No Bake Gluten Free Oatmeal Bars

I am always trying to find something filling that Kid 3 can eat in the morning. Cereal typically upsets her stomach as does just about anything with dairy or wheat. I found a recipe for Coconut Mocha Vegan Protein Bars on Pinterest. I modified the recipe somewhat to suit Kid 3's tastes.

We use Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats (affiliate link). I buy my coconut milk at my grocery store. There are several brands to choose from, I buy whatever happens to be the cheapest. I have yet to notice a difference in quality between the brands available at my store.

Gluten free and dairy free (if you use dairy free chocolate chips, I did not). These bars are great for an afternoon snack or as a filling breakfast bar.

No Bake Gluten Free Oatmeal Bars

by Jen Loves Life

Cook Time: 0

Keywords: breakfast dessert snack gluten-free vegetarian oatmeal coconut milk coconut chocolate 

Adapted from: Coconut Mocha Vegan Protein Bars

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Ingredients (12 Bars)

• 3 cups gluten free rolled oats
• 4 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup sunflower seed butter (or your favorite nut butter)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 can full fat coconut milk

Instructions

Line a8x8 baking dish with parchment paper. Allow for the paper to hang over the top of pan.

Use a food processor to grind the oats into a course meal, leaving some larger pieces of oats in the mix. Pour the oat meal into a large mixing bowl.

Add dry ingredients to oat meal. Stir to combine.

Add coconut milk and mix. Next add vanilla and sunflower seed butter. Mix well.

Pour in coconut and chocolate chips. I prefer to use mini chocolate chips because it just feels like there's more chocolate even though there isn't.

Transfer the mixture to the baking dish. Press the mix into the pan firmly. Cover pan and refrigerate for 20 minutes or longer.

Once bars have chilled remove from refrigerator. Lift block of bars from the baking dish using the extra parchment paper. Cut the bars into six long strips, then cut the strips in half.

I melted chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave and drizzled on top with a little bit of the unsweetened coconut, this step is optional.

Store the bars in an air-tight container in the fridge.

I store mine in freezer. Kid 3 just grabs one in the morning and sets it out of the counter while she gets ready for school and by the time she's done it's defrosted and ready to eat.

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The Best Ever Vegan Cupcakes

I have started to experiment with dairy-free cooking because Kid 3 has had some major stomach issues when she eats dairy. She has been feeling sad that everyone eats junk food and they can go about their day feeling fine while she almost instantly gets a stomach ache. She's tried using the Lactaid pills but she really hated having to take them every time she wanted to eat something with dairy.

I started searching on Pinterest for dairy-free recipes to make for Kid 3. I found an excellent oatmeal chocolate chip recipe (I'll post about that soon!) and I found this recipe. The recipe is from babble.

I followed the recipe exactly. We used plain, unsweetened almond milk for the non-dairy milk and I used Canola oil, because that was all I had on hand. For the frosting I used Smart Balance butter, again because that was what I had. The frosting was a tad oily but I think it has to do with the butter, it is an oil-based dairy-free butter. We were able to make 24 mini cupcakes with the recipe. The batter was very thin so we were worried it wouldn't rise but they turned out great!

The perfect bite-sized cupcake

We devoured the cupcakes in a matter of hours. All of the girls loved them and no one missed the dairy. This will be our new go-to recipe for cupcakes.

Brownies!

I have been craving some gooey chocolate goodness for days now. It is making me miss my favorite brownies. I found this recipe a few years ago on the blog bread & honey. The title of the post "the best vegan brownies. i swear" doesn't do these tasty bites justice. I'm not vegan, I did try to be a vegetarian for awhile but that didn't work out because I was too lazy to constantly cook each and every meal and snack I ate from scratch. Anyhow, these are the best homemade brownies period.

I am a horrible baker, even though I like to think I'm amazing at it but truth is, I suck. My scratch made cupcakes could be used as lethal weapons; the small, round brick-like creations that come out of the oven are deadly. When I make brownies they usually taste chalky and well, gross. These brownies taste magnificent. I have made them several times and they are yummy each time. LA also took them to her class last year and the kids in her class liked them.The girls love it because they can taste the batter since there aren't any raw eggs in the mix.

I followed the recipe as listed below but we added extra chocolate chips on top and since the kids don't like nuts I added walnuts to the top of half the brownies. The recipe also states that the brownies taste better cooled but they were equally tasty warm, in my opinion. I can't wait until I have a full size oven again to cook up a big batch of these suckers!

This is the first batch we ever made

I wish I had some of these right now!!

So, here's the recipe:

The Best Vegan Brownies Ever

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 11 x 17" or 9 x 13" pan.
Boil water and 1/2 cup of the flour in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until it reaches the consistency of a gluey paste. Remove from heat and let cool.
Mix sugars, salt, vanilla, cocoa and oil. Then add the rest of the flour-water mixture and mix well. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour and baking powder, mix well, and then stir in the chocolate chips and nuts (if you're using them). The end mixture will be rather thick.
Spread the mixture into your baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. These are much better when completely cooled.