Peanut Butter Granola Bars

Peanut Butter has been on my brain lately! I've been craving it like crazy for some reason... (I'm pregnant by the way! I'll be 20 weeks tomorrow! Woohoo!) K, back to talking about peanut butter...I've even been sneaking it into my oatmeal in the morning, making frostings out of it, and adding it to my dinners at night... weird I know! (See the link below for a great Peanut Butter Pad Thai Dinner that has recently become one of our new family favorites!)

This next recipe is a great PEANUT BUTTERY breakfast granola bar. You can make a batch, put them in their own individual baggies and then they're a great quick-grab breakfast or snack. They're versatile as well so if you like or dislike certain ingredients, you can simply sub them out! The bars kind of remind me like an oatmeal cookie rather than something healthy... so as long as you don't tell your kids, they wont know the difference! 

This recipe calls for brown sugar and I typically create my own so I can use my organic evaporate cane juice sugar as the base. (The link is provided below as well so you can try it out if you'd like!) Making your own brown sugar is surprisingly super simple. 

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Granola Bars

(Gluten Free, Dairy Free)
Created by jalene but inspired by a recipe from The American Dietetic Association

Makes 9 squares
Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup brown sugar (I make my own)
  
• 1/4 cup peanut butter (I used organic & unsweetened)
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil or olive oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp gluten free vanilla extract
• 1 & 1/2 cup gluten free rolled oats
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup chopped dates (you could sub raisins)
• 1/4 cup chopped plums 
• 1 Tbsp flax seeds
• 2 Tbsp any nut of your choice, chopped

Directions: 

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 8x8 pan with parchment or oil with coconut oil. 
2. In a bowl combine the brown sugar, peanut butter, oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Then stir in the remaining ingredients. 
3. Spread the mixture into pan, pressing it down with a spatula. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Allow the bars to cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes then remove from the pan and cool the rest of the way. (They taste yummy hot but if you don't want them to crumble while cutting, allow them to cool first.) Cut into squares to serve. Store unused bars in an airtight container.

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Peanut Butter lover as well?

Try my yummy Peanut Butter Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai. 
It's seriously crazy how delicious it is. 
The spaghetti squash noodles allow it to be grain-free but also help increase your veggie intake! It's one of our family's new favorite meals. :)

Why buy organic peanut butter...

Have you noticed an increasing amount of peanut allergies lately? I'm only in my thirties but growing up we NEVER had an special peanut allergy tables in our lunch room or any kids I can recall that could not eat it. So why the change? I'll let you in on a little secret... Peanuts are one of the dirtiest foods when it comes to chemical and pesticide residue. It's not something you can wash off either. They're grown into the peanuts. According to Reader Digest, peanuts are actually one of the top 13 foods you should buy organic because "Non-organic peanut butters are high in pesticides and fungus and contain aflatoxin, a potential carcinogen." Yikes!

So to solve the mystery of increasing amounts of allergies, if your child has a peanut allergy, chances are your child's body can't handle all of the bad residues ON the peanut vs the actual peanut itself. In our home, we ALWAYS buy organic peanut butter. The slightly higher price is worth it compared to us, or our daughter, developing a peanut allergy.