Last weekend, I found myself at the Farmer’s Market ogling fresh blueberries.
Before I left, Eric said, “Don’t bring back more than you can eat,” with a wink. This was surely a challenge.
I left with 2 pounds of blueberries and the complete confidence that I would eat all of them. He obviously doesn’t realize that I’m capable of eating my own weight in pretty much any fruit or vegetable. Eric isn’t a big blueberry fan, so I knew that I was on my own for this match.
This week, I made Blueberry Banana Pie Vegan Overnight Oats (so amazing!)
Raw Buckwheat Breakfast Porridge with blueberries and cinnamon.
and now, Blueberry Almond Chia Squares!
And I think I’m starting to turn blue.
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Blueberry Almond Chia Squares
The ultimate gooey blueberry square packed with chia seeds, oats, and almonds! They make a great breakfast square as they are light, healthy, and oil-free thanks to the applesauce.
Note: Some of you commented saying that the bars crumbled. I didn’t have this problem, but changing up the ingredients or liquid sweetener may effect the results. Please allow to cool completely before cutting as that will help too. :)
Inspired by Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Granola Bars.
Yield: 12 squares
- 2 cups regular rolled oats
- 1 & 1/4 cup oat flour (process rolled oats until flour forms)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp chia seeds (ground flax probably works)
- 1/2 cup Sucanat (or brown sugar)
- 1 tbsp nut butter (I used almond butter)
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup brown rice syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1/3 cup chopped almonds
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a square pan (I used 8” x 8”) with two pieces of parchment paper (this is recommended as the blueberries explode!!)
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (rolled oats, oat flour, cinnamon, chia, salt, and Sucanat). In another small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (nut butter, applesauce, brown rice syrup, extracts). Add wet to dry and stir well until throughly combined.
3. Fold in the blueberries and almonds and pour into pan. Spread batter with wet hands and press firmly so it packs together. This will help them stick together.
4. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350F. Allow to cool completely before cutting. Makes 12 squares or however many you want!
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As you can see, the blueberries got all gooey and delicious while baking! They are a soft square with a nice chewy texture laced with gooey blueberry ‘jam’. We really enjoyed these and I quickly froze them for my nephews next week.
And I’m seriously craving one after typing up this post! Are blueberry squares good frozen? haha…jk!
aaaaaaand…because it’s Friday and we all like to fool off a bit, I thought I would share a few websites that I’m loving lately!
1) Pinterest
“Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.”
If you haven’t signed up for an account yet, you definitely should! You can check out my boards here: http://pinterest.com/ohsheglows/ (especially the animal one!!) I created a board for food, travel, photography, fashion, animal, and home décor inspiration. Ahhhh it’s just addictive for the creative mind.
[Mom you would love this!!!]
2) Kickstarter
When Eric showed me this website last week, I was absolutely blown away! Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. People from all over the world submit their unique project and business ideas and then ‘fundraise’ to pledgers. Some Kickstarters have raised over $100,000 in funding for their business ideas! The cool thing about it is that the pitchers still retain 100% ownership of their business.
3) Non-GMO Shopping Guide
Your guide to buying non-genetically modified products! Amazing, informative website to help you avoid the companies that use GMO’s and support the ones who don’t.
What websites are you loving lately?
Just wow, these bars look fabulous! And perfect to pack for a hike, yum. Thanks for the links, I’m loving Instagram, photography, straightening my hair, and running lately.
I’m addicted to blueberries, so this recipe is right up my alley! I always add too many blueberries to muffins, but you can totally overload this recipe!
Websites…
For my brain: www.Ted.com
For my body: www.myyogaonline.com
For photographic inspiration: http://500px.com/
Haha I totally get what you mean by being able to eat your weight in blueberries. They’re sooo good.
I went blueberry picking last week, and came home with 2 gallons of them. I didn’t know what we’d do with them, but we’ve been eating them by the handful… I need to make some of these bars before our berries disappear!
haha your post reminded me of that song… “I’m blue dabadedabida” The bars look great!
YES YES YES – these squares have all of my fav ingredients like chia, coconut oil and almonds! And thank you so much for sharing those websites. Pinterest is so rad! I had no idea it existed. Happy Friday!!
xo
oh i’m going to make these for my g’parents except w/ bananas!
Absolutely delicious! I think my ‘cut into 12’ became ‘eat whole’ soon after I sampled… Thank you Angela! :)
Glad you enjoyed them!
Angela, do you sell these? I want to try your Glo Bars but they are never in stock.
Kelly
Yay I’m so excited that it’s finally blueberry season! This summer I’ve been relying on my job at the farm to score free berries… but we don’t grow blueberries at Hutchinson farm. I’ll have to get my coworkers to pick up a few pints for me from another vendor when they go to market tomorrow. :D
These bars look amazing. I love the tastes of cooked, gooey blueberries!
I’ve posted your stuff on pinterest before! :D And these look out of this world….
That’s so funny Angela — my friend made a delicious blueberry oatmeal square last week and our kids loved it (which we were thrilled about because it has 3 cups of oats in it!) I found the recipe on-line (it was from “C is for Cooking”, a Sesame Street Cookbook) and made them this morning. While I was making them with white flour and white sugar, I was thinking to myself, ‘I bet these would be just as delicious if they were made with healthier ingredients.’ I thought to myself that Angela from Oh She Glows would be able to work her magic with this recipe and make it much healthier. I even considered e-mailing you the recipe to see if you had time to tweek it. So imagine my surprise when I read your blog tonight! Thanks! I can’t wait to try the recipe! Keep on glowin’!
I can’t wait till I get my chai seeds in!
