Dark Chocolate Pecan Quinoa Breakfast Bars

While oats reign supreme as a beloved breakfast ingredient, it’s time to make room for another superstar! Quinoa (keen-wah) partners with oats in these yummy, chewy Dark Chocolate Pecan Quinoa Breakfast Bars. Quinoa, which is actually a seed posing as a grain, is naturally gluten-free, packs in the protein and fiber, and brings a chewy goodness to baked good. The result is a hearty breakfast bar that’s lightly sweetened and delightfully flavored with your favorite add-ins.

Serve ’em up in the morning, or take them anywhere you’re going where you’ll need an energizing snack. They hearty enough to fuel your day hike, road trip, all-day sporting event, long work day, or after school sport. All that goodness in a tasty little package? Brilliant.

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Key ingredients in Quinoa Breakfast Bars

You’ll likely have all the ingredients you need on hand, which is why this recipe is a go-to when you’re looking to bake up something wholesome. The primary ingredients are below, but be sure to check out my Recipe Tips as well, for several ingredient substitutions and flavor combo suggestions.

• Cooked quinoa
• Old-fashioned oats (gluten free if you require it)
• Natural peanut butter
• Brown sugar
• Eggs
• Applesauce
• Dark chocolate bits
• Pecans

Quinoa Breakfast Bars beat commercial granola bars in every way

Does your family go through a lot of commercial granola bars? We certainly have consumed our share, which is one of the reasons I was keen on finding a homemade breakfast bar that would satisfy. Commerical granola bars can be left wanting when it comes to fiber and protein, while still providing a lot of added sugar.

A good example are the popular Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Nut bars. One bar provides 160 calories, less than 1 gram of fiber, and only 2 grams of protein, with a hefty 8 grams of added sugar. In comparison, my quinoa breakfast bars come in solid at:

• 3 grams of fiber
• 5 grams of protein
• just 5 grams of sugar
• 165 calories

This dietitian is sugar aware, not sugar averse

I’m not anti-sugar, Lordy, no. You’d only need to glance at my recipe index to see that dessert reigns supreme in this house. I am sugar-aware, however, knowing that the added sugar in every day convenience foods can tally up quickly if you don’t pay attention.

There are so many go-to foods that families rely on every day that have added sugar. If you check out the nutrition facts label on yogurt, peanut butter, snack crackers, and ready-to-eat cereals, you’ll see what I mean. Do we use these convenience products? Abso-tively yes. So we’ve taken stock, and made a few changes to our everyday food purchases to reduce overall daily sugar intake.

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It wasn’t hard to cut down on overall sugar in our family’s diet

To reduce overall sugar in our diet, we tackled the foods we eat daily. For us the top four included peanut butter, ready-to-eat cereal, yogurt, and granola bars. The transition was easier than I ever imagined, with much less push-back than I expected!

#1 Peanut butter – It’s a breakfast/lunch/snack/quick supper kind of ingredient in our house. We’re now 80% converted to natural peanut butter (there is one holdout who still needs her Skippy LOL). Teddie brand is our favorite, both the creamy and the chunky versions. We store them upside-down to keep the natural oils mixed in better.

#2 Ready-to-eat cereal – Two major changes impacted our sugar intake for the better. First, we eat a lot more old-fashioned oatmeal nowadays, so the only added sugar there is what we might add ourselves (typically a little maple syrup or Nutella). Second, we shifted to lower-sugar or no-sugar cereals for regular consumption. Our favorites include Wheat Chex, Multigrain Cheerios, Life, and Honey Bunches of Oats (the latter three all with only 6 grams of sugar per serving). We still stock a couple of higher-sugar favorites in our cabinet, including Frosted Mini Wheats and Quaker Oat Squares. They both deliver a hefty amount of fiber so I allow it to keep my family sweet on me .

#3 Yogurt – We’re eating more yogurt than ever before, ironically. Instead of many individual containers of sweetened yogurt, however, we stock the fridge with 32-ounce containers of both vanilla yogurt (sweetened) and plain 2% Greek yogurt. The plain yogurt gets used up quickly in smoothies and dipping sauces for veggies, falafel, or roasted salmon. The vanilla yogurt is my husband’s go-to breakfast with frozen blueberries, and also gets used in smoothies and in yogurt parfaits.

#4 Granola bars – There was a time that we’d go through 10-12 a week! Their convenience is their best feature, but I knew a quick baking session would allow me to serve up something fresher, tastier, and more wholesome. That’s where these Dark Chocolate Pecan Quinoa Breakfast Bars were born.

Recipe tips for making Quinoa Breakfast Bars

These quinoa breakfast bars are soft and sweet and nutty and filling – a great way to start your morning and fuel up for the day ahead.

It’s a simple, one bowl recipe that’ll have you munching in under an hour. But, what I love most about this recipe is its adaptability. You can make it as is, or check out the below options. You can adapt to the ingredients you have on hand, any dietary restrictions, or your particular tastes. This recipe is that flexible.

• Quinoa – this seed-posing-as-grain cooks up quickly on the stovetop. You can either cook it up as needed for this recipe, or double up the amount whenever you’re making quinoa as a side dish, and set aside the extra to use here.
• Oats – use whatever oats you have on hand – quick oats old-fashioned, or steel cut. All work, with only slight changes in texture (steel cut oats add a little crunch, which is fun!). Choose gluten free oats if you require it.
• Applesauce – substitute with mashed banana or mashed canned pears, or even pumpkin! The moisture the fruit adds is important, but you can use what you have on hand.
• Brown sugar – equal amounts of honey or maple syrup work just as well.
• Peanut butter – any nut butter can be used in place of peanut butter. 

As for the add-ins, while I absolutely love the dark chocolate/pecan combo, there are several others you could try. Have some fun with it!

• Semi sweet chocolate chips and dried cherries
• White chocolate and pistachios
• Dark chocolate and walnuts
• White chocolate and dried cranberries
• Macademia and white chocolate
• Raisins, sunflower seeds, and milk chocolate
• Almonds, coconut, and dark chocolate
• Anything at all and chocolate

**Recipe and photos updated February 2022