Mar 31, 2010

Baking with a Dirty Blondie...Ginger

After I carbo-loaded on angel hair for absolutely no reason other than loving pasta, I had the urge to bake! I looked down in my own shame, remembered that I'm not currently rocking a tummy roll, and considered the state of my abs. NO COOKIES ALLOWED. 

SAVE THE ABLETS.

Cookinglight.com was a big fat failure for me tonight, so I resorted to other bloggers' goodies. Tina is a blogger from my home state of Massachusetts. Her healthy-eating and fitness blog is right up my alley -- she exercises her butt off, eats really healthy, but knows it's important to indulge...bc we can. Hence the name of her blog "Carrots and Cake." I perused her recipes and found Baked Banana Oatmeal. I made some modifications and created a very similar recipe.

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup oats
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1/4 cup dried cranberries
  • 1 cup Blue Diamond almond milk, original flavor
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 banana, sliced
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350* F.
2. Combine the first six ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
3. Add milk and vanilla and stir.
4. Spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. 
5. Add mixture to the pan.
6. Top the mixture with the sliced bananas. 
7. Bake for 30 minutes or until slightly browned.
8. Resist the temptation to immediately devour, and let cool. 

Makes 2-4 breakfast bars -- depends how hungry you are! 
I cut mine into 4 servings. Here is the estimated nutritional information that I calculated using livestrong.com.
Please note that this is a calculation using the above site and the specific products that I used.

Per 1/4 of total recipe: 
212 Calories
10g Fat
0mg Cholesterol
40mg Sodium
29.5 Carbohydrates
17.5g Sugar
2.75g Fiber
3.75g Protein

Enough science, onto the baking process. I'm such a blonde. Well, sort of. Let's not get into a 30 minute discussion about how I'm never quite sure what my hair color is. We'll just go with dirty blonde almost ginger. Oh, and my eyes? I-swear-they're-green-but-everyone-else-thinks-they're-blue. For this particular recipe, I was a ditzy, a.d.d. blonde. 

Step 1: Completed without difficulty. Pressing the up arrow to preheat an oven isn't hard.
Step 2: Beautiful success!
Step 3: Also a success!
Step 4: Where the !@#$%^&* is my loaf pan? I started to panic and rummage through the cabinets. Luna Bar stash, sweet!! Can you guess what my favorite flavor is?
Step 5-6: I settled for a little pyrex instead.
Step 7: The baking/sitting with anticipation by the oven process:
immediately after placing in the oven. 
i'm easily excited over baked goods.
ten minutes later. good grief, time is slow. 
i guess i'll clean up.
realizing that i make quite the disaster mess while baking:
oh, look, the spilled milk made a C!
10 minutes left, let's play on facebook/BBM/chug diet lemonade. 
clearly these three things are crucial in my life.
five minutes left. i can't sit still. 
except on the floor in front of the oven i guess.
Step 8: I MADE IT!
There you have it--brekkie bar sucess!

13 comments:

  1. I'll have to make those sometime! Yum.

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  2. hahaha Tina does have some great baked good recipes. You should try her oatmeal raisin bars (I make them with sunflower seeds & chocolate chips)- yum!

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  3. YUM! These look SO good! And, love the Luna Bar stash, haha. It made me feel a little more normal, sicne I have a giant Bar stash, too!
    I'm sooo impatient when it comes to baking stuff, too. I'm always like "Just hurry UP, already!!" Even dinner, anything! That's why I always just end up using the stovetop and frying/sauteeing everything, haha.

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  4. I LOVE baking but I totally understand how hard it is to wait for the cooking to end! Especially when the whole house smells really good! They came out looking delicious though girl! :)

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  5. Yours looks SO DELICIOUS! I need to make this recipe again!

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  6. I just wanted to let you know that you inspired me to try a couple of Luna bars this week. Having never eaten one and not really knowing what to expect, I surprised myself by picking two delicious flavors: Nutz over Chocolate and Caramel Nut Brownie!

    P.S. Your oatmeal recipe looks yummy!

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  7. I love reading your posts! You are hilarious and those look great. Those were my favorite lunas for SO long. I constantly had a huge box of those and cookies and cream on hand for my chocolate cravings haha. Love it!

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  8. Oh, the bars look yummy! I can't sit still either when I am waiting for something to get out of the oven! I am always in need of a good treat!

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  9. thanks for your sweet comments girl!

    and you are too funny waiting at the oven. if it's brownies, i'm TOTALLY like that.
    - r

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  10. Thank you so much for coming to my blog! I have to add you to my roll. You are soooo cute looking through the oven. This recipe looks amazing - can't wait to try it. And I LUV LUNA too - I've done a couple of reviews - I've never tried or seen the Iced Oatmeal Raisin...hmmm...

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  11. Wow you rocked out the bars! I make a banana bread that's vegan GF, uses banana in it, and also peanut butter :) that ive blogged about. anyway yours looks awesome and have a great weekend!

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  12. The bars you made look amazing!!!!! I bet they taste great!!! Let me know!!!

    I never tried that flavor luna ever and I have tried most of them!! Will have to!!!

    Happy Easter!!!!!!!!!!!! xoxo

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  13. that looks so good. and i wait by the oven ALL the time. at least i dont open it and let all the heat escape. i just turn on the oven light and stare at it :)

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