Oat Bars: Peanut Butter Chocolate + Almond Cherry Coconut
Happy Friday! Thanks to everyone who entered this week's giveaway! Your outpouring of support for our blogoversary had me perma-smiling all week long :) I wish I could give a cookbook away to all of you, but stay tuned for more giveaways coming up! For the Rocco Now Eat This! giveaway, the winner is: Stephanie! Stephanie, please email me at theavidappetite@gmail.com with your address so I can get your goodies out to you!
This week completely flew by, but I'm not complaining! Meatless week is still going strong. Last night, I made a mushroom pizza and a peanut butter banana mousse that I can't wait to share with you - it's a chilled, pudding-like dessert that's actually healthy and delish. Sound good?
Meanwhile, in our quest to keep eating healthy and use up this ginormous canister of oats that Shaun brought home from the store for me (I love me some morning oats),
I decided to whip up some homemade granola bars.
Those Quaker ones just don't cut it in my book. They aren't nearly hearty enough and are so tiny that immediately after I inhale one, I'm still hungry. Not my favorite. So on Sunday, I whipped up two separate batches of oat bars, chocolate peanut butter and cherry almond coconut. And because they are so similar and super easy, I'm sharing 2 recipes with you today? Are you cool with that?
Almond Cherry Coconut Oat Bars
2 C oats
2 tbsp Splenda brown sugar blend
1/2 C dried cherries, chopped
1/4 C slivered almonds, chopped up
1/2C sweetened coconut
1/4 C honey
1 egg white
Preheat oven to 350 and line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper, with the sides hanging over so that you can pull the bars out after baking. In a mixing bowl, combine the oats, splenda, cherries, almonds and coconut.
Pour in the honey and egg white and mix until entire mixture is thoroughly coated. Press into parchment-lined baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes or until edges start to brown. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. This is where the excess parchment comes in handy - simply (and v. carefully) lift bars out of pan and onto wire rack to cool. Once completely cool, cut into bars.
Though these are a bit crumbly and the edges may fall apart, they are so delicious! A perfect breakfast on the go or mid-afternoon snack to get the juices flowing.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Bars
2 C oats
1/3 C creamy peanut butter (I like Smart Balance)
1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 C honey
Preheat oven to 350 and line pan as above. Melt the pb in the microwave. Mix ingredients altogether until completely combined...
Press into pan...
bake for 20 minutes, let cool and cut into bars.
So there you have it. 2 super simple recipes that Shaun and I both love. The best thing about these is that you can get totally creative and add any chocolate chips, nuts or dried fruit you want! What do you think? Have you ever tried making your own unprocessed snacks? What's your favorite on-the-go snack?
*Note, our giveaway winner was chosen at random by random.org. I also wasn't perked for the Rocco book, I just really, truly love it and want to share the wealth with my fantastic readers and friends!
16 Comments | January 20, 2011 | Share Article | Email Article | tagged Healthy Eating, Recipes, granola, snacks | in Recipes Print Article | Permalink
Reader Comments (16)
The chocolate peanut butter version looks delicious! Although, that melted peanut butter might distract me from ever making the actual bars!!
i love that the peanut butter ones only have four ingredients. i think i try to make mine too complicated sometimes and that's why it doesn't work out. definitely gonna give these a try!
I make my own granola bars all the time, so quick and easy and I know EXACTLY what is in them. I also like to make trail mix at home too to bring along as a snack in case i need it. Throwing all your favorite things in a baggie, it doesn't get much easier than that!
these look awesome! I am going to try these for Sunday so I have a batch for the week!
I MUST try to make granola bars. it has been on my to-do list for about a year, and I just need the kick in the butt to do it. thank you for the easy peasy recipes! :)
Too fun! I need to start keeping coconut in the house! =)
Homemade granola bars are the best! I like adding protein powder for a nice boost!
mmm, I love dried cherries these look awesome!
These both look amazing. I've really been wanting to make my own granola bars - didn't realize they could be this easy!
Looks delish. I am going to try this one day:)
Thanks everyone! Let me know if you try them!
I reallyyyy want to start making my own bars- so much healthier for us! Thanks for the recipe:)
Yum!! Oat bars are the best snacks. They're fast, easy, and healthy..thanks for these!
The oat bars look fab! The benefit I like of making them at home is that you can have a lot of them...and the store bought ones are just way more expensive for the amount I want to consume :)
These look great. I never thought of making my own granola bars although I make granola all the time. Dried cherries are a wonderful food!
Rachel, I left you a comment on my blog about agave nectar but in case you don't check back I wanted you to know that I get it at a health food store, and my local Costco just started carrying it too. I think you might find it in the baking aisle or health food section in a regular supermarket. If you are ok using sugar, try my other crisp recipe, on my kosher cooking blog. There's a link to it right in the first paragraph of this post. (I like the sugar one better but the agave version is good for diabetics or if you're really health conscious.)
Thanks so much for the tip Rivki! I will absolutely be trying your fruit crisps! :)