On The Menu | That Bald Chick

Low-Cal Oatmeal Bars

February 17, 2012 By Virginia 27 Comments

I was playing around in the kitchen, and decided to make oatmeal bars. I’ve never made oatmeal bars, but I figured it couldn’t be much different than oatmeal cookies, right? Except you throw more stuff in. So, I started with a basic oatmeal raisin cookie recipe, switched the raisins for cranberries, and started adding stuff. Here’s the final recipe

Cranberry Apple Zucchini Carrot Oatmeal Bars

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Yield: 48 pieces

Calories per serving: 51

Fat per serving: 2.4

Cranberry Apple Zucchini Carrot Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients

3 cups old fashioned oats (NOT the quick cook oats)
1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour
1/2 cup Splenda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup salted butter, melted
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 cups shredded carrot
1 raw apple, cored and sliced
1 raw zucchini, cut in chunks

Instructions

Heat oven to 350F.
Spray 13x18x1 inch cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
Placed apple and zucchini in food processor and pulse until chopped well. Add shredded carrot and dried cranberries and mix well. Set aside.
Into stand mixer bowl, sift together flour, Splenda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Add oats, and stir until well blended.
In separate bowl, combine egg, water, melted butter, and vanilla.
Add carrot zucchini apple mixture to dry mix and, with bowl locked in place, begin mixing on low. Slowly add egg mixture.
Spread mixture into pre-sprayed cookie sheet.
Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, until edges and top are slightly crispy.
Cool for 10 minutes before slicing into 48 pieces.

Notes

Per piece: Calories- 51 Total Fat- 2.4g Sat. Fat- 1.3g Cholest.- 5.1mg Sodium- 48.7mg Carb.- 6.7g Fiber- 0.9g Sugars- 2g Protein- 0.9g

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http://thatbaldchick.com/2012/02/17/low-cal-oatmeal-bars/

and here’s Sister enjoying one…

YUM!

When Hubs walked in the door, he promptly ate four of them!

The best part is, Mister likes them, too. And he protests all things green!

***ETA*** Thanks to everyone that p0inted out my error on the timing. I meant 30 minutes, not 30 hours. WHOOPS!

Filed Under: On the Menu Tagged With: oatmeal-bars, onthemenu, Recipe

Chocolate Fudge with Crushed Pretzel Topping

February 13, 2012 By Virginia 15 Comments

I’ve always wanted to be able to make fudge, but have never been able to pull it off. That is, until I found the simplest fudge recipe ever. Two ingredients.

1 can of chocolate frosting and 1 bag of chocolate chips.

Because it is in my nature to complicate even the simplest of recipes, I decided to add crushed pretzels to mine.

I melted the chocolate chips in my Wilton Chocolate Pro (love my Wilton Chocolate Pro! I always managed to burn my chocolate before I started using it, now it melts perfectly!), then combined the melted chocolate with the chocolate frosting.

I spread the mixture into a buttered 8×8 baking pan.

Then I pressed crushed pretzels into the chocolatey goo.

Although I wanted to try a piece right away, I followed instructions and put the pan in the fridge to chill and harden.

After it had a chance to firm up, I cut a few pieces to enjoy with the fam.

Oh. My. Yum. Little pieces of heaven on a plate!

Next time, I think I will put the crushed pretzels on the bottom, so that the fudge is all up in the crumbly goodness.

Now that I know how to make cheater fudge, I think I want to try some variations. I keep thinking the chocolate with strawberry wafer cookies would be nom nom. What flavor combo’s have you tried with fudge (real or cheater recipes)?

Filed Under: On the Menu Tagged With: easy, fudge, ohmyyum, Recipe, two-ingredient

Tasting Party with International Delight #IcedCoffee #Cbias

February 7, 2012 By Virginia 8 Comments

I recently told you about the delivery of International Delight Iced Coffee, sent by my friend Beth through #CBias, that put a smile in my cup. The smiles kept coming, because shortly after that, I received an opportunity (also through #CBias) to share that cup o’smiles with friends via an iced coffee tasting group. I could think of no better place to share a cup of coffee with friends than at the pantry where I volunteer.

Each week, a small group of us gather to inspect and sort canned goods and dry goods into bagged food orders that we distribute to pantry patrons. Our morning starts around 8 a.m. We break at 10 a.m. for Bible Study. The pantry opens, for food distributions, at 11 a.m. and closes at 12:30 p.m. For those of us that stay the entire morning, it makes for a long day. Especially on days that we receive delivery, because then we also have pallets of food to categorize and put away.

