Annie's Peanut Butter Power Bars

Jump-start your day with one of these delicious bars

They are packed with protein from the peanut butter, antioxidants from the berries, B vitamins from whole wheat flour and wheat germ, and heart healthy fats from the walnuts. Although there is a fair amount of butter used in this recipe, I replaced half of the saturated fat in a typical bar with a healthier fat ~ canola oil. So you still get all that buttery flavor with a lot less fat!

The inspriration for these bars came from one of my favorite desserts that my mom makes; her Apricot Bars. They are buttery, crunchy and fruity all in one. In one word they are heavenly.
The only thing is that I end up eating way to many of them whenever she makes a batch. I think I devoured 3/4 of them in one sitting once. NOT GOOD -( 'Er well they were good, but not good for me.) I shutter to think of the calories and saturated fat that I inhaled on that fine day.

So I decided to make a healthy alternative to my Mom's bars. I can't say that they are better than my Mom's recipe, but they certainly were delicious; and healthy too. I could have gone with tub margarine in place of butter, but I think one of the best things about these bars are the buttery taste. As I said above, I did reduce the butter by half and replaced it with canola oil. I am a firm believer in all good things in moderation. (Except of course when Mom puts a plate of those Apricot Bars in front of me!)

Starting with great ingredients is the first step...

Press half of the dough into a parchment or foiled lined bake sheet and then load on the filling!

To make putting on the top layer of dough easier, roll it out in between 2 sheets of waxed paper.

Lift off the top sheet, turn over, place on top of the filling and remove the 2nd sheet of waxed paper.

When the bars are light golden brown, remove from the oven and let cool. Grab the edges of the parchment paper and lift the bars out of the pan. Cut in half and then into equal size bars.

Annie's Peanut Butter Power Bars
by Mixed Salad Annie

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tablespoons wheat germ (optional)
1/4 cup natural cane sugar
1/4 cup packed natural brown sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp. either almond or vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
3/4 cup of your favorite preserves (I used Apricot, but often use Raspberry as well)
1 1/2 cups natural peanut butter
1 1/2 cups mixed dried fruit (such as Sunsweet Antioxident Blend)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
In an electric mixer or large mixing bowl blend together the butter, sugars and oil until creamy.
Add the egg and extract and blend until well combined. Add the wheat germ. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add to the butter mixture slowly until just combined. Gently mix in the walnuts. Reserve half of the mixture (about 1 1/2 cups) and set aside.

Press the mixture onto the bottom of a 8 1/2 x 12 inch (or 9 x 11) baking pan lined with parchment paper or foil. Spread 1/2 of the peanut butter over the mixture evenly. Dot the preserves all over, staying within 1/2 inch from edge. Sprinkle the dried fruit evenly over the top. Dot the remaining peanut butter evenly over the top.

Place reserved mixture between two sheet of waxed paper. Roll the mixture to the size of the pan. Remove the top piece of waxed paper, carefully flip it and place on top of the prepared mixture in the pan. Remove the remaining waxed paper.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely. Grab the edges of the parchment paper and lift the bars out of the pan. Cut in half and then into equal size bars.

Date Cranberry Orange Crumb Bars

A Good For You and Easy To Make Bar!

Whole Grain Oats and Wheat Germ Crust...

Delicious & Healthy Date Cranberry Fruit Filling...

Simple and Easy to Prepare...

I Highly Recommend It :)

Date Cranberry Orange Crumb Bars
Adapted from Dole®

1 pkg. (8oz) dole chopped dates
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup dried cranberries, divided
1 Tbls. grated orange peel
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
3/4 cup smart balance buttery spread, melted

Cook dates in water in a small sauce pan for 5 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup cranberries and peel.
Combine oats, flour, wheat germ, sugar, baking soda and salt in bowl. Stir in melted spread until combined.
Press 2/3 of oat mixture onto bottom of 8" or 9" square pan.
Spread date filling over crust. Add remaining cranberries into oat mixture and cover the date filling. Press down firmly with spatula. Bake at 375 ºF for 25 minutes or until light brown.

Blueberry Oatmeal Bars

Moist and Delicious!

Well as you can see, I got my first blueberries of the season! What to make... decisions, decisions. There are too many great recipes to make with blueberries. Should I make the always welcomed blueberry muffins or maybe some scones. Of course blueberry pie never disappoints either. Then there's those lemon blueberry cookies I've been wanting to make. Talk about stress...what a tough decision.

But I finally decided to make some Blueberry Oatmeal Bars. Why? I don't really know. Probably because I have never made them before. Plus, I recently ate some of my Mom's Quaker Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars and have been thinking about them ever since. So why not create a blueberry bar using similar ingredients? I was up for the challenge!

By the way, they turned out super moist and chewy, flavorful and I think, pretty cute too!


1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick tub margarine or butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 1/2 - 2 cups fresh blueberries, washed and stems picked off

Heat oven to 350°F. Place a large piece of foil in a 9 x 13 inch baking pan, overhanging sides.

