Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Granola Bars

Hi friends!

This weekend has been a pretty rainy one in San Diego – not that I’m complaining, since it’s still been in the 60s. I’ll take that any day over 25 degrees and snowy! Besides taking Harley for long walks both yesterday and today and having a tennis workout earlier with my hubby, I’ve pretty much been indoors the rest of the time. Rainy weekend activities have included checking out the bookstore, where I picked up a new cookbook on sale….

…cleaning, and seeing Zero Dark Thirty at the movies last night. I’ve also spent some time in the kitchen. I have soup cooking at the moment that will hopefully turn out yummy, and yesterday I whipped up this delicious recipe:

I found out last Thursday via Twitter and a few blogs that it was National Peanut Butter Day. I wanted to celebrate my love for PB and come up with a recipe using some, but we were completely out of it in my house. Oh the horror, that hardly ever happens! I typically have our staple kind of peanut butter that we use, a few packets of Justin’s PB floating around the pantry, and also a jar (or 2 or 3..) of my favorite local peanut butter goodness. But since I was strangely fresh out of peanut butter, I had to wait until I went food shopping to stock up on some and come up with these yummy bars.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Granola Bars

Foodie Loves Fitness

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Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Servings 18

Calories 220 kcal

Ingredients

  

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• 2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 TBSP ground flaxseed meal
• 6 TBSP water
• 1 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 2 TBSP safflower oil
• 2 TSP vanilla extract
• 1 TSP cinnamon
• 1/2 TSP baking powder
• 1/8 TSP salt

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 400.
• Make flax eggs by combining the flaxseed meal and water in a small bowl, then let it sit.
• In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the peanut butter, brown sugar and honey.
• Mix in the oil, vanilla extract, and flax eggs, and beat until smooth.
• Add in the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, and mix together well with a spatula.
• Mix in the oats, cherries, almonds, and chocolate chips and stir well.
• Pour the batter into a 9x13 baking pan coated with baking spray. Bake until lightly browed, around 20 minutes.
• Let them cool completely before cutting into 18 bars.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 220kcalCarbohydrates: 32gProtein: 5gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 2gSodium: 34mgFiber: 3gSugar: 18g

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