This Week... + Traveling Oatmeal Snack Bars
July 7, 2011
Rachel in Recipes, bars, oatmeal, this week

...I ate leftovers of pretzel crusted brownie bars, and my tight skirts hate me for it



...I jetted down to Orlando...where I still reside until tomorrow morning!

...I royally screwed up my first test batch of traveling oatmeal snack bars. They came out tasting like a salt cake. Not a sweet and salty cake, or a delicious chocolately cake with a hint of salt. It legit tasted like a cake made of salt and flour. It was gross. I may have spit out a mouthful of it into our kitchen sink. It was that good.

...I quickly remedied the snack bars into something delicious and nutritious.

I'm kind of excited about it. I made a quick batch of these to take on my trip to Orlando since airplanes are now too cheap to even hand out a mini bag of pretzels and it's as though my stomach is instantly on high alert once food becomes unavailable. I don't care...these bars are kind of awesome if I do say so myself. And they do not taste like salt. I promise.



Traveling Oatmeal Snack Bars
Makes 8 squares or 6 big bars
1 C quick oats*
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C dried cranberries (or dried fruit of your choice)
1/4 C nut butter (I used Better Than Peanut Butter)
1/2 C skim milk
1 egg
1/4 C honey
2 tbsp maple syrup

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Combine the oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and cranberries in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the nut butter, milk, egg, honey and maple syrup. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes.
*I used quick oats since it was what I had on hand...I'm confident that old fashioned oats would work equally as well.

...Shaun and I got crackin' on Breaking Bad season 3. Season 4 premieres in a week! We have a lot of work to do.

...I made a blueberry-coconut baked oatmeal. Using my strawberry baked oatmeal recipe, I substituted strawberries and butter for blueberries and virgin coconut oil. It was oh-so-good and reheats to perfection in the microwave.



...I drooled more than once over this guy:


Can you blame me?

...I managed to keep my kitchen completely clean but we seem to have developed a serious fruit fly problem. I guess that means only frozen bananas from this day forward.

Next week is a big week in the Humiston house. As I mentioned a few times, I'm turning 29 next Friday (cue the hurrah or the meltdown, I haven't decided).

Meanwhile, Shaun and I will celebrate our 3 year anniversary on Monday. I have some fun wedding/getting another year older posts ready to rock for you (though those two topics will not coincide in the same posts!). I've been saving my wedding posts to do around our anniversary and I hope you'll enjoy them - our dream destination wedding in Aruba was hands down the best and most fun week of our lives!




So how was your week? Tell me all about the things you did! Please?!

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