Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Chocolate Coconut Oat Granola Bars

The slower pace of this week was welcomed after the last few busy weeks/weekends. I feel like I’ve had time to get through all of my to dos, bake & cook. I decided to switch up my bar recipe again this week and add in unsweetened coconut and wheat germ. The resulting bars are a great treat.  Best part? The bars only require 1 bowl! Plus, the recipe is very flexible (note substitutions listed in parenthesis).

Ingredients:

  • 1 ½ cups oats
  • ½ cup unsweetened coconuts
  • 1/4 wheat germ (if you don’t have wheat germ on hand, feel free to add in more oats or flour instead)
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ cup sunflower seeds
  • ¼ cup pumpkin seeds  (you can sub in any kind of seed or nut for the sunflower/pumpkin seeds)
  • ½ cup chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup oil (you could also use applesauce)
  • 2 eggs or ½ cup egg substitute (or 2 tablespoons ground flax mixed with 6 tablespoons of water)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix together first 9 ingredients.  Add in eggs and oil. Mix well (mixture will be just wet enough, if you feel like you need a little additional wetness, add in a tablespoon or two of applesauce).

Spray a baking dish with non stick cooking spray. Press mixture into the bottom.

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Bake for 25-30 minutes.

The result:

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Other dishes hitting our table this week? Monday, my slightly adjusted version of Rachael Ray’s Hot & Cold Sesame Noodles. I used almond butter this week:

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Tuesday, I made Hawaiian BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches. I used a new to me BBQ sauce that Jenna recommended:

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Cooking the chicken in the crock pot made it so moist that it basically fell apart:

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The result:

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Josh’s plate:

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I plan to use the leftovers in quesadillas!

And a big thank you to our friends Matt and Melanie who sent us the cutest Penn State outfit and homemade bow (Mel- the bow is adorable!). In case you didn’t know, both Josh and I went to Penn State:

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How has your week been treating you?

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