Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars – thick chewy oatmeal bars loaded with pumpkin flavor and melted chocolate in every bite.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars – thick chewy oatmeal bars loaded with pumpkin flavor and melted chocolate in every bite. These Pumpkin Bars scream fall and are only 135 calories a serving! Perfect for the fall!

Little kid minds amaze me. Cason has been in school now for a little over a month. Before Kindergarten he knew how to write his name, capital letters, the phonetic sounds to most letters, and how to count to 50. We never really practiced reading. I would read to him all the time, but never worked on reading with him or sight words.

It is absolutely incredible to me how fast he has picked up on things over the past month.

Now he knows around 20 sight words, has started sounding out words when we read, he knows how to write capital letters and lower case letters, can count up to 100 and can recognize numbers when I point at them.

It’s amazing how fast their little minds absorb information. I have noticed that persistency, just doing 10 minutes worth of review each night, helps so much! Even his drawing imagination skills have grown a ton! The other day he came home with a free time drawing and he had draw Yoda with a light saber, and it was legit. Green guy, pointy ears, Jedi cloak and green light saber haha.. We’ve been slowly going through the Star Wars series with him.

I’ve definitely been having proud momma moments with him lately as I watch him grow into his own individual person and see how much he is learning.

Ok, moving on.

To all things PUMPKIN!

A couple weeks ago I made these Banana Bread Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars. They were absolutely delicious and Cason loved having them for his snack. I decided that those bars needed to magically transform into a pumpkin bar. After all, it is fall right!?

Pumpkin is a must!

All I had to do was sub out the banana for pumpkin puree and they turned out absolutely perfect! These bars have about a cup of pumpkin puree in them along with pumpkin pie spice to make them taste like all things fall. They are naturally sweetened with maple syrup and unsweetened applesauce.

They are slightly sweet, loaded with pumpkin flavor and have melty chocolate chips throughout each bite.

What more could you ask for?

I guarantee you and the kiddos will love these bars. They’re a total fall must!

Easy to make, guilt free, and who doesn’t want a little chocolate + pumpkin in their life right now! 🙂

Bon Appetit friends! Happy Wednesday!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars

Author: Krista @ JoyfulHealthyEats.com
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 25 mins
Total Time: 30 mins
Yield: 16 bars
Category: dessert, snack, kid friendly, holiday

Description

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars – thick chewy oatmeal bars loaded with pumpkin flavor and melted chocolate in every bite. These Bars scream fall and are only 135 calories a serving!

Ingredients

3 cups regular oats (not quick oats)
1½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup pumpkin puree
⅓ cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
⅓ cup unsweetened applesauce
½ cup chocolate chunks

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray a 9×9 baking dish with cooking spray and cover with parchment paper. (this will help you remove the bars more easily later)
To a food processor add 1½ cups of the regular oats. Blend until the oats become more of an oat flour or powder, about 1-2 minutes. Pour oat flour into a medium bowl with the remaining whole oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
To a large bowl, add finely pumpkin puree, maple syrup, vanilla extract and apple sauce. Whisk together until combined.
Slowly add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chunks.
Add oatmeal mixture to prepared 9×9 baking dish.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until top is golden brown and toothpick test comes out clean.
Serve!