Sweet Oat Bars

This recipe is actually two slightly different recipes.  One uses banana and I made it into bars; the other I used applesauce and made into balls. Both are full of oaty, peanut buttery, chocolaty yumminess though. They are great for breakfast or just snacking on, and easy to make.

Some days you just need easy….(spoiler alert: this story contains doggy grossness, so you might want to skip it if you don’t have a strong stomach.  Good thing this isn’t a good blog where I am trying to make people hungry)

The day I was coming up with this recipe, Tim was working from the family room.  He is still recovering from his ankle surgery, so needs a knee scooter to keep the weight off that foot and still be able to get around. Sometime in the early afternoon, when I was getting ready to pitch my first attempt at these since they were like eating a dustball, he rolled into the kitchen complaining of dirt stuck in the wheels of his scooter.

Dirt?  Where would the dirt have come from?  The only way out of the house was to pass through the kitchen, and I was fairly certain he hadn’t gone for a joyride around the block.  He would have been kind of hard to miss since his wheeler is the size of a small ATV.  But he cleaned off the wheels himself so I just kinda ignored the whole issue.

About  an hour later, as I was elbow deep in peanut butter and chocolate chips, he rolled into the kitchen again, this time with his wheel clogged with way more dirt.  Okay, this was getting weird.  We did not live on Green Acres nor did we have an outhouse.  I may not be the best cleaner in the world, but our room would have had to look like a landfill for him to get that much dirt stuck in the wheel.   I went in to investigate.

Turns out, poor Chloe had an upset tummy and had left a rather large gift for us on the floor, which apparently Tim had rolled through every time he got up.

”How did you not see the GIANT pile of pre-chewed food?” I demanded, grabbing cleaning supplies. “And for that matter, how did you not hear her getting sick?  Seriously, this was like, years worth of meals that she pulled up from her toes!”

”Ewwwww,” he moaned, sitting down and putting his head down.  “You know I have a weak stomach.  I can’t look at it.  Take my wheeler outside and hose it off.

Seriously?!? You were fine five minutes ago when you thought you were rolling through an imaginary excavation site, but now you have a delicate tummy? So, out I stomped to the hose which was not turned on or attached, but instead stored in the garage.  I opted for a pail of soapy water and a brush instead.

“Make sure you get inside all the grooves,” he directed from the porch while I glowered at him. “I still think the hose would be better”

“And I think it would have been better if you had looked where you were going!”  I muttered under my breath. “ How did you miss a giant mound on the floor?  Didn’t it seem strange to you when you hit a speed bump in the family room?”

An hour and several buckets of soapy water later, all was back to normal and I was on Amazon ordering stronger glasses for someone.

Ingredients for the bars:

• 1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup date syrup
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup rolled oats (NOT quick cooking or steel cut)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly grease an 8×8 baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl. Mix all ingredients till well combined.  Pour into the baking pan and spread out to fill it evenly.
3. Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool before cutting.

Ingredients for balls:

•  3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup date syrup
• 1  1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract(optional)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup finely chopped nuts( I used walnuts)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
2. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients stirring till thoroughly mixed.
3. Using a cookie scoop, form tightly packed balls and place on the lined pan about an inch apart.
4. Bake for 15 minutes.  Allow to cool for a few minutes on the pan before removing to a cooling rack.  Makes 36 balls.

Enjoy!