I knew the other volunteers would enjoy a well deserved treat, so I called Pastor Marcella to ask if I could provide the treats for the week. After she agreed, I shopped at my local Walmart for the iced coffee (check out my #IcedCoffee Limerick and shopping trip here). On my way to pantry, I stopped to pick up donuts and pastries, as I thought they would be the perfect compliment to the morning activities and iced coffee tasting. Boy, was I ever right!

As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, I initially started volunteering at the pantry as an excuse to spend time with my Mom. It’s a great way to spend time together, because we both enjoy helping others.

Mom enjoyed a cup of International Delight Iced Coffee as she chatted with other volunteers. Of the three flavors, (Mocha, Original, and Vanilla), Mom preferred the Vanilla flavor.

Have I ever told you that my love for coffee is ALL MOM’S FAULT? Seriously. I started drinking coffee when I was a toddler. When I was a toddler, Mom started adding cold water to her cup of coffee, so that if I grabbed it, I wouldn’t burn myself. To this day, we both add cold water to our cup, to cool off our coffee, before we drink it. In my family, coffee was the culture. The pot was turned on in the morning when we got up, and off at night when we went to bed. See. I rest my case.

Pastor Marcella took time out to taste all three flavors…

She said that she preferred the Vanilla, as well.

Pastor Norm said he would stick with his brewed hot coffee. He’s not the iced coffee sort of guy. LOL.

Everyone that did try the International Delight Iced Coffee enjoyed it, and overall, the vanilla won out as the flavor enjoyed by most. The comment that was most frequently made about the mocha flavor was that it wasn’t chocolatey enough, which is what my husband had previously said.

Several people also said that they would be more likely to purchase the International Delight Iced Coffee if there were a lower sugar or sugar free alternative.

Learn more by following International Delight on Twitter and liking International Delight on Facebook.

Speaking of Twitter, join us for an International Delight #IcedCoffee Coffee Hour Party on 02/09/12 (that’s this Thursday) at 1 p.m. EST (12 Noon CST).

We will be chatting about Iced Coffee, recipes, flavors, and so much more. Oh, yah, and if you RSVP below and participate during the party, you have a chance to win one of (3) $25 Walmart Gift Cards and (1) $100 Walmart Gift Card.

Party Deets:

WHAT: #IcedCoffee Twitter Party – get inspired to host a coffee klatch
WHEN: Thursday, February 9 th, 1-2 PM EST
WHERE: On Twitter on your computer! Follow and use the #IcedCoffee hashtag during the party, you can also use the Tweetgrid created just for the party – http://bit.ly/w1vJob.
FUN: Tips, coffee talk, faves and giveaways.
FOLLOW: Follow @RebeccaEParsons, @LaurenRodkin, @MonicaJohnson and @inDelight and RSVP.

NOTE: You will have to follow @inDelight to win prizes during the Twitter party.

RSVP here.

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions are my own (or those shared with me by the tasters).

Filed Under: On the Menu Tagged With: CBias, checkthisout, coffee, IcedCoffee

Avocado Baby Food

February 1, 2012 By Virginia 26 Comments

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Avocados from Mexico for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Did you know that babies can eat avocado? When my kids were babies, I made their baby food, and some of their favorites included avocado. The awesome thing about avocado in baby food is that it doesn’t have to be cooked. That made it so easy to throw into various recipes. And because babies need a fair amount of fat in their diet, for brain development, I loved that they could get good fat from avocados.

We frequently used Avocados from Mexico in our recipes, and I was thinking about the avocado baby food recipe’s I’d used and sent a friend some virtual avocado slices to ask if she had tried them with her son yet…

I thought I would share a couple of the avocado baby food recipes that we used, and my kids loved.

Banana- Avocado Mash

Cut an avocado in half, remove the pit, and cut the meat out. Mash the meat with a fork, then mash a banana and add to the avocado mash.

You can use a blender, or food processor, to puree to desired consistency, but my little ones just loved it if I put it in one of those mesh baby food strainers for them to eat from.

Baby Guac

Cut an avocado in half, remove the pit, and cut the meat out. Mash the meat with a fork, set aside.

Place a 1/4 cup Cheerios in a zipper bag, and crush them. Add plain yogurt and crushed cheerios to the avocado mash, until desired consistency. You can add spices (i.e. garlic) to season, but my kids liked it without the spices.

Sweet Potato-cado Mash

1 small sweet potato (can substitute butternut squash puree if desired)
1 avocado, peeled

Bake the sweet potato in its skin until tender (30-45 minutes, depending on size and oven temp).
Cool, then remove the flesh from the skin and mash with the avocado.

My kids loved these recipes. Of course, they get their avocado love from their mama!

Show your love for Avocados from Mexico at I love avocados on Facebook and on Twitter with @guacgrl