Baking in a Bikini? You Bet!

the remains of the Easter decorations... I guess Mother's Day is next...

Today I had the day off from school for professional development day.  Teachers sit through meetings all day and the students have an extra day to catch up on work, relax, or concoct in the kitchen to their hearts' content.

First I must say something about the weather.  It was GORGEOUS today!  Definitely the kind of day that has you aching for summer.  High 70s, sunny, blue sky.  Not a bad day to have off from school...

After heading out to get froyo for lunch (you read that right, I had it for lunch, not after), I came home and wanted to sit by the pool.  But, not before I had the urge to make something in the kitchen.  Actually, I wanted to make it for my sister to take to her tennis match, but it wasn't finished cooling in time.

Anyway, I decided that being home alone on a gorgeous day I would bake...in my bikini.  Weird?  I don't think so.  I was wearing an apron at least!

First thing I made was a dump bar.  Literally I dumped everything into the pan and baked.  :)

Layer 1: refrigerated sugar cookie dough (I had bought two rolls but only ended up using one for my rainbow pinwheel cookies)  I actually pressed this down, not really dumping
Layer 2: semi sweet chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and heath bar toffee bits
Layer 3: sweetened condensed milk
Layer 4: flaked coconut
Layer 5: the remaining semi sweet chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and heath bar toffee bits

I'm not exactly sure how long it baked for because I originally put it in for 15 minutes but that was WAY too short and ended up putting it back in for probably 15 more minutes, maybe 20...

First time out of the oven...not nearly done but still looks mighty yummy.

These things are deadly.  Lucky I was wearing my bikini because if my tummy weren't in site I would've eaten the whole pan with no shame.  But, I resisted to just picking off the "scraps" that stuck to the knife, spatula, pan, and maybe the ones that I pulled off the bars themselves...

Wait for it...wait for it...

The gooeyness is calling my name!

Sweet, gooey, caramelly, buttery, toffee-y, chocolatey, chewy.  If I didn't care about appearing somewhat sane, I would've hidden in my playroom with the whole pan and scarfed them down as I watched my latest netflix, John Tucker Must Die.  Seeing as I like to occasionally appear somewhat normal, I let these babies cool, cut them up into generous squares and packaged them up for either my mom to take to work or for me to take to school.  I haven't decided who gets to be blessed with these bars of heaven yet.

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!"