Oats and sweet potato come together to make these delicious and healthy snack bars! Make a batch at the beginning of the week and grab one for breakfast or a mid-day snack. They’re low in sugar and oil-free!
This is the kind of recipe you’ll want to make at the beginning of every week for fast breakfasts, snacks, and maybe even dessert.
My goal with these bars was to limit sugar and fat as much as possible. As you know, I don’t tolerate sugar well, so these are perfect for me.
They’re soft and chewy, and full of nutrition.
I really love the combination of flavors in this recipe, and the bars hold together well for packing and eating.
Ingredients and substitutions
- Quick oats – These work best, but rolled oats will work if that’s all you have.
- Cinnamon, allspice
- Sea salt
- Sweet potato – I just steam a whole potato until soft, mash what I need, and use it. If you have any leftover, you can use it in my Sweet Potato Brownies.
- Peanut butter – Almond or cashew butters would both work too. I’ve even used two tablespoons of milk as a substitution, though I like the addition of protein.
- Honey or maple syrup – Honey makes them a tad sweeter.
- Milk – Any kind
- Dried apricots – You can really use any dried fruit you like.
- Raw pumpkin seeds – Any raw nut or seed will do! I also enjoy walnuts.
Recipe steps
In a large bowl, mix the oats, spices, and salt. Separately, mix the sweet potato, peanut butter, maple syrup, milk, and your choice of add-ins.
Mix everything together in one bowl, and allow the batter to soak for about 10 minutes.
Press the dough into an oiled and lined 8 x 8-inch baking dish.
Bake until golden, about 25-30 minutes.
Recipe notes
If you’d like to top these, I often mix up a bit of Greek yogurt and maple syrup and spread it on. My peanut butter frosting would also be delicious!
Sweet Potato Snack Bars
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups quick oats
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup well-mashed sweet potato
- 2 Tablespoons peanut butter
- 2 Tablespoons honey or maple syrup
- ½ cup milk of your choice
- ¼ cup dried apricots
- ¼ cup raw pumpkin seeds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl (oats, spices, salt).
- Mix the wet ingredients together in a second bowl (sweet potato, peanut butter, sweetener, milk).
- Mix everything together, including the apricots and pumpkin seeds.
- Allow the batter to soak for about 10 minutes.
- Oil and then line an 8 x 8 baking dish with parchment paper (be sure to do this or they will stick!).
- Press the batter evenly into the dish.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden on top and slightly firm to the touch.
- Cool and cut (I make eight large bars or 16 mini ones).
Notes
Nutrition
If you have a chance to try this recipe, please leave a star rating and a comment below letting me know how you liked it!
Do you think I could add someraw vanilla protein powder to these to up the protein? Trying to find a good recipe for protein bars so I can get my husband off those chemical filled store bought ones.
Hi Cheryl,
I think you could…maybe just use it in lieu of the oats? (Remove 1/4 cup of oats and add in 1/4 cup of powder). I hope it works out! 🙂
I used to think I was a pumpkin puree only girl until I tried sweet potatoes. Now I like them raw, roasted, pureed, you name it! These little bars look SO good -> passed the chew and flavor test with flying colors, I’m sure! The glaze is so pretty, too! 🙂
Raw???!! I’ve never tried them raw before, but then I think they may be like carrots? I’ll have to give it a whirl. 🙂
These sound really nice! My husband is usually my only taste tester too. He says “Don’t change it”, and I usually do 😀
HAHAHA! Your comment cracked me up Marianne! 😀
Hahah I LOVE your description of your man! My Kyle is pretty similar with the whole I AM MAN. HEAR ME ROAR deal, but he’s also a huge softy and gentleman. Glad we both have such great guys!
Your husband seems like a lucky guy to have food just shoveled into his mouth ;). I bet there’s no complaints from him!
This looks absolutely delicious and I love all the flavor combos you used! Gorgeous photography as well, lady! I love getting photography inspiration from other bloggers 🙂
Hahaha, you and Kyle look like you have a great relationship. It reminds me a bit of us in that we pretty much do everything together!
Thanks for the photog props. I’m still learning too, so it’s fun to be in the same boat. 🙂
These look so good! My kids would love them and I would love that they are packed with so many good things!
Thanks Kayley! My youngest daughter loved them! 🙂
These look fabulous! Just what I need, another granola bar recipe! I was going to make peanut butter granola bars this weekend for my son’s lunches, but I might need to make these for myself instead! I wanted to point out that I don’t think you need to mix the wet and dry separately since there’s no chemical reaction going on (usually baking soda/baking powder plus something like buttermilk or other acid).
I just recently discovered your blog and passed it along to my friend who is gluten-free and dairy-free and is leaning towards raw food items. It totally seems like something she’d really like. Plus your photos are great and everything looks so delicious! I like that you use very little sweetener, I tend to prefer not-too-sweet desserts and treats.
Thanks so much Jessica! 🙂
I agree Laure, I want (and pretend) my GF to smell better, dress nicer, or have less body hair than myself! 😉
And I would also like her to be able to make me some of those bars, but I’m the one who cooks…so I need to make them myself!
Haha! Sometimes I wish my husband did the cooking every once in a while, but then I wonder if we’d become competitive or something. Your girlfriend is a lucky lady! 🙂
Lauren,
I just wanted to send you a quick note telling you how much I appreciate your recipes and blog. It’s one of the few that I check out on a regular basis and am always impressed with your creativity and clean recipes. They often inspire me when working with clients and trying to help them with food sensitivities, etc. – so thank you!
