Awesome Coconut Breakfast Bars

In an attempt to get my now VERY picky eater to eat breakfast I’ve found myself having to get creative in the kitchen. My little chipmunk who was once content eating goat milk yogurt sprinkled with cinnamon for breakfast has become very hard to please. Suddenly hard boiled eggs, yogurt, oatmeal and fruit are not good enough. Even our favorite standby of whole grain and flax waffles smeared with coconut oil have been shunned. Scrambled eggs are still a hit or miss but still tend to make it into her belly for the most part. As long as they’re scrambled in full fat milk, sprinkled with sea salt and cooked in butter, otherwise they’ll end up in the dogs bowls.

I’ve gotten tired of all the pumpkin in our Pumpkin protein brownies and pumpkin pie cake. I haven’t made whole wheat apple pancakes since the last few times I’ve bought organic apples at Cotsco they’ve been a little mushy and I wasn’t in the mood for the oatmeal ‘bread’ pudding  since we had it last week. I’ve been having a smoothie made with coconut oil, yogurt, green super food and fruit and I’m pretty certain Annabelle won’t approve of it for her own breakfast.

If you know me you probably know that I have a slight coconut oil obsession and that I buy it by the gallon (seriously). We use coconut oil for everything from diaper rash cream to baking. But my coconut obsession doesn’t end with oil. I’m also a huge fan of coconut milk, coconut cream, fresh coconut, coconut water and dehydrated, shredded coconut. It’s a health super food and full of healthy fats. And since I’m also obsessed with sneaking super foods into as many of Annabelle’s meals as possible it seemed like a great idea to find a coconut based breakfast. And as I’m writing this I’m making a mental note to add cacao nibs or goji berries to this recipe. And to make it with coconut flour instead too.

So I took recipe I found for banana chocolate chip bars and changed it to make it healthier and coco nuttier. It’s delicious. So delicious that I’m surprised it made it through the night. Good thing Too bad Andrew hates all things coconut because this recipe is a gem. Especially if you’re as coconut crazy as I am.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Generously grease a round cake pan with coconut oil
3. In a small bowl combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt
4. In a larger mixing bowl combine coconut oil, sugar, egg, mashed banana and vanilla until well blended.
5. Add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and the add the coconut
6. Spread the batter into the pan and bake for about 12-15 min.
7. If you can resist, let it cool before cutting it into bars (it’s also pretty delicious warm)

Notes for next time: This recipe was fabulous but I’m wondering if it can be made a little more fabulous. Some things I want to play with the next time I make this:

• Almond or coconut flour instead of whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup of sugar instead of 1/2
• add goji berries, cacao nibs or berries (fresh or frozen)

When you make this recipe let me know what you think. And let me know how it turns out if you make any of the changes, or any of your own! Variety is the spice of life and goodness knows I need some variety to get my little chipmunk to eat!!