Chewy Granola Bars

              
I have my favorite granola bars, the ones I like making and eating, those are the ones that disappear around here.  They are the ones I make very regularly.  Mainly because I cant stand paying those high prices for granola bars.  If you buy them all the time and then make your own, you can save A LOT of money.  I mean a lot.

These are quite delicious and quite versatile.  You can change up the add ins as you like.  I list what the kids like to put in them but you can certainly change it up.  So, say, instead of sunflower seeds, you could add peanuts.  Instead of chocolate chips, maybe cinnamon chips.  The coconut really gives it chew so I would not substitute that.  If you don't like coconut then maybe try this granola recipe instead.

Chewy Granola Bars

2 1/2 rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 cup coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup nuts
1 cup chips (chocolate butterscotch, peanut butter, white...)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix the oats, coconut and the wheat germ together.  Add in condensed milk and butter.  It will be hard to mix but keep at it, it will come together.  Finally, add in the in the nuts and chips.

Press the dough into a greased 9 x 13 baking pan.  Use the back of a rubber spatula to flatten the top. You can wet it a little if it begins to stick.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, just until golden around the edges.  Score bars after it cools for ten minutes.

Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

My husband and I, well, really, our kids too, have been learning a lot through three movies.  Watching these movies- "Fed Up", "Hungry For Change" and "Forks Over Knives" has been pivotal for our health.  Some of it we knew.  Some of it we thought to ourselves after we heard it- "duh, of course, that makes total sense" and some of it was shocking.  Like, did you know that MSG makes fat cells.  That is how they fatten up rats.

     "MSG stimulates your pancreas to output three times as much insulin as it     does normally. This unnatural amount of insulin converts the sugar in your blood into fat very efficiently; and to make things worse, that excess insulin sends your blood sugar levels crashing down so low that you get hungry all over again—much sooner than you should be." (The Gabriel Method)

Here is a link for the many names of MSG. The blog is called Fooducate.

I am astounded by all this new information.

I know some of you are saying, I am just a "crunchy girl" and I may be over the top.  But, I pretty much guarantee if you watched these three movies you would have some epiphanies yourself.

The MSG alone could explain why so many people are overweight in our country.  This is why they keep saying over and over again, if you want to lose weight- stop eating processed food.  And processed food means diet soda.  YES, DIET SODA IS VERY BAD FOR YOU! It kills brain cells.  Pilots are not allowed to eat artificial sweeteners.  Did you hear that, it kills brain cells and makes you less alert.

Okay, I will stop.  WATCH those movies.  If you or someone in your life is overweight or unhealthy- bad numbers from your labs- then do yourself a favor.  Watch these movies!

So, make your own food.  Eat whole foods.  In the wise words of Michael Pollan, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants."

This recipe is good for a quick morning breakfast.  One of these bars is very satisfying.  This is the second time I made it.  That tells you I like it.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Squares

2 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups milk
2 cups pumpkin puree
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 375F.  Spray an 8 x 8 pan with cooking spray or grease with butter.

Mix wet ingredients separately from dry ingredients.  Combine the two and then pour into the prepared pan.

Cowboy Cookies

Anything with a little coconut in it has a nice chew, with oatmeal- even better.  They are real delicious, lots of wonderful flavor.  You could add in nuts too but my one daughter is not so fond of nuts, so I left them out. 

I try to make things like this for my kids.  While it is a sweet, it also has some good qualities as well.  This way it is a bit of a step up from junk from the store.


COWBOY COOKIES
I used a cookie scoop and ended up with 70 cookies.

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup ground flaxseed meal
2 sticks (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 large eggs
1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut


Whisk together flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Place butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed, until butter and sugars are blended, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Add flour mixture to the bowl, and blend on low speed until the flour is just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Gradually add oats, chocolate and coconut and mix on low speed until evenly combined. (Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and then use your hands to turn and gently massage dough, to ensure all flour and added ingredients are absorbed.) Chill dough for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days.  

Preheat to 350°F.  

Using a cookie scoop, plunk them down in rounds on the cookie sheet.  If you like slightly flatten each cookie.

Bake cookies for about 12 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through cooking time, until they are lightly browned on the edges. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 3 to 4 minutes, and then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.


94 calories per cookie

Cinnamon and Cream Cheese Oat Bars

I really don't bake in the summer.  However, if there is a cool day I seize the opportunity and make something.  It was about 55 degrees F here yesterday morning.  I have a function to go to with a potluck.  Lucky me, I got to make dessert.  I love making dessert for a potluck.  I get to make something sweet and it goes out of my house pretty darn quick.  This is a good thing. With these bars it is a really good thing.  These might also be called "talk to you bars" or "call your name bars", if you know what I mean.


Cinnamon and Cream Cheese Oat Bars
These bars are the bomb.  Creamy and delicious, melt in your mouth.
Based on this recipe here at Food Network.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cups (about 11 ounces) cinnamon chips
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon



Prepare a 9 x 13 with foil or parchment hanging over sides.  Preheat oven to 350F.

In a food processor combine oats, flour, brown sugar and pulse.  Add in the butter one piece at a time until all is added.  Add in the chips.  Pulse until it forms clumps easily.  You may have to stop and push down the ingredients depending on how large your processor is.  (You can do all of this with a pastry blender or a fork even. You will burn some of those calories that you are about to eat.) Remove and pour half of the mixture in the prepared pan.

Place 9 x 13  bottom layer in the middle of a preheated oven for about 12 to 15 minutes.

While that is baking, beat the cream cheese, add in the sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon and the vanilla.  When the time is up, remove the crust from the oven and pour the cream cheese mixture over top and the sprinkle the remainder of the oat mixture, evenly over top.

Place back in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes.  The top should be golden. Remove from oven, let cool and refrigerate overnight (if you can stand it).  Serve chilled.

Large Batch Oatmeal Cookies

One cookie that is made around here other than at holiday time is oatmeal cookies.  It is a favorite.  I make them and freeze them. Pop two into a baggie for my kids lunches and they are good for eating by the time its lunch time at school.  Having them in the freezer keeps me from eating them. It also keeps them fresher longer.

These cookies are great.  We loved them more than our usual oatmeal cookie recipe. They are a bit crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.  They keep pretty fresh for a few days.  

All that being said, if you are two lazy or too busy to do cookies but want some oatmeal treats, try these.  They are really good too.

Large Batch Oatmeal Cookies
This recipe is kind of large for a Kitchen Aid mixer, though I did use mine for creaming the butter and sugar... up until the part where you add in the flour.  Then I transferred it to a large bowl.
Printer version found here.

2 cups butter
3/4 cup shortening
3 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 1/4 cups white sugar
5 eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk
4 teaspoons vanilla
6 cups of oats
5 3/4 cups unbleached flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups raisins

Preheat oven to 375F. Spray or grease cookie sheets lightly.

Cream butter, shortening and sugars together in a large bowl.  Beat for five minutes until light and fluffy.  Add in eggs, one at  a time. Add in buttermilk and vanilla.  

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt.  Mix into dough just until incorporated.  Add in oatmeal and raisins.

Drop by tablespoon onto cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Mix in possibilities:  dried fruit, nuts, cinnamon chips...