In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In an electric mixer or large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add oil and maple syrup, mix well. Add egg whites (one at a time) and vanilla; beat well. Add sifted flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats; mix well. Carefully fold in half of blueberries.
Spread mixture evenly into prepared pan. Add the remaining blueberries to the top of the mixture, pushing berries in lightly.

Bake 28 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 20 minutes in pan; remove to wire rack by lifting up sides of foil. Cool completely. Cut into 24 squares. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar. Store tightly covered in the refrigerator.

Key Lime Bars

As Easy As Key Lime Pie...
Only Easier!

I have been in a limey mood lately. First I made the Coconut Lime cake for Easter, then I made a boxed mix of lime bars (a sticky mess) and last but certainly not least, these delicious key lime bars.
The original recipe is from America's Test Kitchen (Cooks Illustrated Magazine). It is a really simple, yet elegant bar recipe. I decided, as I usually do, to go low-fat with it. And you really can't tell the difference, I promise. If you like tangy...these bars are for you!!

Seeing that this recipe is made with low-fat cream cheese and fat-free sweetened condensed milk, which are both rich in calcium, I am sending it to Susan at Food Blogga for her Beautiful Bones Osteoporosis Food Event. It is a great event for a very important topic that surely needs more attention and thanks to Susan, we can learn a lot about the causes and prevention and not to mention her fabulous calcium rich recipes. Check it out!

Key Lime Bars
(Reduced-fat, but you'd never know it)

adapted from Cooks Illustrated

Crust
5 ounces animal crackers
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar (light or dark)
Pinch table salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
3 tablespoons margarine, melted and cooled slightly

Filling
2 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese (1/3 less fat), room temperature
1 tablespoon grated lime zest, minced
Pinch table salt
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup fresh lime juice, either Key lime or regular, about 3-4 limes
Garnish (optional)
3/4 cup natural unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted until golden and crispAdjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Fit an extra-wide heavy-duty piece of foil into bottom and up sides of 8-inch-square baking pan. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.

For CRUST: Place animal crackers in a food processor and pulse until broken down and until evenly fine. Add brown sugar and salt; process to combine, (break up any large sugar clumps with your fingers). Drizzle in butter and pulse until crumbs are evenly moistened. Press crumbs evenly into bottom of prepared pan. Bake until golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack while making filling. Keep oven on same temperature.

For FILLING: In medium bowl, stir cream cheese, zest, and salt until softened, creamy, and thoroughly combined. Add sweetened condensed milk and whisk until smooth; whisk in egg yolk. Add lime juice and whisk gently until combined.

TO ASSEMBLE AND BAKE: Pour filling into crust; spread evenly to corners. Bake until set and edges begin to pull away slightly from sides, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least one hour. Cover with foil and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 2 hours.

Lift foil with bars out from baking pan; cut bars into 16 squares. Sprinkle with toasted coconut, if desired.

Raspberry Strippers - Fruit Filled Cookie Tray-

If you like fruit filled cookies, this tray is for you!

This is just one of many cookie trays that I made for Christmas! It consists of bars, cookie slices and cookies filled with different kinds of fruit. It is one of my favorites.

Starting from the bottom middle going clockwise are Coconut Macaroons, Italian Prune Slices, Raspberry Strippers, Fig Slices, more Raspberry Strippers and in the middle, my mom's Apricot Squares.

The Raspberry Strippers were a new addition to my cookie repetaur. It got the recipe from Cooking Light magazine. They were super scrumptious. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a close up photo of this particular cookie, but you can see it has a lot of raspberry filling on the top. Even though it is supposed to be a lighter cookie, it was really delicious. It is made with butter, just a bit less than its cousin recipe (Raspberry Thumbprint cookies).

Raspberry Strippers
by Cooking Light, December 2000

1/3 cup granulated sugar
5 tablespoons butter or stick margarine, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg white
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
1/3 cup raspberry or apricot preserves
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375°.

Beat granulated sugar and butter with a mixer at medium speed until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla and egg white; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture, stirring until well-blended. (Dough will be stiff.)

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each portion into a 12-inch log. Place logs 3 inches apart on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Form a 1/2-inch-deep indentation down the length of each log using an index finger or end of a wooden spoon. Spoon preserves into the center. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove logs to a cutting board.

Combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, and almond extract; stir well with a whisk. Drizzle sugar mixture over warm logs. Immediately cut each log diagonally into 12 slices. (Do not separate slices.) Cool 10 minutes; separate slices. Transfer slices to wire racks. Cool completely.

Yield: 2 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie) Nutritional Information: CALORIES 75(30% from fat); FAT 2.5g (sat 1.5g,mono 0.7g,poly 0.2g); PROTEIN 0.7g; CHOLESTEROL 6mg; CALCIUM 4mg; SODIUM 56mg; FIBER 0.2g; IRON 0.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 12.4g