Last week was a total bust on the blog front.
We had eight straight days of clouds and/or rain which made me feel lazy and unmotivated. I did manage to push myself to try one new recipe but it was a flop so obviously I was not going to share it with you. By the end of Wednesday I decided to write the week off.
I was super productive over the weekend though. My husband and I went car shopping. (You know, test driving, sitting through salesman schpeals, etc.) I hate car shopping but it didn’t turn out as bad as I thought it would be. I cleaned and organized my closets and even rearranged some of the home decor. Spring cleaning much? Or maybe I was making up for the stuff I didn’t do last week.
In the midst of being a clean freak I whipped up these delicious oatmeal bars in very little time. It’s a one bowl wonder that I made in less than 30 minutes. I didn’t even need to drag out the hand mixer.
These bars don’t have any flour in them. They keep their form thanks to all the oats and bananas (or possibly magic). You don’t taste the bananas, which might be a good thing if you’re not a fan of them. The oats, peanut butter, and chocolate chips are the flavors that really pop.
I’d like to say that these bars are healthier than the average bar but I’m betting that my husband will say that they are not healthy because they have sugar and chocolate in them. (Actually for this one, he agrees with my assessment, you know, for a cookie-like thing.) Whether a food is healthy or not is an ongoing debate in our home. I’ll let you be the judge. 😉
Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars Recipe
(Make about 16 bars)
Ingredients:
- 2 and 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup almond milk (Dairy is also okay to use.)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/3 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 8 x 8 baking pan and set it aside. Line the baking pan with parchment paper if you want to take the whole shebang out in one piece.
- In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Add in the almond milk, vanilla extract, and egg and mix everything together.
- Add in the mashed bananas, peanut butter, and chocolate chips and mix everything together.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake it for 20 minutes.
- Let it cool completely before you cut into it.
Adapted from: Sally’s Baking Addiction
Here are some other fun and easy bars to whip up.