Have you ever tried the plain, chai soaked in water/milk for a pudding of sorts?
I wouldn’t mind turning blue if it meant eating wonderful food like this!
These look so healthy! Great recipe :)
I don’t think you can ever have too many berries :) And those squares look like a fantastic way to use them up. Yum!
With the exchange rate being quite good in Australia at the moment, international shopping sites with free postage are proving quite attractive :P
Those blueberry squares look awesome. Going to try tomorrow, but with frozen berries as it’s winter here.
Some websites I’m loving are :
www.eatwellnz.com for healthy eating inspiration,
pinterest.com for making online inspiration boards and
mapmyrun.com for keeping track of my runs
these also remind me of your strawberry oat bars! *drool* one of my favefave recipes! I know this one is going to be another fave for sure :) I am loving popsicles and ice cream right now in all this HEAT!
Would there be any other flours that would work besides oat flour? I am going to the store today to try and make these bars… yummy!
Spelt worked perfectly for me!
This made me laugh because I drag my husband to the farmers market every sunday and each time he tries to warn me against buying more than we can eat. I never buy too much especially when it comes to berries!
These look awesome Angela. I think I will have to make them this week :)
I made these and and they came out a crumbly mess :( Taste good. Not realy sure what I will do with it. Sprinkle it on iced cream or fruit. I really did follow the directions. :(
Hi Radha,
I tired these as well and my batch also crumbled apart. I read that rice syrup holds granola together better than the honey/agave mix I used. But, it does taste good in milk for breakfast…
Sorry yours turned out crumbly! I’m not sure why that would have happened as mine weren’t crumbly at all. Did you use a different sweetener? Also they need to be cooled completely before cutting (probably 45 mins)
Hi Angela,
I just wanted to tell you thank you for all of the wonderful support you’ve given me, without even knowing it the past year of my life. Against all odds and other’s opinions about living an alternative diet lifestyle, I’ve read your posts about your story, your struggles, and been able to identify many of my own, and still pursue my passion for blogging. THANK YOU. Great recipe by the way!!
Thank you heather!
I made this last night – so delicious! They’re very crumbly though. The friends I shared it with enjoyed it as well. Thank you!
I. Love. Blueberries. <3
These are amazing! I got some organic blueberries (rare find here) and made them yesterday. My husband loves them!
I made the chia blueberry bars and they are delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I’m hoping to get into the habit of making these sorts of things rather then buying granola bars. Thanks again for the inspiration.
Mine turned out PERFECT :) I added mango to the blueberries, and it’s just scrumptious! Thanks, Angela!
these may be the best things i’ve ever eaten – thanks so much for sharing!!
Just made these with fresh BC Cherries as a sub. Wowzers. Awesomazing. I subbed spelt for oat flour, a little less agave for Brown Rice syrup, and pitted and sliced cherries for blueberries and they held together perfectly. For dessert. And then breakfast. Likely breakfast-ssert. Yum.
Hi Angela,
I have Hemp seeds at home, would it works as a sub for the Chia seeds?
Thanks!
Angela, I made these bars today and for some reason they didn’t hold together. I made one change which was to sub the oat flour with Buckwheat flour. Do you think that could be the reason? Otherwise I checked and double checked that I followed the directions and I just can’t figure it out. Fortunately I think it will make great granola :) Thanks for the recipe!
I made these bars last night and what a delicious treat for breakfast this morning! But it looks like I’m running into the same problem as a few others who have commented here – many of the bars are a crumbly mess! Any suggestions Angela to make them hold together better?
I wanted to add – even when I was putting the “batter” into the pan I had my doubts that it was going to hold together well as the batter was very dry and bally. I looked like I was missing something – something to make it more moist – but I double checked the recipe and I was following it to a tee!
Hello! I just love your website, thanks for posting all these yummy recipes! I just wanted to let others know that I’ve used gluten free oats and flour and agave instead of some of the above ingredients and it works great too. Also since it’s not always blueberry season, we freeze blueberries when they’re in season and use the frozen ones folded in. They fold in easily and just add an extra five min cook time. Thanks again for a great blog!
This is the bomb! My friends and I get together a few times a month to cook for the week ahead and try to do new stuff every time….but I think this one will be a repeat!
Aw thank you that makes me happy!!
I made these and just changed a few things because I had to go with what I had on hand and was too lazy to go to the grocery store. They still turned out awesome!! I want to try them again by the original recipe though.
Substituted oat flour for all purpose
Used frozen mixed berries instead of blueberries
Substituted maple syrup for rice syrup
Substituted apple butter for nut butter
Substituted pecans for almonds
Aand I threw in some shredded coconut just because I like it.
Delish!
These are so delish! Just made a batch. Used frozen mixed berries and agave. Didnt have any trouble with crumbling!
This is a great recipe. I found the batter a little dry, so I added one mashed banana and it worked great. I also used strawberries instead of blueberries b/c that’s what I had on hand – delicious. The almond extract really works.
I just made these and they were delicious!!!
These are yummy but a little dense? I will try a tsp. of baking powder maybe next time. It seems very similar to your other recipe (which I LOVE) of oatmeal squares.Thanks again! LOVE your site.
Just tried a slice fresh out of the pan — these are wonderful! I did make the following modifications, mainly to use what I had on hand: instead of sucanat/brown sugar, I diced up a handful of dates; instead of applesauce and in the hopes of the bars sticking together well, I used one and a half very ripe bananas; maple syrup in the place of rice syrup; and I replaced the chia seeds with ground flax. Also added a tsp of baking powder based on a previous review. Hearty, sweet like I was looking for. These will be great on-the-go energy boosts. Thanks Angela, I love the way cook!