I really appreciate what you do!
Warmly,
Audra @ http://www.nourishmindandbody.com
Thank you so much Audra! You have no idea how much your comment means to me. I’m so happy to be writing this blog, and it makes it that much better when someone else enjoys it. Thank you again!! xo
This looks so good! I never thought of using sweet potato in a bar but it seems like a wonderful idea 🙂
Hi Lauren,
Finally back to some blogging here (slowly). Going through my emails and check out what my friends have been up to.
These bars look amazing. My husband would devour these. He eats oatmeal very morning (with applesauce..that’s it!). And I am sure he would love these for a snack or with his lunch. Not to mention my kiddos would eat these up too. Love the use of sweet potato! Great recipe.
And my husband (Scott) is a very quiet, laid back, homebody type…and I’m a party girl, outgoing, and love to go socialize. We are 15 years strong and I can’t imagine anyone else as my partner. I love him more and more each day. He’s a very gentle person, not a big loud person, and he is VERY sensitive. He cried when we watched the season finale of How I Met Your Mother, so there you go (but who didn’t cry…so good)!! When it comes to the kids, his heart is made of marshmallows. We truly do balance each other out perfectly. AND, just like your husband, Scott will eat ANYTHING I make. He’s also good at testing my recipes, although when it comes to sweets…nothing is *sweet* enough OR has enough chocolate. He’s hopeless in that category. Ha ha.
Hope you’re well lovely lady.
Hugs,
–Am
That’s awesome girl. I’m happy you’re back at it. Your treats on Ricki’s blog looked absolutely delicious!
I totally would not have pegged you as a party girl, but it’s awesome you and Scott balance each other out. 🙂 It’s great to hear from you!!
OMG I must make these this weekend!! My boyfriend is also very much a man’s man, complete with a rugged beard. He is definitely no vegetarian but practices clean eating and tries to stick with very low (or no) sugar. We are also both gluten intolerant. Given that he’s a stereotypical ‘man,’ guess who does all the cooking! Before going gluten free and cutting out most sugar, baking sweet treats was my thing. I’m delighted to find your blog with so many yummy looking recipes! Can’t wait to try these 🙂
Lol, your bf sounds a lot like my husband! Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys find some recipes that you enjoy here. 🙂
I always have leftover sweet potatoes in my fridge, so these look like my kind of treat! I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never tried coconut butter but it looks like icing, so I think I want to buy some hehe. And my sister said she is my “official” taste tester. Other than that, it’s whoever comes around -friends, neighbours, family, my dog 🙂 They all work well as taste-testers and they’re free! And me, of course, I’m a taste-tester too.
Lauren,
Thanks for sharing this very intriguing recipe. I love everything coconut and gluten free. The Sweet potato thing, that’s the first time I even heard putting it in a bar. But it sounds delicious and I’ll make sure to try it out.
Daniel
Hi Lauren!
That looks like a fab recipe and can’t wait to try it out this weekend! One question though, I don’t tolerate well any dried fruit because I have IBS and I follow a special diet for it (FODMAP). Do you think it would work if I substitute for a little bit of mashed banana, or just skip the dried fruit altogether?
Thanks!!
Hi Alejandra,
I would just skip it altogether, or add in more nuts or seeds of your choice. I hope you enjoy the recipe! xo
YUM! I had never thought about using sweet potato in granola bars… I’ll have to try… plus coconut butter? Unreal!
One more thing… Should these be kept in the fridge or can they be left out in a ziplock?
Refrigerating them would keep them the most fresh (because of the milk, in particular). 🙂
Wow, these look great! Perfect for my hubby to take to work. 🙂
These look so yummy! I’ve never tried making sweet potato bars. Great idea!
Ha ha, I LOVE your description of your man! It’s too often that modern women want to be the manly ones in their relationships. Seeing my big hairy strong husband carry heavy things for me makes me melt, ha ha!
Oh, and the recipe looks amazing too! I can’t wait to try it 🙂
Just made these, they are awesome! I didn’t have coconut butter, so I had to use coconut oil, it turned out good, but I’m sure the coconut butter would be allot better. Thanks for all the delicious & nutritious recipes, I am having allot of fun making them and eating them 🙂
That’s great Sonya! I’m so happy you’re enjoying the recipes. 🙂
Hey Lauren stumbled across ur blog, I love the sound of these and really love sweet potato so yummy, just one question to. .. The sweet potato do u add it raw pureed or cooked pureed?
Hi Jenny,
I use cooked pureed sweet potato here. 🙂
These look delish! But what is coconut butter?
Hi Emily,
Coconut butter is literally coconut blitzed in the food processor until it turns to ‘butter’! You can buy it from Amazon or Vitacost too.
It just so happens I have pre cooked sweet potato puree in my fridge!! #winning 😀
These little guys are delicious!!
This recipe is a keeper. It has just a bit of sweetness but is healthy too. It is easy to grab and just keep going.
We cannot tell you how thankful we are for oatmeal with a fork recipes. We find that any other recipes have way too much sugar and sweeteners and fat. We are ever so thankful for your recipes.
Thank you, Tammara! I’m so happy you like the recipe and the blog, your comment made my day. 🙂