Oatmeal Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

There is not a single word in that name that doesn't excite me!  My never-ending sweet tooth jumps for joy at the thought of combining chocolate and peanut butter.  This recipe comes from the Facebook Group:  High Protein Foods.  So that makes me feel even better!  High Protein...  that has to be good for me.

This recipe does have a couple of ingredients that I don't regularly keep in my pantry, so I did have to plan ahead  and be sure that I had all of the ingredients.

• 1 c. peanut butter
• 2/3 c. honey
• 1/2 c. coconut oil
• 2 c. old fashioned oats
• 1 1/4 c. (8 oz.) sugar-free chocolate chips
• 3/4 c. reduced-sugar, dried cranberries 

This was a super simple recipe to make.  You can reduce the sugar in this  Low Sugar  recipe a little more if you chose to use a non-processed peanut butter.  Of course, there are obviously natural sugars in the honey and the cranberries.

 Start with a medium saucepan on medium heat.  Add the peanut butter, honey and coconut oil.  This was the first time that I had worked with coconut oil.  So I was surprised when I opened the container and found out that it was not a liquid.  Wonder why they don't call it coconut shortening??
Heat these three ingredients  and stir occasionally until melted together.

 Meanwhile measure out the remaining 3 ingredients.  I found out that 1 1/4 c. of the sugar-free chocolate chips were exactly the 8 oz. bag.

Once the first 3 ingredients have become completely smooth, remove the pan from the heat and stir in your last ingredients.  Stir until the chocolate is completely melted.

Pour the mixture into a 9 x 13 pan and spread out into an even layer.  Put the pan into the fridge for an hour or so until the chocolate is set up.  This will make it much easier to cut into squares.
That is not to say that you can't sneek a bit with a spoon if you just can't wait.
Once you have cut into squares, these need to be stored in the refrigerator to maintain their firmness.
This would be a great snack for your lunch box!

Jam Oatmeal Cookie Bars

The other day I was preparing some food to take to a colleague and his wife.  He had a knee surgery scheduled and a few days beforehand, his wife broke her leg.  So they were neither one in the position to be cooking.  I made them a couple of casseroles to put into the freezer until needed and since I had the ingredients to make these scrumptious cookie bars, I made them as well.

Unfortunately, I am not sure where I got this recipe.  The one thing I do remember is that according to the recipe you could use any flavor of cake mix and match it up with a great flavor of jam.  Since our sugar-free cake mixes only come in yellow and chocolate, I made a change to the recipe and have added a box of sugar-free Jell-o powder mix to change the flavor of the cake to coordinate with your flavor of jam.

For this recipe, I had a jar of sugar-free raspberry jam.  Smucker's makes several sugar-free flavors and you can get a few flavors in generic form.  As we have talked about before, fruit has natural sugars, but I looked on the label and this is really sugar free jam.  So this is a true  Sugar-Free  recipe.  For the whole recipe, you need the following ingredients:

• sugar-free yellow cake mix
• sugar-free Jell-o powder
• 2 1/2 c. oats
• 3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, melted
• 1 jar sugar-free jam

So as I mentioned above, this time I had a jar of sugar-free raspberry jam and some raspberry Jell-o.  In the past, I have made peach, orange and strawberry.  So far, I have always matched my flavors.  But I think some coordinating would be good as well; lime-strawberry, orange-pineapple, strawberry-peach...well, I could go on and on.

 Heat oven to 365 degrees.  Grease or spray a 13 x 9 pan.  Stir together the cake mix, gelatin powder and oats.  Stir in melted butter until mixture is crumbly; just make sure everything is moist.  Measure out 3 cups of the mixture and press it evenly in your pan.

 Spread the entire jar of jam evenly over the mixture base.  Then, sprinkle the remaining crumbly mixture evenly over the top.  Use the palm of your hand and gently press crumbs into the jam.  Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Mixture will not look completely done when you remove it from the oven because the jam is so warm.

Cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.  Cut into squares.  If you have trouble waiting until it is cool...it will taste wonderful... you just won't be able to pick it up and you will have to use a fork... not that there is anything wrong with that...  just sayin'!

Note:  This recipe does make enough for a 9 x 13 pan.  Since I was making for a friend, I divided mine and made half for him and half for us.  That is why you only see a square pan in the picture.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oh, the comfort I find in the smell of fresh baked cookies.  You know, I think we all kind of revert back to our childhood and when our moms or grandmas baked us cookies.  It just smelled like home.  One of the first recipes I tried to make with Splenda, was this Oatmeal Cookie Recipe.  I have had this recipe for as long as I can remember.  I know it was the one that my mom had and when I asked her where she got it, she said that she figured it came from the oatmeal box.  So I did a little investigation and looked on my oatmeal box, knowing that you almost always use the same brands of products that your mom did...why?...because your mom did...but the recipe wasn't the same.  So either they have changed the recipe on the oatmeal box, or my mom just doesn't remember where the recipe came from.  She is probably going to read this so I should say that I am sure they changed the recipe on the oatmeal box.

So, this is a Low Sugar recipe.  You just can't really make cookies without using brown sugar and as of right now, there is only a blend product for brown sugar.  The great news is that you should only use 1/2 of what the recipe calls for which means it takes the true sugar amount down to 1/4 of what the recipe calls for.  Now I just can't really want any oatmeal cookies that don't have raisins in them, and while raisins don't have any refined sugar, there are natural sugars in all fruit.  I personally don't have any issues with natural sugars; it is the refined sugar that I have worry about.  But if you need to stay away from all types of sugar, you may just want to leave the raisins out.

Ingredient list:

• 3/4 c. shortening
• 1/2 c. Splenda Blend brown sugar
• 1/2 c. Splenda granulated
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 t. vanilla
• 3 c. uncooked oats
• 1 c. flour
• 1 t. salt
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2-1 c. raisins (to your liking)

Start by preheating your oven to 335 F.  Mix all of your wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer:  Shortening, sugar substitutes, egg, water and vanilla.

Of course, you can always go old school and mix it together with a large wooden spoon.  Maybe you can skip your workout for the day!

 Stir in your dry ingredients:  oatmeal, flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.  Please note that by stirring in the dry ingredients just until incorporated, your cookies will be softer and more tender.  I use a big spoon-shaped spatula.

Finally, mix in your raisins.  You can add other optional ingredients as well.  You might try nuts, sugar-free chocolate chips, etc.  Use your imagination, depending on your own tastes.

 Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.  As you prepare the dough to put on the pan, take a look at my tip about forming your cookies, since Splenda based cookies will not spread while cooking.


Eleven (11) has always been my go to number when baking cookies.  I have mentioned before that I really enjoy soft, chewy cookies.  By only baking them for 11 minutes, they will come out of the oven still a little soft and not really completely cooked.  But here is the trick.  Leave them on the hot pan for 3-5 minutes more before moving them to a cooling rack.  They will finish cooking and you will have the most chewy cookies.