These no bake oatmeal bars are thick, soft, chewy, and made with just 3 ingredients! Ready in just 5 minutes, they are a healthy and delicious snack that is easily customizable!
No Bake Oatmeal Bars
When it comes to healthy snacks, my favorite recipes to make are granola cups, granola bars, and these no bake oatmeal bars.
Growing up, I was considered to be quite the snack monster. My mom would always have to pack extra snacks in my lunch box, just to make sure my raging appetite could be satisfied. Being a doting parent, the snacks she’d pack would always be healthy, and often be fruit, crackers, or oat based bars.
It’s funny, as, throughout school and high school, I was NEVER a fan of packaged oat bars. My mum would always pack them for me and 9 times out of 10, they’d still be in my lunch box when I got home. It wasn’t until I started high school that I began to appreciate them as a filling and healthy snack. Now that I’m considerably older, snacking is still on my agenda, although this time, I make them myself. While I typically have a protein bar or a fat bomb, I’ve recently loved making no bake oatmeal bars!
I’ve been meaning to share a no bake oatmeal bar recipe for quite some time. They’ve been my go-to snack lately, and keep me energized between meals! I love how it needs just 3 ingredients to make. No refined sugar and no dairy are needed, but you’d never tell. The texture is thick, soft, and chewy, and stable at room temperature. They are pleasantly sweet and full of peanut butter flavor, without being overpowering.
With my work schedule often being away from home for most of the day, these have been an even bigger life saver, and I’ve included making some as part of my weekly meal prep.
How do you make no bake oatmeal bars?
The Ingredients
- Rolled Oats– I used gluten-free oats, to ensure that they are gluten-free. You can use quick-cooking oats (instant oats) or oat bran, but I find those both lack the texture we want.
- Peanut Butter– Smooth and creamy peanut butter, with no added sugar.
- Maple Syrup– Gives the oatmeal bars sweetness, but holds them all together.
The Instructions
Start by microwaving your peanut butter and maple syrup together, until combined. Next, add in your oats and mix until a thick batter remains. Transfer into a lined 8 x 8-inch pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, to firm up.
Tips to make the best oatmeal bars
- Melt your peanut butter and syrup together, before adding it to the oats. Melting them together ensures a smooth, warm, and thin texture, making it easier to mix into bars. Once the bars have been refrigerated, they will be incredibly thick and sturdy!
- Feel free to substitute the peanut butter for either almond butter or tahini.
- For some added textures and flavors, add some nuts, seeds, or chocolate chips.
Storing and Freezing peanut butter oatmeal bars
- To store: Place leftover bars in a sealable container and keep them in the fridge at all times. They will remain fresh for at least 2 weeks.
- To freeze: Chill your bars and then freeze them, by placing them in a ziplock bag. They will keep well frozen for up to 6 months.
More healthy snack recipes to try
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Energy Balls
- No Bake Oatmeal Cookies
- Puppy Chow
- Protein Energy Balls
- No Bake Cereal Bars
3 Ingredient No Bake Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
- 3 cups rolled oats gluten-free, if necessary
- 1 cup peanut butter * See notes
- 1/2 cup maple syrup ** See notes
Instructions
- Line an 8 x 8-inch pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a microwave safe bowl or stovetop, melt the peanut butter with syrup until combined. Add the oats and mix well, until fully incorporated.
- Transfer the mixture into the lined pan and press into it firmly. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, to firm up, before slicing into bars.
Notes
Nutrition
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No allergies for me, however I actually do love sun butter! Love how simple yet tasty this recipe is, perfect for anyone :)!
Thanks so much, Niki 🙂
It seriously scares me how prevalent food allergies are in schools these days! I worked at a day care for over a year and seriously would go around pouring 10 different kinds of nut milks, soy milk, 2% etc. then go down the line of who is gluten free, who is pork free, who has to be put on a lockdown from nuts (can you imagine if i was allergic to nuts =l) It also frightens me that people think it could be the GMOs/artificial things that are leading to allergies and disorders like autism and AHHH WHAT IS THE WORLD..
but before it gets too eternally depressing, let me just say how much i love sunflower butter, even though it is a heinous color of poopy brown. These look delicious though, even if i am “green” with envy 😉
WHAT? that is insane how things have changed! I swear life was so much less complicated as a kid.
It’s ‘funny’ how almost all bloggers overseas seem to know the banning of certain foods for allergy reasons. That was never an issue around here. Nonetheless, I’m sure the simplicity and low cost of these bars has the potential of convincing many parents to prepare their own bars instead of going for sugar-laden storebought ones.
Things change in society and lifestyle influences have this impact. My friend in Hamburg says there are allergy issues at her workplace 🙂
I always have these ingredients on hand so it would def be so easy to make these in my college apartment! I agree that food allergies have grown a big deal in the last decade, in elementary school my bff was allergic to peanuts and there was a serrate lunch table for those kids who were allergic to peanuts, now there are so many more allergies wheat, dairy, eggs and things you would never think people would be allergic too!
Oh wow- I have heard about the separate lunch table shenanigans. I swear with all these new foods, more allergies become prevalent!
You’ve got some serious geometry skills, as in those bars are so perfectly shaped! And the look delicious.
Thanks so much, Jess!
Lots of allergies! Which is why I love that schools are actually making cafeterias safe for kids with them. These bars look amazing– sun butter is my fav!
That’s so true, Michelle- Thanks so much- It’s so good…especially salty 😉
Sunbutter is SUPER tasty. I don’t really buy it though, cause I don’t have much of a budget for it. However, next time I do I will try this. YAYAYAY!!!!
I make my own, Emily- It’s way more cost effective 🙂
Agreed! Make your own. That way you can also flavor it however you’d like… add cinnamon, yum!
YES! Cinnamon would be a great addition!
OH MY GOD IS THE SUNFLOWER BUTTER?!?! The last recipe I made were sunflower butter chickpea blondies…and they turned GREEN in the oven! I thought it was the imitation vanilla I used X-) Why does it do that?! I need to research this! Thanks Arman!
Yes!!!!!!
Hey, question. Why do ALL your recipes ALWAYS look kick ass?!?!?! 😉
You’re a gem 🙂
Thanks for this simple recipe Arman!
Your so welcome, Joanne! 🙂
Hey these are perfect for me!
You betcha!
I was surrounded by so much peanut butter at school, that it’s kind of a miracle I made it through without dying. Could you imagine how horrible that would be? A world without The Spoon? 😛
It would be a calamity!
Hey Arman,
I love that you use sunflower seed butter in this recipe! What a great idea and what a nice addition of flavor.
Linda
Thanks so much, Linda- If only they didn’t give the green tinge!