Breakfast is the most often skipped meal of the day, but it is important to your health to start the day with a healthy breakfast. Eating breakfast helps you concentrate better, boosts your metabolism and helps prevent unhealthy eating throughout the rest of the day. Breakfast bars from the grocery store can be expensive and full of extra sugar, so making your own bars at home is an easy solution that allows you to save money and decide exactly what you want in your breakfast bars.
Ingredients
To make your own breakfast bars you will need dry oatmeal, your choice of fruits (bananas, apples and berries work well), eggs, butter, flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. You can use fresh, frozen or dried fruit to make breakfast bars. Chop up the fruit into small chunks about the size of a raisin. If you use bananas, you will mash them up into the entire mixture rather than leaving small chunks. Other ingredients you might include are nuts, peanut butter, honey, bran, flax seed, chocolate chips, crushed cereal, granola, coffee grounds or cinnamon. Make the breakfast bars healthier by using honey or agave nectar instead of brown or granulated sugar or find a recipe that doesn't require butter.
Cookware
To make breakfast bars, you need a small- and medium-sized mixing bowl, a sturdy spoon or spatula, a greased cookie sheet or baking pan, measuring cups and spoons, wax paper and a tin or plastic container. Mix wet ingredients and use the cookie sheet if you want to bake the bars individually. Use the baking pan if you plan to bake the bars as one sheet and cut them, like brownies.
Baking
Spread the mixture evenly in the baking pan, or form small, 2-inch loaves with your hands if using a cookie sheet. Most breakfast bar recipes advise you to bake your bars at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 30 minutes depending on the thickness of the bars. The bars should appear slightly brown on the edges when they are done baking. Allow the mixture to cool completely before cutting into squares and storing. Place breakfast bars in a single layer at the bottom of your tin or plastic container, cover with wax paper and put another layer of bars on top. The wax paper prevents the bars from sticking to one another.
Tips
Grease your hands and spatula or spoon before handling the breakfast bar mix so that it does not stick to you or the utensils. If you prefer crisp bars rather than chewy bars, bake longer than directed. You will also want a recipe that calls for more dry goods instead of liquids and fruits. Visit Cooks.com for a long list of breakfast bar recipes to suit any needs.
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