Better than Trader Joe's PB & J Bars

If you like Trader Joe's Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars, I promise you will LOVE these! They are wholesome, gluten-free, surprisingly filling, and downright YUMMY. 

Not to bag on Trader Joe's bars. They are good. My kids will eat them, as will I. But in a side-by-side comparison, these are tastier.

One thing I LOVE about this recipe is that it makes a TON, so you get a big reward for your relatively short time investment. They will fill a large cookie sheet or 9x13 AND 11x15 baking dishes. These bars keep for days (if you can keep hands off), and they are tasty served cold, medium or warm. 

The recipe involves an oat-based peanut-butter cookie dough on the bottom, your choice of jam, jelly or preserve in the middle, and more of the peanut-butter cookie on top! 

A couple of notes for the preparation process. This recipe has baking soda in it, which is the spreading leavener (baking powder is the rising leavener). So when you put the top layer of peanut-butter cookie dough on the jam layer and you see a ton of holes, no worries!! The dough will spread a it cooks.  (Before-baking pictures above; After pictures below)

Now, on to the recipe!

Better than Trader Joe's 

PB&J Bars

Makes 72 bars

Ingredients

3 sticks butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1.5 cups natural peanut butter

1.5 teaspoons baking soda

3 cups oat flour (4 cups oatmeal pulsed in blender or food processor until smooth)

3 cups oatmeal

2 cups jam, jelly, or preserves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Spray large cookie sheets or baking pans with cooking spray. (This recipe will make thick bars on a 14"x18" cookie sheet, or thinner bars on more pans. I like to use one 9x13 and one 10x15 baking dish.)

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add peanut butter and mix until smooth. 

3. Mix baking soda into wet mixture. Stir in oat flour, then oatmeal. Dough will be thick, but still sticky. 

4. Spoon half of the dough into prepared pans. Dip the back of a spoon or your fingers in cold water and spread the mixture so it is covering the bottom of all your pans in an even layer.  Set the other half of the mix aside. 

5. Spoon the jam on to the bottom layer in small spoon fulls all around. Use a rubber spatula or the back of a spoon to spread it in an even layer. 

6. Cover the jam layer with the remaining cookie dough by spooning small amounts all over the top. (See the pictures above for reference)

7. Bake 30-40 minutes, until edges are brown and top is light brown. Middle will still look wet and bubbly, but will settle as it cools. Cool completely before cutting into bars. 

Trail Cookies (Sugar-free, Gluten-free, Milk-free, Bad Fat-free)

And they're not gross! They are tasty, even. I promise. My kids have all approved.

In hopes of seizing the forecast sunny (!!) day this weekend, I decided to try out an idea for a healthy but hearty cookie to take along on our excursions.  It doesn't have any weird unnatural sweeteners, bad fats, or ingredients that are hard to find or expensive. My recipe made about 60 cookies and cost about $6 to make. Not bad eh?

I used homemade date paste instead of refined sugar to sweeten them. You can find the tutorial for making your own date paste here on Chocolate and Carrots. These cookies aren't as sweet as a typical oatmeal cookie (more in the realm of a muffin's sweetness), and they are full of delicious texture and moisture.

I'm so excited to pack these up for our hike this weekend! Now we won't be tempted to stuff our pockets with Halloween candy! 

Here's the recipe: 

Trail Cookies

Makes 5 dozen

Ingredients:

1.25 cups date paste (see link above for how to make your own.)

1.5 cups natural unsweetened peanut butter

1/2 cup coconut oil

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

4.5 cups rolled (old-fashioned) oats--gluten free

1 cup dried fruit, chopped to raisin-size (I used cranberries, raisins, and blueberries)

1 cup finely chopped nuts (I used pecans because I love them)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat date paste, peanut butter and coconut oil. Add in eggs and beat well.

3. Beat in vanilla, sea salt, and baking soda.  Mix in remaining ingredients 2 cups at at time.

4. Use a medium cookie scoop to place on cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Press down to flatten slightly. Bake 9-10 minutes. Cool and store in refrigerator or freezer. 

Here's a glimpse of the hike we took these cookies on this weekend.  My only complaint: I should have packed more! We gobbled them up!

