Healthified Nutrigrain Bars

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 Happy Thursday erbody! So last week while doing my normal grocery shopping I was in the granola bar isle looking for some sort of quick and easy healthy snack for the little dude. I picked up a few different breakfast bars to compare the nutrition facts and ingredients, and well, even the "healthy" ones had about 20 or more ingredients. Of those ingredients the only one I could pronounce was sugar. I was very disappointed and realized that most of these are just candy bars masked as healthy oatmeal snacks. I in no way claim to be a health nut, but I do try to be as healthy as possible, especially for little dude. So that's when I decided to bag that idea and just find a recipe to make, that way I know exactly what's going in it.

Of course, the first place I looked was Pinterest and I found a great recipe for homemade Nutrigrain bars. It was relatively healthy, but I altered it slightly by using whole wheat flour instead of all purpose and substituting applesauce for most of the butter. They were so yummy! My husband has even requested that I make them regularly.

 Here is my "healthified" version of the recipe

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. Oats

3/4 c. Brown sugar, packed
1 t. Baking powder
1/2 t. Salt
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/3 c. salted butter, cut into pieces
1 jar (10-12 oz) Preserves (I didn't use nearly that much)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients except preserves.  Press half of the mixture into a buttered 8" square (or small rectangular) pan.  Spread preserves.  Sprinkle second half of mixture over the top and press down lightly.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until lightly golden.  Let cool completely, cut into squares. 

*Images and original recipe found here*

4th of July Yummies

Can you believe it's almost July? I seriously cannot! It's crazy how fast this year has flown by, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. With the 4th just around the corner I have BBQ's and delicious sweets on my mind. Here a few yummy looking snacks to try this year.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 

Don't those all look delicious and super festive! I want to try them all, but that's probably not the best idea for my waist line. So how about all of you try them and let me know how they turn out, deal? Deal!

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Easter Cookies

My favorite Christmas cookies are my mom's Hersey kiss cookies. They are delicious! So i figured since they make my tummy so happy, why only eat them at Christmas? Yesterday at Target I bought my very first bag of mini eggs this year, which is huge acheivment for me, I seriously don't know how I waited so long. Mix those eggs with the Christmas cookies and you have yourself one happy girl, or an extra few hours at gym, whichever way you want to look at it. And as an added bonus they look like little bird's nest, now you can't beat that!

Here's the recipe, enjoy!

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/4 cup flour
pinch salt

Mix all ingredients and roll into 1 1/2 inch balls. Make a small thumbprint in each cookie and bake at 350 for 10 mins. As soon as you take them out of the oven place 2-3 mini eggs in the middle of each cookie. Get a glass of milk and enjoy!

No bake goodness

Alright peeps heres the thing, I love to bake. You heard me, I love it. But, my all time favorite cookie is the simple no bake cookie, I know I kind of contradicted myself. I also love peanut butter. So one day I was trying to come up with a way to combine the no bake with even more peanut butter and I came up with something brilliant and delicious! It has no name, but take my word for it, you will love it!

First you make the no bake (this recipe is halfed so some of the meaurements are a little funky).

3/4 c plus 1/8 c. sugar

1/4 c. milk

1/4 c. butter

2 tblsp. cocoa powder

1/4 c. peanut butter

1 1/2 c. oats

1/2 tsp. vanilla

pinch salt

In a saucepan combine sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 1/2 mins. This is important, if you cook it too long it will be dry, and if you don't cook it long enough it will never set up.

Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla. Spread the mixture in a 9x9 pan. I don't use quite all of it becuase it will be pretty thick, but go ahead and use it all if you're into that sort of thing. Set it aside and let it cool.

While the cookie base is cooling make the peanut butter mixture

8 oz. cream cheese

3/4 c. peanut butter

1 c. powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients together and spread evenly over base. Then melt about 1 cup of chocolate chips and spread over peanut butter mixture. I melt them in the microwave stiring everything 30 seconds. Let them set up in the fridge for a few hours before eating

They are pretty rich, so its not the kind of treat you can sit down and eat 10 of, but trust me, they are super yummy!

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