Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Bar - Breakfast on the Run

Here we have it. Completely Healthy. And Gluten-free. And No Added Sugar. And Vegan. Any other requests??? This dense, chewy breakfast or snack bar is completely no-guilt and very satifying. It's great with a hot cup of coffee, or a cold glass of milk. I'm pretty sure these are very kid-friendly, too.

Like so many things I bake these days, you can add other ingredients to make it your own. I think sunflower or pumpkin seeds would be good, and maybe a little cinnamon. These keep for a few days at room temperature. Personally, I like them cold, so I keep a few in the refrigerator, and freeze the rest, thawing as needed.

And no matter what I tried, I could not make these look pretty in the picture (they do, however, look better in person though, like so many of us ;-)



Hmmmmm..... maybe this one.


Oh well.... never mind...

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Bar - Breakfast on the Go (Gluten-Free, No Added Sugar, Vegan)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Rolled Oats
• 2/3 cup finely chopped or ground Almonds
• 1/3 cup unsweetened Coconut
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 4 oz good quality bittersweet or dark Chocolate, chopped small
• 14 oz of very ripe Bananas (about 4 bananas)
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
• 1/4 cup Peanut or Almond butter
• 1/2 cup Dried Fruit (I like cherries or apricots)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Grease or line a 9 X 9 baking pan.

1. In mixing bowl, combine the oats, ground almonds, coconut, and salt. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, combine the bananas, vanilla, and nut butter. Mash thoroughly.
3. Add the Oatmeal mixture to the bananas and mix well.
4. Gently add in the chopped chocolate and dried fruit.
5. Spread mixture evenly in the prepared pan, and bake for about 25 minutes.
6. Let cool completely before cutting into whatever size bars you wish.

Easy, huh?

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Wheat-free Sugar-free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I make these cookies a lot. Mostly for my wheat-free friends (maybe you've had one?). I'm not much of an Oatmeal Raisin cookie girl, but I actually like them.

I took the recipe from the Stevia website, and made it wheat-free, and changed up a few other ingredients. I made them over and over and over again, tweaking it a little each time, until I think I got it right. Sometimes I got suggestions from wise friends that I incorporated as well. I guess you can say I got obsessed with this recipe. Pretty funny, considering I'd really rather have a chocolate chip cookie.

Oh, and I didn't actually use regular Stevia - I've heard from too many people that it has an aftertaste. Never having baked with any Stevia product before, I tried a product called NuStevia which is not supposed to have the aftertaste. I certainly didn't detect any. I got it here: NuStevia Powder at iHerb.



If you are wheat-free/gluten-free, I'm thinking you will really like this cookie. It's a soft texture (not uncommon for wheat-free cookies), but not quite cake-like. They freeze very well, too.

Wheat-free Sugar-free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Makes about 2 dozen 2" cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup raisins (packed)
• 5 oz apple juice
• 1/3 cup raw cashews or walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup Sorghum (or Soy flour)
• 1/2 cup butter or butter substitute, softened
• 1 tsp NuStevia
• 1-2 Tbs pure maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup Sorghum flour
• 1/4 cup Oat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot
• 1 - 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
• Optional: salted sunflower seeds and pumpkins seeds, golden raisins, chocolate chips.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). Parchment paper on your cookie sheet is recommended, or you can grease your cookie sheet.

1. Place the raisins and apple juice in a small pot and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.
2. In a mixing bow, cream the butter, nuts, and 1/4 cup Sorghum flour.
3. Add the NuStevia powder, Maple Syrup, Vanilla, a sightly beaten eggs
4. Cream about 1/3 of the stewed raisins and all of the juice into a blender or processor.
5. Stir the creamed raisins into the butter mixture. Then add the milk and oats.
6. In a separate bowl, mix together the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, cornstarch, Xanthan Gum, and salt and blend together well (a whisk is a good tool for this).
7. Stire the flour mix into the butter mixture, and add the rest of the raisins.
8. Mix until just blended (don't overmix).
9. To get a consistent size, use a cookie scoop (I used a medium size) and place each on the baking sheet.
10. Press each down slightly with the palm of your hand to flatten them out a bit.
11. If you're including the seeds and golden raisins, press them into each cookie
12. Bake for 11-12 minutes, being careful not to overbake.

Let them cool slightly before eating (if you can :-)

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