These sweet-but-not-unhealthy coconut raspberry oat bars are a delightful little snack…or breakfast…or dessert!

There is a running joke in our family that we’re not a snack household, we’re an ingredient household! Meaning, there are never enough snacks, but plenty of ingredients to make/bake something if you wanted to. I am not at all mad about this, and let me just say for the record, the kids are wrong – we do have snacks in the house. I keep stored in my fridge various cheeses for them, like string cheese, baby mozzarella pearls, or baby bell cheese. I also keep Chomps (beef sticks) and crackers in the pantry and yogurt in the fridge. Not to mention all the fruit I keep in the fridge. What else do they want from me?!

I honestly do not buy chips very often – I make exceptions when I go to Trader Joe’s, but I don’t keep a lot of “garbage” food in the house. I do, however, like to bake for the kids, whether that’s the after school banana bread, peanut butter and oat muffins, or anything else I happen to whip up – there is actually no shortage of food in the house!

I think these coconut raspberry oat bars are just a fun little snack. I wouldn’t call them unhealthy, but they do have some sugar in them from the jam (I would try to choose a jam with a minimal amount of added sugar), the sweetened shredded coconut, and the brown sugar. And there is some butter in this recipe. So yeah, not healthy, but better than eating an endless amount of Cheetos (yum).

Ironically, though there is some sugar in these, they don’t taste sugary, and I think having them be oat bars as opposed to a typical sugar cookie base bar helps with that. There is also a depth of flavor with the addition of cinnamon, vanilla, and almond extract – yes, I use both in this recipe. It’s just enough for a really smooth, delightful flavor that doesn’t overpower the flavor of the shredded coconut or the raspberry jam.

One tip on the jam – depending on the brand you use, some jams are more spreadable than others. I will sometimes put the measured amount of jam needed and just stir or whisk it really good until the jam isn’t as firm. Alternatively, you can measure out the amount of jam needed and warm it up in the microwave and stir to make it easier to spread.

When I make these, we cut these into tiny little squares – it not only makes them last longer, but I don’t know…the kids just like the cute itty bitty size. Otherwise you can cut about nine bars about three inches square.

Every time I make these, the kids inhale them! So this last time I made them in advance, and then I told them they couldn’t eat any of them till we were on our fall vacation in Central Oregon, where they were a great little snack for everyone, especially in the morning with a cup of coffee (for us coffee drinkers, that is).

This is such a cute little snack to have around the house or put in your kiddos lunch box, or even as an after dinner dessert! So if you’ve got some jam, oats, and shredded coconut, give this cute little snack, dessert, or breakfast bite a try! Everyone will love them!