry!) I take picky eaters on as a challenge. When I can prove healthy eating, vegetables, or new ingredients can be delicious to a picky eater, I’ve done my job.
One of my best friends is one of the pickiest eaters I know, so when I get her stamp of approval I know I’ve got a winner on my hands. Needless to say, she loves these zucchini bread oatmeal bars and I’m so excited to share them with the masses! If you have a picky eater in your life, you don’t have to disclose that these have zucchini in them. You can just call them chocolate chip oatmeal bars… 😉
Here’s What You Need:
- oat flour – you can also make your own by grinding up rolled oats!
- brown rice flour – you can also use regular flour if you’re not gluten-free
- rolled oats – grab gluten-free if needed.
- baking powder
- coconut sugar – brown sugar works too.
- egg – I haven’t tried a flaxseed egg in this but you could try that to make these bars vegan.Â
- banana – make sure it’s super ripe!
- unsweetened applesauce – helps keep these bars super moist.Â
- almond milk – or other non-dairy milk of your choice.
- coconut oil
- zucchini – the star of the show!
- dark chocolate chips – I like the Enjoy Life brand.
Why zucchini?
Besides sneaking in some extra vegetables to this recipe, zucchini does play a role! It’s similar to adding bananas to banana bread – it creates a really great texture! Since it’s such a mild tasting vegetable, you will mostly taste the ingredients it’s paired with. On a nutritional front, it adds some great vitamins and minerals like vitamin A and C.
The one thing to note about baking with zucchini is that it is made up of a lot of water! To make sure this recipe turns out, you’ll want to grate your zucchini into a dish towel or several layers of paper towels to squeeze out the excess water.
How to Make Zucchini Oatmeal Bars
STEP 1: In a large bowl, combine the oat flour, brown rice flour, rolled oats, baking powder and coconut sugar.Â
STEP 2: In a separate bowl, mix the egg, banana, applesauce, almond milk and coconut oil.
STEP 3: Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.Â
STEP 4: Grate the zucchini and place in a dish towel or several layers of paper towel to squeeze the excess moisture out.Â
STEP 5: Stir the zucchini and chocolate chips into the batter.Â
STEP 6: Grease a 9×9 inch baking pan with coconut oil and add the batter to the pan. Bake at 350ºF for 20-25 minutes.Â
STEP 7: Remove from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes before cutting into bars.Â
How to Store Oatmeal Bars
The best thing about these bars is that they’re healthy enough for breakfast and delicious enough for dessert! So basically… they don’t last long in our house. Before storing, make sure the bars are cooled completely. Store in an airtight container on your counter for up to 3 days, in the fridge for up to 7 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months.
PrintChocolate Chip Zucchini Bread Oatmeal Bars
Mix your veggies and chocolate with this healthy Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread Oatmeal Bars recipe! They’re super moist and nutritious but taste like a decadent piece of summer. Plus it’s a whole serving of vegetables!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 9 bars 1x
- Category: dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup oat flour (or ground up rolled oats, gluten-free if necessary)
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour (buckwheat flour works too)
- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats (gluten free, if necessary)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar (brown sugar will work too)
- 1 large egg
- 1 large banana, ripe and mashed
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup of almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 1 large zucchini
- 1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips (I like Enjoy Life brand)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease a 9 x 9 inch baking pan with coconut oil.
- In a large bowl combine oat flour, brown rice flour, rolled oats, baking powder and coconut sugar.
- In a separate bowl combine egg, banana, applesauce, almond milk and coconut oil.
- Add wet ingredients to dry and stir to combine.
- Grate your zucchini and place in a dish towel or several layers of paper towel to squeeze out excess water.
- Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips into batter.
- Add batter to pan and place in oven to bake for 20-25 minutes (may need several minutes longer depending on elevation).
- Remove from oven and let cool for 20 minutes before cutting into bars.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
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Hi! This recipe looks delicious! I was wondering if it is possible to freeze the bars that we do not eat right away?
Absolutely! Freezing is totally an option.
These bars look delicious! I’m wondering if the banana is in here for sweetness or to replace oil? I have a banana allergy so would love to find a substitution for it so I can make them!
Yes, and also to add some sweetness! You could replace it with applesauce or pumpkin and just up the sweetener slightly. Should work out just fine! Enjoy 🙂
These look so yummy! Could Almond Flour and/or Coconut Flour replace the Oat Brown Rice Flour?
Hi Michelle! I wouldn’t recommend coconut flour as the ratios are quite different. You can certainly try almond flour but again it will likely change the baking time/texture significantly. I’d love to hear your results if you try it out!
Quick question about the amount of zucchini. This time of year I can find them in lots of sizes! Some are the size of a banana, and some are as big as my thigh! Approximately how many cups would you recommend for this recipe. Looking forward to making a batch this weekend!
You said exactly what I was going to say! Yes how many cups. I hope the question is answered because I want to make these 🙂
Hi ladies! Sorry for my delay in responding! I would say it’s about a cup after liquid has been removed. Truth be told, the size is not a big deal so long as it isn’t enormous and all of the water has been strained out. It’s sort of like chocolate chips where you can go heavy or light but you won’t alter the recipe 🙂 So if you want a bigger veggie punch, use a big zucchini but in this recipe I used a med-large normal sized one. I hope you enjoy them!
if i wanted to make these non-GF, how would i sub for the flour? i’m not familiar on the conversion from GF flours to all-purpose and vice versa! thanks! 🙂
Hi Louise! You should be able to use regular or whole-wheat all-purpose flour in place of the brown rice flour. I haven’t tried it myself but a 1:1 conversion usually works. Hope you enjoy!
These remind me of my Everything Energy Bars (https://lifeinspandex.com/the-perfect-energy-bars-to-power-you-through-your-week-but-not-your-wallet/) ! So yummy and perfect to pack for on-the-go busy days 🙂
Those look fantastic! thanks for sharing 🙂
My boyfriend grew up with a mom who “healthified” everything, so he knows ALL the tricks. When he says that something tastes “rough” or “hearty” or “healthy” I know he probably doesn’t really like it. I’ve found that putting zucchini in baked goods though is a fool-proof healthifying trick! These look really tasty – thank sfor sharing!
Hi Davida! I am going to make this today for my kiddies! (Okay, and me too:) My mother and I are passionate about raising healthy and happy kids, so we created a Read & Bake Children’s Book Series titled, “The Yummy Adventures of Celia and Cedric”! They have been a HUGE hit with kids all over the world so we’re getting one picky eater at a time:) Thanks for all the fantastic recipes you create and share here on your fun blog!
Erin Kurt
Co-author of The Yummy Adventures of Celia and Cedric
https://www.CeliaandCedric.com
Ooooooh! I’ll probably eat the whole batch! Yummy!
haha yes it was a challenge not to!
I wonder this, too, about my best friend haha. We both love fruit so I’m just going with it as a compromise. 😉 These look SO good. Plus, I have a zucchini the size of an elephants… err…. trunk? HA.
LOLOLOL I was totally thinking trunk too….errrrrr 😉