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This oatmeal banana bread is a healthy twist on the classic quick bread! No flour and no refined sugar needed, it’s made with just 5 ingredients and uses just a blender!
Healthy Oatmeal Banana Bread
When it comes to healthy recipes using oats, my favorites to make are pancakes, muffins, and this oatmeal banana bread.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been making significantly healthier choices. I’ve noticed over the past couple of months that my energy levels have been fluctuating considerably each day. When analyzing my food intake, I’ve noticed that my intake of refined sugars and flour had been higher than normal.
I tend to have a very clean and balanced diet. My breakfasts are often a smoothie or overnight oats, and both my lunches and dinners always contain some form of vegetables (unless I’m enjoying some lasagna). As a snacker, I always have either some homemade protein bars on hand or some energy balls. However, with all the baking I’ve been doing recently, I’ve found myself switching my usual breakfasts for something of the sweeter variety.
My usual breakfasts had been replaced with either some banana bread or zucchini bread. Both wholesome and healthy in my books but upon closer inspection, considerably more wheat and sugar than I’d typically have. No wonder I’d been suffering from mid-morning crashes. As a way to rectify this, I’ve made some smart swaps, and recently, been loving this super healthy banana bread.
I’ve been meaning to share this healthy oatmeal banana bread recipe for quite some time. It uses wholesome and healthy ingredients and uses just 5 ingredients. No refined sugar and no flour needed, but you’d never tell. The texture is dense, slightly moist, and with a tender crumb. It’s naturally sweet but not too sweet, making it perfect for a healthy dessert or even for breakfast.
While this bread isn’t like your traditional moist and fluffy banana bread, it’s hearty and sweet enough to satisfy your baked good cravings, minus the sugar crash!
How do you make oatmeal banana bread?
The Ingredients
- Rolled oats– Either original rolled oats or gluten free oats.
- Banana– Overripe bananas are best, as they blend much easier and have a sweeter flavor.
- Maple syrup– Adds sweetness to the bread, and also gives it some moisture. You can also use honey or agave nectar.
- Eggs– Room temperature eggs.
- Baking soda- Gives the bread some rise and fluffiness.
- Chocolate chips– optional, but highly recommended.
The Instructions
In a high speed blender or food processor, add all your ingredients and blend until a smooth and pourable batter remains. If your batter is too thick, you can add some almond or oat milk to loosen it. Next, fold through your chocolate chips, if using them.
Now, transfer into a greased loaf pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out mostly clean. Let the bread cool in the pan completely, before slicing it up.
Tips to make the best 5 ingredient banana bread
- Do not overbake the bread. As this recipe uses oatmeal instead of flour, it is prone to drying out very easily.
- While milk isn’t included in the ingredient list, you may need to add some of it if your batter is too thick (this is due to not using enough banana). Alternatively, you can add an extra banana or two.
- This bread is not overly sweet, relying on the banana and maple syrup for sweetness. If you’d like a sweeter bread, add 1/4 cup of your favorite granulated sweetener or sugar.
Storing and freezing healthy banana oat bread
- To store: Oatmeal banana bread should always be stored in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 1 week.
- To freeze: Place slices of the bread in a ziplock bag and store them in the freezer for up to 6 months.
More healthy recipes to try
Healthy Oatmeal Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats gluten free, if needed
- 4 large bananas approximately 1 1/2 cups banana
- 2 large eggs
- 6 tablespoon maple syrup can use honey or agave nectar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup chocolate chips optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.
- In a high speed blender or food processor, add all your ingredients and blend until a smooth batter remains. Fold through the chocolate chips, if using them.
- Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan. Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out mostly clean.
- Remove the bread from the oven and let cool completely, before slicing.
This is surprisingly good. Normally, baked goods made with oat flour turn out stodgy for me. I followed a commenter’s advice and threw in some extra whole oats for texture, and I think it helped. Plus, I baked it for the max time. This one is a keeper.
Love this healthy oatmeal banana bread recipe. I usually blend my oats down first.
I never leave comments but this recipe is truly on point! You can even do less syrup/honey because the bananas act as sweeteners already.
I’m going to try it but will be adding pecans on top instead of chocolate chips…thank you I a new to your page
This is my 3rd attempt as I can’t read properly and left out the baking soda first time. 2nd time I blended the chocolate chip. 🤣my 3rd attempt everything gone according to plan. It tastes amazing.
Nutrition info says 130kcal/slice. How many slices per loaf? Please and thank you!
Says 12 under the title of recipe
Man, this was good. I didn’t read the instructions and didn’t use a blender at all. Just mashed the bananas with a fork, mixed the wet ingredients together then added them to the dry ingredients. Also added a little vanilla and some salt. Next time I will omit the syrup altogether, I think the bananas and chocolate make it sweet enough! I love the texture of the oats without them being blended.
Man, this was good. I didn’t read the instructions and didn’t use a blender at all. Just mashed the bananas with a fork, mixed the wet ingredients together then added them to the dry ingredients. Also added a little vanilla and some salt. Next time I will omit the syrup altogether, I think the bananas and chocolate make it sweet enough! I love the texture of the oats without them being blended.
I absolutely adore this loaf. I added sultanas
and some nuts. I make it twice a week!
I was surprised how easy this was to make and how good it was. I like the idea of the blender as it makes it easy to pour into the loaf pan. A cup of chocolate chips was a bit much, but that’s just me. I may add blueberries next time. Thanks for such an easy and deliciousrecipe.
The recipe is so easy to follow! loved the cake so much !
Love this recipe. I made a double batch by using 8 bananas, 4 eggs, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 5 tablespoons of honey and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon vanilla paste, chocolate chips, and 5 cups of Oats. Baked it a in 6 space mini loaf pan and 12 individual squares brownie pan. These came out perfectly after 35 minutes.
Delicious! I make with blueberries instead of chocolate chips. It’s a weekly thing now. Thanks so much for this simple and delicious recipe!
A straightforward, simple, stress-free recipe. I added some vanilla essence and chopped walnuts. It was yum.
Really easy to make it looked beautiful it came out beautiful but I wasn’t able to taste it cuz I gave it away as a gift. I’ll make another one and I’ll put another comment
Made this today. Taste was great. Next time, I will use less chocolate chips and only 3 large bananas. I ended up baking it for 20 extra minutes. It was raw in the center at 40 minutes.
Easy and delicious!
Iam going to try it now.