Oatmeal Peanut Butter Trail Bars

So these are basically energy bars and you will definitely fill a sweet hunger craving with these. They're moist and are basically like eating a cookie except you only eat one usually.






Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (this is made with less harmful oils)*
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or almonds
1/2 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9x13 inch baking pan with nonstick spray.
2. Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the peanut butter, sugar, and honey in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until blended. Blend egg and egg whites with a fork in a small bowl. Add to the peanut butter mixture, along with oil and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add reserved flour mixture and mix with a rubber spatula. Mix in oats, dried cranberries (or raisins), walnuts (or almonds), and chocolate chips. Scrape batter into the prepared baking dish. Use a piece of plastic wrap to spread the batter into an even layer. (The plastic wrap really helps as this batter is extremely sticky.)
3. Bake the bars until lightly browned and firm to the touch, 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan on a rack before cutting into 24 bars. One serving is one 2x2 inch bar.

Note: If you must avoid peanut butter due to an allergy, you can substitute soy nut butter or sunflower seed butter. You can also replace the nuts with unsalted roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and/or sunflower seeds.

Nutritional Facts:
Per serving: 175 calories, 4 g protein, 24 g carbohydrates, 2 g fiber, 8 g total fat, 1 g saturated fat, 9 mg cholesterol, 68 mg sodium.

Source for recipe: Magic Foods, Live longer, Supercharge your energy, lose weight, and stop cravings. It was given to my Grandma by a friend at church using it to control her blood sugar with diabetes.