I recently invented these for a cooking class I taught and as something to eat for breakfast on a recent road trip we were taking. I always pack food with us when we travel. There’s virtually never anything healthy on the way, and you never know what kind of food options there might be if you’re going to an event (which we were). Taking along easy things like these pumpkin bars, or my craisinut granola bars help you to get along without eating junk. Pack a water filter (I always bring our Brita on road trips), some apples, nuts, and you should be good to go in the event you get hungry and there are no good choices. Hummus and veggies are also great choices to keep in the hotel room fridge!
Why breakfast bars? Sometimes we just get sick of regular oatmeal for breakfast, right?! These pumpkin cranberry breakfast bars are the perfect start to any day, a healthy snack, or dessert! There’s also no reason to save pumpkin recipes for the fall! Pumpkin can be enjoyed throughout the fall and winter, as it’s a great storage crop. It’s loaded with Vitamin A, an anti-oxidant that helps regulate blood pressure, and improve bone, dental, eye, skin, and nail health. Oats are also a great addition to your diet, as they are a good source of fiber, healthy fats, and protein. Cranberries are just beautiful, as well as providing immune boosting Vitamin C and a nice tangy flavor to compliment the sweetness of the dates. The sweetener in this recipe is from whole dates. Dates are a great alternative to sugar, as they are a whole food sweetener. Being whole, they have had nothing stripped away from them, and contain fiber, magnesium, and are rich sources of iron and potassium. Take that white sugar!
Have you found other recipes for breakfast bars? Often they have a lot of sugar and fat in them (just like muftis recipes). You can easily transform other recipes into healthy, plant-based and oil free versions by using my plant-based swap outs below:
Plant-based Baking Swap Outs
When transitioning to plant-based baked goods, it’s important to learn how to swap out your common baking ingredients. Use the following to help you transform your old recipes to heart healthy versions:
- Egg Substitute: Eggs are used in recipes to provide protein and fat, and to act as a binding agent to hold a recipe together. Here, ground flaxseed takes the part. Alternatively you can use ground chia seed, or 1/4 cup of silken tofu, 1/4 cup of chilled chickpea liquid (all the rage, it’s called Aquafaba), 1/4 cup of mashed bananas, or 1/4 cup of apple sauce. I feel that these last two substitutions are actually better for swapping out oil in a recipe, especially the apple sauce.
- Oil/butter replacement: Oils are very calorically dense, while providing no other form of nutrition. To swap out oils and butters in recipes try subbing nut butter, tahini paste, or apple sauce, as we are doing in this recipe.
- Milk substitute: This is one place there market has really exploded in! Try almond, cashew, hemp, soy, or oat milk to sub any recipe calling for milk. If a creamy texture is desired, you can use light coconut milk (although this is one of the few plant-based foods high in saturated fat) or other plant-based plain yogurt.
The recipe for pumpkin cranberry breakfast bars is easily doubled, and frozen into serving sizes. This and all baked good freeze well, and thaw quickly! If you’re looking for a bread/muffin version using similar ingredients, check out my pumpkin cranberry bread!
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup oat flour (place oats in a blender, and puree until fine)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (I always heap mine)
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg (I always heap mine)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup almond butter or apple sauce*
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup packed dates, about 10, soaked in hot water and de-pitted
- 3/4 cup canned pumpkin or freshly baked and strained pie pumpkin
- 1 1/4 cup almond/plant-based milk
- 2 flax “eggs”-make 10 minutes before assembling, 2 tbsp ground flax+6 tbsp water=2 “eggs”
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cranberries (we used slightly thawed/frozen), plus a few tbsp for top
- 2 tbsp of cacao nibs or plant-based chocolate chips for topping (or more)
*Alternative to almond butter or to make this nut free: Other nut butter or tahini paste (nut free) can also be used. I made this both with almond butter and one with apple sauce, and found the only difference was that the pan made with apple sauce took about 5-10 minutes longer to bake.
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350, and line an 8×8 or 9×9 pan with parchment paper
- Make flax eggs-and let sit for 5-10 minutes
- Place dry ingredients (first 6) into a bowl and set aside
- In a blender, like a Vitamix, place almond butter or apple sauce (whichever using), vanilla, soaked and drained dates, pumpkin, milk, and flax eggs. Puree until smooth
- Pour liquid in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in, until smooth
- Fold in cranberries, and pour into pan. Sprinkle top with additional cranberries and cacao nibs or chocolate chips (chocolate chips will add sweetness to the dish)
- Bake for about 40-50 minutes, until knife inserted comes out clean (if making with apple sauce in place of almond butter, cooking took 5 minutes longer)
- Let cool, pull out of pan, and then slice. Store in fridge
- Serve for breakfast, as a quick healthy snack, or as a healthy Halloween/fall treat! Bars can be frozen. Can re-heat and drizzle with a little maple syrup if desired.
Nutritional Benefits:
- Great source of fiber-helps to regulate blood sugar, digestive health, creates feelings of satiety
- Oats-great for blood sugar regulation and heart health
- Pumpkin-good source of Vitamin A, an antioxidant for regulating blood pressure, bone, dental, eye, skin, and hair health
- Cranberries contain Vitamin C-antioxidant that boosts immune function
- Dates-whole food sweetener that has fiber in tact, helps to prevent blood sugar spikes, rich source of magnesium
- 1½ cups rolled oats
- ½ cup oat flour (place oats in a blender, and puree until fine)
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 1½ tsp cinnamon (I always heap mine)
- ½ tsp nutmeg (I always heap mine)
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ cup almond butter or apple sauce*
- ½ tsp vanilla
- ¾ cup packed dates, about 10, soaked in hot water and de-pitted
- ¾ cup canned pumpkin or freshly baked and strained pie pumpkin
- 1¼ cup almond/plant-based milk
- 2 flax "eggs"-make 10 minutes before assembling, 2 tbsp ground flax+6 tbsp water=2 "eggs"
- ½ cup chopped fresh cranberries (we used slightly thawed/frozen), plus a few tbsp for top
- 2 tbsp of cacao nibs or plant-based chocolate chips for topping (or more)
- *Alternative to almond butter or to make this nut free: Other nut butter or tahini paste (nut free) can also be used. I made this both with almond butter and one with apple sauce, and found the only difference was that the pan made with apple sauce took about 5-10 minutes longer to bake.
- Preheat oven to 350, and line an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with parchment paper
- Make flax eggs-and let sit for 5-10 minutes
- Place dry ingredients (first 6) into a bowl and set aside
- In a blender, like a Vitamix, place almond butter or apple sauce (whichever using), vanilla, soaked and drained dates, pumpkin, milk, and flax eggs. Puree until smooth
- Pour liquid in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in, until smooth
- Fold in cranberries, and pour into pan. Sprinkle top with additional cranberries and cacao nibs or chocolate chips (chocolate chips will add sweetness to the dish)
- Bake for about 40-50 minutes, until knife inserted comes out clean (if making with apple sauce in place of almond butter, cooking took 5 minutes longer)
- Let cool, pull out of pan, and then slice. Store in fridge
- Serve for breakfast, as a quick healthy snack, or as a healthy Halloween/fall treat! Bars can be frozen. Can re-heat and drizzle with a little maple syrup if desired.
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