Nutty Apricot Energy Cookies

Here's yet another yummy energy bar recipe! This may be my favorite recipe yet. Thanks to Vicki at Watching What I Eat for the inspiration for this recipe!

Nutty Apricot Energy Cookies
By Caroline Mac
Ingredients:
1.5 cups rolled oats
1 banana, mashed
1/2 cup sliced almonds
9 dried apricots, chopped
2 T peanut butter, softened
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 T vanilla extract
1 T pie spice

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix and wet ingredients and spices in a large mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients and mix until evenly blended.

Step 2: Spoon out the dough on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. You should get about 12 cookies, depending on the size you want.

Step 3: Bake for 15- 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Refrigerate until eating.




Enjoy!

Basic Spiced Crunchy Bars

Here's the recipe for the first batch of bars that I've made at the new apartment! If you make these bars, feel free to edit the variety of nuts/ fruit/ spices that you use. I just used the ingredients I had available to me, since I didn't want to run to the store.

Basic Spiced Crunchy Bars
By Caroline Mac
Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 1/4 cups unsweetened soy milk
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup almonds
4 dried figs
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup Joe's O's, Cheerios, etc.
1t Vanilla extract
1t pie spice

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a food processor, rough chop the almonds and figs. Combine those, along with all other dry ingredients, excluding the O's cereal,  in a large mixing bowl, stirring thoroughly.

Step 2: Combine all wet ingredients in a separate bowl and blend thoroughly. Add to dry ingredients and stir until completely blended/ mixed. Let mixture sit for about 10 minutes, or until most of the milk is absorbed by the oats.

Step 3: Add the cereal to the mixture and immediately spread in a baking pan lined with parchment paper, making sure there is an even thickness throughout and the bar "dough" goes all the way to the edges of the pan.

Step 4: Bake for around 30 minutes, or until bar seems firm and doesn't have a lot of extra moisture. Your bake time will probably vary depending on how long you let it soak and the thickness of your bars.

Step 5: Remove from pan and let cool before cutting into individual bars. Refrigerate once they are completely cool.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Bars

In honor of having my 500th hit today, I've decided to do a new bar recipe! My Everything Energy Bars have gotten the most page views of all my recipes, so I figure you guys might like some variety! I'm pretty proud of this one because I didn't look at another recipe as I created this. It was completely improvisational! The whole kitchen smelled like pumpkin as these were baking, and the taste is pumpkin pie-ish. I will say, if you prefer sweeter flavors, I would add some sugar or maple syrup to the mixture.

Pumpkin Pie Spice Bars
By Caroline Mac
Ingredients:
1 15-0z can pumpkin puree
2 cups quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup original soy milk
1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1.5 t pie spice
1 t vanilla extract
Dash of salt

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all wet ingredients and spices in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.

Step 2: Add oats, almond flour, and spices, followed by the dried fruit and nuts. Stir until mixture forms a moist dough.

Step 3: Line a medium sized, square baking pan with parchment paper. Transfer mixture to pan and spread evenly across bottom with a spatula.

Step 4: Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and crispy on top. Remove to cooling rack.

Step 5: Once cool, cut slab into bars of desired size.

Enjoy!

Hey guys! I have a little update on the pumpkin bars. As I learned the hard way today, these bars need to be refrigerated immediately after they cool. They have a shorter shelf life than my other bars, and consequently went bad in a few days when out of the fridge.

Thanks!
Caroline