The Happiness in Health

Whole Grain Raspberry Oat Bars

Ω May 15th, 2013 Ω Tagged AIM, raspberries, raspberry oat bars, Strawberry Fields Urbana IL, whole grain raspberry oat bars Ω 17 Comments

When we were in high school, my best bud Amy and I had a thing for raspberries (and cherry pie filling that comes in a can, but that’s another story). Looking for fruit? An entire pint of raspberries would suffice. One of us even had an AIM username with the word “raspberry” in it. I can’t remember who had the username, and also, does anyone actually use AIM anymore? Have I just dated myself?

No surprise that raspberry jam is my absolute favorite spread. When I saw a recipe for raspberry oat bars in Shape Magazine, I decided to healthify-it-up by using whole grain flour and less sugar. Granted, these bars are still a sweet treat – but when you’re looking for a sometimes food, why not go for something with an intense flavor that makes your taste buds sing?

(I thought about inserting a cartoon of taste buds singing, but … no. You’re welcome.)

Cutting 1″x1″ samples for a tasting:

Bonus pic! I recently served samples of these raspberry oat bars at Strawberry Fields, and unlike with my high-protein green hummus, customers lingered by my table to taste them. Some even came back for seconds. At one point, I left the table to show a customer how to look for sodium on a label, and when I returned, every sample was gone. Like, all that was left were a few wayward crumbs signaling the feast that had taken place in my absence. One woman said she discovered my “secret stash” of samples under the table and was tempted to sneak more.

I guess they were a hit.

Whole Grain Raspberry Oat Bars

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Keywords: bake breakfast dessert snack oats raspberry

Ingredients (24 bars)

1 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour or gluten-free flour blend
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 10-ounce jar raspberry jam

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover an 8-inch by 8-inch baking ban with foil, allowing a few inches to hang over each side.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, and oats. Add melted butter and mix until crumbly. Spoon 1 1/2 cups of the mixture into the foil-lined baking pan and press flat. Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and spread raspberry jam over the crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border of crust around the outside. Spoon remaining oat mixture over the jam and lightly spread to cover.

Bake for 20 minutes, then allow to cool completely in the pan. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour, then remove from pan and cut into 24 bars.

Q: What’s your favorite spread/jam flavor?

P.S. No post this Friday, as I’ll be traveling. See you next week!

More Happy 'n' Healthy:

» Filed under Recipes » 17 Comments

Monday Munchies, Part 21: The Passionfruit Flower

Ω May 13th, 2013 Ω Tagged a gross of passion fruits, asparagus, bircher muesli, Noosa yogurt, passion fruit, passionfruit, passionfruit flower, registered dietitian day of eats, stop-motion capture, video, what a dietitian eats, Yorkshire tea Ω 8 Comments

Yesterday, while I was rearranging the spices in alphabetical order, Peter called out from the next room.

“Jessie! It’s opening! Over here! Over HERE!”

Since last year’s single passion fruit flower bloomed, I’ve anticipated the opening of our passion fruit plant’s DOZEN buds. That’s right: we’ve duodecupled our passion fruit crop. I expect a gross of passion fruits next year.

Passion fruit flowers open over the course of a few seconds to a a few minutes. The transformation is quite spectacular, so over the last half-dozen openings, I’ve tried to stop-motion capture the process. I’ve caught the flower opening twice; below is the second stop-motion effort, taken yesterday. It’s only 12 seconds long (compressed from about 2 minutes of one picture per second), so feast your eyes!

I’ll keep my eyes open for a better stop motion opportunity that includes the bud opening. I took the above picture of the bud opening last week. It would have been a perfect video, but alas! the flower opened within a few seconds and my fingers wouldn’t work fast enough.

On to today’s post! This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. These eats took place two days after the last MM when I was determined to get a weekday in this series.

Breakfast, 7:30 am:

Bircher muesli made with Noosa yogurt and unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 sliced banana, frozen berries, chia seeds. I’ve finally embraced my inability to plan ahead for breakfast by making my Bircher 10 minutes before eating instead of the previous night. To keep it from being too liquid-y, I use 1:1 ratio milk:yogurt rather than 2:1. I’ve also been using unsweetened almond milk because it’s so darned delicious.

Yorkshire Gold with a little skim milk. The noir version.

Lunch, 12 pm:

Leftover red quinoa with pesto and asparagus, roasted bell peppers, a sliced tomato, sharp cheddar with dried apricots. A collection of different tastes makes for a satisfying meal.