An Easter Surprise (With Some Pre-Homework Baking)

Hey!  You'll never guess what happened at our Monday morning assembly today.  Well, after all the announcements were done and I was preparing to head to class, our head of school announces that because we had no snow days this year (compared to 8 or 9 last year!!) she is making no school on Monday!  You should've heard the cheers of approval.  I didn't know teens could be so spirited on a Monday morning...


This means that in addition to having this Friday off for Good Friday, we now have a beautiful 4-day weekend in our midst thanks to dear old Mrs. Riley.  I'm looking forward to this weekend, although, being Greek, my Easter isn't until the weekend after, April 15th.  Still, I'm expecting a treat from the Easter bunny nonetheless!  


Today was as good as a Monday could be.  And, having a relatively easy homework load tonight (thanks to my diligence over the weekend), I decided to make something as soon as I got home.  Peanut butter banana chocolate oat bars from Sally's Baking Addiction to be exact.  


I was expecting something healthy and tasty but beyond that I didn't really know what to expect.  Because I was making this in somewhat of a rush, I didn't have time to make it a pretty picture post...but I will get there eventually!  Anyway, here is my version of the recipe with slight adaptions to go with my mood and also to make sure my gluten and dairy free sister could eat them too.

Gluten and Dairy Free Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Oat Bars

Makes 16 bars

Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction.

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups whole rolled oats
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon (will omit this next time)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (maybe I would try 1.5 tsp next time...)
• 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
• 1 large egg
• 2 large ripe mashed bananas
• 1/3 cup dark chocolate dreams peanut butter from Peanut Butter and Co.*
• 1/4 cup dairy free chocolate chips (may or may not omit these next time)
• 1/4 peanut butter chips  (would increase this to the original recipe's amount of 1/2 cup or maybe even 3/4 cup!)

*no joke, I actually have to put this stuff at the back of the fridge out of my site line or else I eat unlawful amounts of this stuff straight from the jar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Line an 8 x 8 pan with parchment (or spray it).
2. Mix together oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
3. Add in the milk, vanilla, and egg.  Mix together until evenly combined.  Looks like somewhat loose, wet granola
4. Add mashed bananas, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips.  Stir well.  If your peanut butter was coming straight from the fridge, you might need to microwave it for 10 seconds or so to soften it a bit.
5. Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 20 minutes.  Cut into bars and enjoy!

Val and Mel's thoughts:

• Wish I omitted the cinnamon from the recipe.  Both my sister and I agreed that it didn't exactly flavor the bars, it only made them smell like cinnamon.  Weird...
• The peanut butter chips were our favorite part! Def should've put more in!
• We thought it had an almost bread-like consistency.  I've never made a recipe like this before so I wasn't sure what to expect.

You see that?  That little crumb that looks like a banana bread crumb?  That's what I'm talking about!

Overall, I would make this recipe again with a few modifications.  It definitely was a healthy recipe and I would consider calling it a banana bread oat bar or something like that.  Depending on what you put in it though, it would seem more dessert than snack/breakfast.  I do think it seems like a great base for playing with different flavor combinations. At Sally's blog she also has a caramel apple variation that I want to try.

 Mmmmm :)  If it weren't socially weird to make fall flavored food all year round, I would. Actually...scratch that, I do make fall themed food all year round...

Considering I had 2 of these babies for dessert tonight and Mel had 3, I think they were worth making!

Again, sorry for the abysmal 2 pictures.  I promise this weekend I will make a real food post with pretty pictures using a real camera.  Considering it's a school night, I think I did pretty good! ;)

Any plans for this Easter weekend?  

I'm already twitching to write a bajillion yummy posts about this weekend and more importantly next weekend!  You have not experienced eating until you have been to a Greek Easter celebration.  Can anyone say "lamb on a spit!"