Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

Probably the best part of being a nutrition major is that a required course is a lab in which you play with food. Sometimes it is boring, such as concocting starch pastes and racing them down a plastic sheet to see which was most viscous. Or when we cooked broccoli for three hours….

Like, what?

Mostly though, we would walk in and our professor would say something like “we are having a whole-grain feast today, no lab report- yay!” or “today we are making pizzas, just for shoots and giggles!”. Needless to say, this “lab” has provided me with some of my favorite-ever recipes- including these scrumptious peanut butter bars. This recipe uses olive oil as a fat, which sounds “eh”, but works. I would say these are a good desset or breakfast or whatever your fancy. The chocolate chips are my addition because chocolate. Thanks URI Foods lab! I’m going to miss your weirdness!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

2/3 cups whole-wheat flour

1 cup loosely-packed brown sugar

1 cup dry old-fashioned oatmeal

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1 large egg, beaten

1 Tbsp 1% milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine the flour, sugar, oats, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Blend together the olive oil, peanut butter, egg and milk in another bowl, using a fork or whisk. Make an indent in the center of the dry ingredients and add the liquid ingredients. Using a rubber spatula, combine the ingredients together. Press the mixture into a 9×9 inch non-stick baking pan and bake for 14-15 minutes, until the edges are browned. Cool in the pan. Cut into 16 bars. Place on a plate and serve.

*ADD: Chocolate chips, raisins, walnuts, peanut butter chips, other delicious things

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