Snackmaster

I love snacks. When I visit my Dad’s house, the first thing I do is scrounge around to see what new snacks have showed up since I was there last. In fact, when making a ‘recommendation’ to me about Mr. Binder in the very early days of our relationship, a mutual friend said, “You two are perfect for each other. He likes mountain bikes, Keb’ Mo’, and snacks!”. 

Our kids love snacks too.  They have introduced us to an entirely new category of snacking. How I ever grew into adulthood eating fruit instead of Fruitabü and granola instead of Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars, I will never know. 

Due in large part to the aforementioned snacking, I joined Weight Watchers in July.  I couldn’t believe how horrible my diet had become. As I started cutting up apples and dipping them in two carefully measured tablespoons of peanut butter, my kids lay down their Teddy Grams and wandered over.  Of course my kids had eaten apples before; but during ‘snack time’ I automatically think more along the lines of Goldfish. Peanut butter is so messy, especially as a dip. But then, so few things in parenting aren’t messy; what is one more?

Then, my sister got me an old-school air popcorn popper for my birthday. This was a great gift, because I am a little freaked out about the popcorn lung thing and eat it way too often to give it up.  Now we just buy kernels (or ‘popcorn seeds’) like back in the olden days and dump them in the popper. No butter, no salt… my kids love it! Poor microwave, banished to the basement – it’s only function was to pop corn and now that’s been taken away too. 

Recently at Kentwood Rec I met a mom who was handing out snacks to a flock of children. Of course mine were front and center, so we started chatting.  She gave me the recipe for these Apple Oatmeal Bars from Parenthood.com that I will share with you all, because it is healthy, and easy, and not messy, and kids love it. The original recipe is a little too birdseed-ish for me so I modified it to my taste and ingredient awareness. 

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 Tbs. honey or a sweetener with a low-glycemic level,
  like agave syrup (uhh, not sure what that is. I just go with the honey.)
• 2-1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 Tbs. sunflower seeds (or, not)
• 1 Tbs. pumpkin seeds (wouldn’t that be like, four?)
• 2 Tbs. flax seeds, finely ground
  in a spice grinder (whatever)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup applesauce

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. 
2. Butter an 8-inch square pan. Melt butter over low heat. Dissolve brown sugar and honey into the butter. 
3. Mix oats, seeds, cinnamon and applesauce. Add sugar-butter mixture. Mix well and press firmly into pan.
4. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, until just browning on the edges. If the bars seem crumbly, press the mixture into the pan again, and then cut into squares. 

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Well, maybe not quite as much; I weighed in today at Weight Watchers and apparently I have been hitting the Apple Oatmeal Bars a little hard… but there is always next week.