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My Sister's Perfect Granola

While visiting my sister this summer, I had some of her homemade granola. I have had it before, but I was really struck this time at just how GOOD it is.  It is exactly the right texture: not too soft, but not so crunchy that it's work to chew. Its flavor is deliciously simple. The kind of taste you don't tire of.   And it is kind of addictive. It called to me as I walked past it in the kitchen, "Just a bite. I have fiber to soak up the calories. And I feel good to eat."  So I ate it. 

What I didn't know about her granola initially is that it is EASY to make!  Possibly the easiest granola I've ever made.  She has the whole process down to an art, which I will share with you here. She explained to me as she taught me to make it, that she has tweaked the recipe over several years into the perfect one it is today.

Here's how: 

Pre-heat oven to 300°. In an extra-large mixing bowl (or a large stock pot if you don't have a huge bowl), mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix with a whisk until completely incorporated. 

Spread on two large baking sheets/ jelly-roll pans.  Don't pat it down. Spread it to the ends, then make some "holes" in it to allow it to "breathe" as it cooks. This helps it cook more evenly and keeps it from sweating.   See what I mean by my sister perfecting her method?

Bake for 25 minutes. Stir it, moving granola on the outside of the pan to the inside, and inside to outside. Make more breathing holes. Return it to the oven to bake 25 more minutes.

Turn the oven off. Remove the pans from the oven and stir the granola again.  Now let it cool uncovered on your counter for 1-2 hours. Stirring it again while it's cooling is a good idea in moist climates.  Putting it away too soon can make it too soft.  Once it cools completely, store it in an air-tight container for 2-3 weeks. 

I love it with Greek Yogurt, milk, or just by the handful! 

My Sister's Perfect Granola

Makes fifty(50) 1/2 cup servings; Fills 1.75 large oatmeal canisters

Ingredients: 

1 large canister rolled oats

1 16oz container unsalted dry-roasted peanuts

2 cups raw, unsalted sunflower seeds

1.5 teaspoons salt

2.5 cups brown sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup canola oil

1.75 cups water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°.

2. In a very large mixing bowl, stir together the oats, peanuts, sunflower seeds, salt, and brown sugar. 

3. Using a whisk, stir in the vanilla, oil, and water. Stir until completely incorporated.

4. Spread on 2 large ungreased baking sheets (with sides).  Don't pat the mix down, and make openings in the mixture (showing the pan through) to allow air in as the granola bakes. 

5. Place in oven (layering on two racks is fine). Bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven, stir well, then return to the oven (trade places if pans were on two racks). Bake an additional 25 minutes.

6. Remove from oven, and turn oven off. Stir  again, and allow to cool and dry on counter for 1-2 hours.  Stirring during cooling is good, especially in moist climates. 

7. Store in airtight containers for 2-3 weeks. (Ours never lasts that long, so this is an estimate :)). Fills 1.75 large oatmeal canisters.

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"New Fashioned" Oatmeal Pie

Oatmeal Pie. If you've never had it, you are missing out. It is NOT like eating a bowl of hot breakfast with a crust around it, so don't even go there.

It is a closer relative to the best pecan pie you've ever had. NOT the kind that is 80% sugary gel sandwiched between a crust and some nuts.  Think about the ideal  pecan pie, where everything is perfectly melded together in each bite. Sweet, but not so sweet that your throat burns and you feel a diet coming on.

An ideal Oatmeal Pie is like the perfect oatmeal cookie and the perfect macaroon were in a tornado and they ended up combined in a way only fate could orchestrate;  and they are resting together after the storm in a flaky crust made of their close relatives, butter and coconut oil.

This is a "New-Fashioned" Oatmeal Pie because I based my recipe on one from a cookbook that belonged to my grandmother, but I changed it to make it more conducive to today's health knowledge. (i.e.: ALOT less sugar, more oats and coconut).

We had it last night for our family night treat, but since I was out of natural light by that time, I had to vigilantly guard the last piece so I could get a decent photograph this morning to show.  My boys wanted it for breakfast, for lunch, for snack, etc.  I think I may need to whip up another.

Here it is fresh out of the oven. The house smelled heavenly.

"New Fashioned" Oatmeal Pie

Ingredients:
1 unbaked pie crust (I used Yesterfood's Coconut Oil Pie Crust #1)
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup flaked coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat together eggs, sugars, and butter.  Add oats, coconut and vanilla and mix well. Pour into pie crust.

Bake 30-35 minutes, until no longer liquid in the middle.

Allow to cool at least 1/2 hour before serving. Delicious warm or cold or in-between.

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