Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Happy first day of April to everyone! I’m excited that it’s April because it’s my birthday month 🙂

It is hot, hot, hot in here.

Yesterday our temps reached 90 degrees and it was the first time I slept with the bedroom door open and windows open. I didn’t realize our neighbors got a new dog. I’ve never heard him before.

Even though I prepped my overnight oats last night, I forgot to make my iced coffee. I drank hot coffee this morning with the AC on in my car on my way to the gym. Hot and cold.

Here is my cardio workout today on the treadmill. I did HIIT workout today. I was a sweaty mess in the end.

It’s hard for me to run fast, I have very short legs. Being able to hold the 9.0 speed for a minute has been a goal of mine for awhile now and I’m proud to say that even though it was hard and uncomfortable, I was able to do it.

Eating my bowl of cold overnight oats (same one as last time) after the gym felt so good. It definitely cooled me down quickly.

Snack Bars

I made a collage of the snack bars I’ve made and posted it on the recipe page.

I also posted the collage above on my facebook album with the caption below:

“Making my own snack bars. Less sugar and excluding ingredients I can’t pronounce. (Pantothenate? Cyanocobalamin? Pyridoxine Hydrochloride? No Thanks”

Well, I’m at it again. Creating more snacks bars in the kitchen.

These snack bars were for my friends Lora and Cher who ran the Coaster Run 10K with me this weekend.

I meant to make snack bars, and as far as they are concerned, they are snack bars. But with the addition of chocolate chips and a tad more sweetener than I usually put in, they turned out tasting like cookie bars instead (for me anyways).

I’m pretty sure I can use the same batter and shape them as cookies. I will probably try that next time.

Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Ingredients:

Dry

• 1 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup soy flour (<– I used soy flour because it’s higher in protein, whole wheat flour is good too)
• 1/4 cup flax meal
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup dried fruits (I used 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup chocolate chips) 

Wet

• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoon liquid egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup honey

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 8 x 8 pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Step 2: Mix dry ingredients together in one bowl. Mix wet ingredients together in another bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.

Step 3:  Spread mixture firmly into dish. Use spatula or your hand to packed them down. Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool 5-10 minutes. I cut them into 8 bars.

These were soft and chewy bars.

I got a text from Lora this week “Hey, these bars are good!”. I’m glad she liked them.

Next time, I will double the recipe and make more.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday!