It's no secret that I love peanut butter. And I like baking things with peanut butter. I was pretty excited when I came across these yummy Apple Peanut Butter Snack Bars on Pinterest. Not only do they have peanut butter, they do not have flour or refined sugar...and they taste great! If you get the right oats, they can even be gluten free. Score, right? I think so. I adapted the recipe from Happy Healthy Mama. Basically, I just added a little extra cinnamon because I like it. The bars are very soft and a little gooey. Super easy to make. They are extra good with extra peanut butter on top. (I'm serious about my peanut butter fetish. At one point, I was going through 2 pounds a month. Easy. Sometimes more...) These bars make a great afternoon snack, or you could cut them larger for breakfast. Enjoy!
Apple Peanut Butter Snack Bars
Ingredients:
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup shredded apple (1 medium apple)
1/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup local honey
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp natural vanilla
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 or 9x9 (depending of if you want them thicker or thinner...I went with thicker) baking dish and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish and press it down evenly.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the edges are slightly browned. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.
I made these sweet things for breakfast on Saturday. They can be relatively healthy, though lacking considerably in protein. They are pretty tasty, and the recipe is really versatile. Lots of options. The original is from Shopgirl. I did change some things up, making it a lower calorie version. Swapping oil for applesauce, "real" brown sugar for Ideal brown sugar, and "real" fruit syrup for Torani sugar-free raspberry syrup. Terribly processed, I know... You could just as easily make the recipe more natural by using coconut oil, pure cane sugar, and agave, respectively. Adding a little flax would probably be nice as well. If you don't have homemade fruit preserves handy (which I don't), I recommend Bonne Maman or something similar.
Bottom line: these are really easy to make and very tasty. Everyone liked them. They would also be great as a sweet little snack. Take the basic recipe and run with it wherever you want!
Blueberry Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar (or substitute of choice)
1 egg
1/4 cup honey
5 TBSP oil (or substitute of choice)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup fruit preserves
1 TBSP fruit syrup (or substitute of choice)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a 9x9 baking dish with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, honey and oil. Add to the dry mixture and mix well.
- In a small bowl, mix the fruit preserves and syrup.
- Place about 2/3 of the granola mixture in the prepared baking pan, making sure to press it into the corners and patting it down so it bakes evenly. Spread the preserves over it evenly. Top it with the remaining granola mixture.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until you can see the preserves bubbling and the topping is golden.
Enjoy!
I feel so blessed to have been able to spend last evening with the wonderful women of Gamma Rho. It's been rough not getting to see anyone outside of nursing school and not getting to do anything non-nursing school related...especially Spring Sing. Anyways, our fabulous Chaplin organized a mini retreat for this evening, and it was a blast! It was so good getting to see so many of my sisters. Great games. Great crafts. Great songs. Great devotional. And, of course, great food. As a senior, I was suppose to bring a "healthy" snack. I didn't want to do just a fruit or veggie tray. I wanted to be a little more creative. I hunted around and found a good looking recipe from Chex. (Definitely maybe not as healthy as an apple, but surely better [for you] than cake.) I was actually surprised by how well it turned out. It was definitely a hit. Several gals wanted the recipe, so here it is...more here is what I did:
Honey-Ginger Trail Mix
(Chex Ginger-Honey Crunch)
Ingredients:
6 cups Honey Nut Chex cereal
1 cup dried banana chips (I didn't actually put any in because the grocery store didn't have any to buy when I was there...but I bet they add a nice touch)
1 cup unblanched whole almonds
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries or dried pineapple (I did a 1/2 cup of each)
Directions:
In a large microwave bowl, mix cereal, banana chips and almonds.
In a 2-cup microwavable measuring cup, microwave butter, brown sugar, honey and ginger until mixture is boiling; stir. Pour over cereal mixture; stir. Microwave for 1 minute; stir (repeat this step 3 more times).
Stir in coconut, cranberries and/or pineapple (I cut my pineapple tidbits into quarters).
Spread onto jelly roll pan (lined with wax paper) to cool. Power cool in the fridge, if you want.
Store in an airtight container...if there's any left!
For some reason I am not sleeping tonight, which is always fantastic...said no one ever! I'm not sure if it's the 1-hour rest period I had in the middle of the afternoon or the fact that I apparently put the "energy" variety of Crystal Light in my water that I took to the retreat...maybe a combination of the two. On the plus side, I have breakfast made for the next 6 days (post coming soon), the kitchen is cleaned up, and I have fresh sheets and towels. I really wanted to workout, but I have a feeling that the people who live below me would not appreciate me doing Plyocide right now. I thought about working on taxes, but that seems a little ambitious. Oh, well. Maybe a movie? Or smell the new Scentsy fragrances again? That's always fun. Well, I'm off to find something else to do! Happy Saturday!
