No Bake Energy Bars

Confession: After 2 years of no peanut products in our home and being so completely vigilant of label reading- now that Violet has done the unimaginable and outgrown her peanut allergy- I feel a pang of guilt every time I use peanut butter. I wonder if any other parents lucky enough to be in my situation have ever felt the same.

And with that, I give you my recipe for No Bake Energy Bars. Sure there are zillions of variations on the web for these. What I am posting is a base recipe for you to build on!

Ingredients
1C peanut butter
1C honey (I used Sweet Dreams Merritt Island Wild Flower Honey)
3C rolled oats (uncooked)
Here's where you can get creative by choosing 1/2- 1 C or any add in you can think of!
A few ideas to get you going:
seeds (sesame, pumpkin, flax)
dried fruit
nuts
mini chocolate chips or carob
protein powder
coconut
brewers yeast


Directions
1. Combine peanut butter and honey in a medium size pot on low heat until mixed
2. Mix in the rolled oats and any other add ins
3. The intention is not to cook your mixture, just heat it enough so that combining the ingredients is easier
4. Press into a 9x9 or 9x11 inch pan (I greased mine with coconut oil)
5. Let cook and cut into bars
6. Wrap and store in the refrigerator

*Soon available for sale through Miss Mermaid*

For the lovelies who made it this far:
If you try this recipe leave me a comment and let me know what you use for add ins! I'm always looking for new ideas to keep healthy food interesting. And speaking of comments...I've been wondering lately, who is reading this blog? I'd love to hear from you and where you are located. If you have anything you'd like to suggest for a future blog post or questions you have for me leave that in the comments too! I love to hear from you and always respond <3

Fruit Cereal Bars (without a bunch of unnecessary crap!)

I love making these bars because you can make them into just about any combination of flavors you want; so much room for imagination and creativity here! They are awesome for packing into school/work lunches (kids as well as college students looking for a healthier alternative) or just an afternoon snack at home. After they bake, I cut and wrap them individually and store in the refrigerator. Grab one for an on the go breakfast as you're walking out the door!

ingredients
3/4 C coconut oil (butter can also be used)
1/2 C brown sugar, packed (I was out today so I used 1/2 C evaporated cane juice)

cream above together then add:

1 C white whole wheat flour
1 C buckwheat flour or oat bran or a mixture of whatever "flours" you like (you could just use another cup of the whole wheat flour). Today I used 3/4 C Buckwheat and 1/4 C ground flax seeds
3/4 C chopped nuts, dried fruit or seeds (Pumpkin Seeds are great in this recipe) (I omitted this today bc of 1. nut allergies and 2. my kids are pretty sick of raisins right now and that's the only dried fruit currently in the house).
3/4 C rolled oats
1 teaspoon vanilla (today I used 1/2 tea vanilla extract and 1/2 lemon extract)

Press 1/2 of the above mixture into a  greased 9x13 pan

spread about 8oz of your favorite fruit preserves/jam on top (today I used the last of the strawberry jam I canned last summer)

Sprinkle then press the other half of the crumb mixture on top, pressing gently but firmly.

Bake at 350 about 30 minutes, checking at 25 minutes.  If edges are getting brown, take it out.

Cool completely.  Cut into bars.  Eat.  Enjoy.

Basic Vegan Banana Muffins

The girls and I love muffins! I've recently had several requests for my Basic Vegan Banana Muffin recipe so I decided to post it here. I originally found this and tweaked it into the following:

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas
• 1/4 cup oil or vegan margarine, softened (coconut oil gives an excellent flavor)
• 1/2- 3/4 cup sugar, honey or molasses
• 2.5 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup of any add in you like- We use blueberries, raisins, cranberries...one morning I even minced fresh mango and they turned out awesome! (oh and you can't forget the Vegan Chocolate Chips!)

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 360 degrees. In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork till soft (I used a potato masher). Add the oil or vegan margarine and sugar and cream together.
In a separate bowl, combine together the flour, salt,baking powder and baking soda. Combine with the banana mixture, stirring gently just to combine.
Fold in your 1 cup of add in ingredients (berries, nuts, chocolate chips)
Grease or line a muffin pan, and fill each muffin about 2/3 full with batter. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

Ella loves muffins almost as much as she loves Olivia

 I've made this recipe so often (sometimes every day, they disappear so quickly) I have it memorized and can go from start to putting the muffins in the oven in 5 minutes. It's truly an easy recipe and something kids can help out with.