A few years ago, I used to take my kids to the Kentwood Recreation Center. They have something called “Bouncin’ Babies and Tumblin’ Toddlers” on Friday mornings in the winter, and it was a lifesaver. Both of my kids, but A.P. especially feel the need for speed all the time. He’s high energy. That may be a slight understatement.
I met another mom with two kids. One of them was a lot like A.P. and they hit it off right away. And, as luck would have it, so did we. In addition to being super nice, Kelli had snacks. Good snacks. Sadly, when spring came we didn’t see our Kentwood Rec friends anymore. One day as I was browsing random blogs, I saw a picture of a kid I kind of recognized. It took me a minute, because I didn’t know if I had seen this kid in a movie, or had read this blog before and forgotten. Then I realized the blog was Kelli’s, and the kid was Andrew. I didn’t even know she blogged. I sent her one of those, “Um hi. I don’t know if you remember me.. but… do you remember me”? emails. She did, we re-connected, and both of us blogged happily ever after.
I know what you’re thinking. That’s no way to end a story. What about the snack? A fine question, you discerning reader you. I did get an approximation of the recipe from Kelli that day, and it might be slightly different but here it is:
Cherry Apple Oatmeal Bars
•1/2 stick unsalted butter
•1/4 cup sucant
•4 Tbs. honey
•2-1/2 cups rolled oats
•2 Tbs. ground flax seeds
1/2 cup dried cherries (I added this ’cause I love cherries!)
•1 tsp. cinnamon
•1 cup unsweetened applesauce
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Butter an 8-inch square pan. Melt butter over low heat. Dissolve sucant and honey into the butter.
3. Mix oats, cinnamon, cherries and applesauce. Add sucant-butter mixture. Mix well and press firmly into pan.
4. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, until just browning on the edges.
This post was submitted for Kitchen Stewardship’s “Get The Junk Out” Carnival hosted this week by Naturally Knocked Up, and Real Food Wednesday, hosted this week by Kelli the Kitchen Kop.
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Awww. You just made my evening. Thank you so much. And I love the adjustments in your recipe! We will be eating baked oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow…. it’s oatmeal Thursday around here. (not catchy like the rests of the days: Muffin Monday, Toasty Tuesday, etc….oh well.)
It’s funny, just today, Andrew was asking me when he could go back to the “old gym”. Kinda sad that the boys are too big for it now…. and it’s when they are in school. I liked it as much for the “mommy visiting time” as the “wear the boys out” time.
Great bloggy fairytale. And we all lived happily ever after.
I loved Kentwood Rec. I wish we had something like that here for the winter!