When I was in college there was a student in several of my creative writing classes who was, well, eccentric. Among several oddities that I won’t bother to list, he wore a Civil-War style confederate uniform jacket whenever he had writers block.
You know what? Call me immature, but I mocked him with my friends because, well, it was funny.
But let me tell you, I wish I had one of those jackets right now because for some reason, whenever I sit down at my computer I can’t make my fingers dance across the keys to produce words, but rather I start searching for the Facebook photo album of a friend I haven’t talked to in ten years, or I automatically open my Google reader for the tenth time in an hour to see what Lisa and Angie have shared today.
While I can blame my writers block for my lack of posting, there is also that issue of finding time to blog.
I’m a believer that no matter how busy we are, we can usually make time to do the things we want to do and despite what has been a pretty packed schedule since I moved to Chicago, I have managed to find the time to do a little cooking.
And baking.
Because why bother cooking when you can eat baked goods for dinner?
This past weekend I attended an oatmeal festival with a client for work and part of the festival included an oatmeal baking contest.
Let’s just say I couldn’t NOT bake with oatmeal when I came home.
Being that the gym is still packed with New Years resolution crowd and everyone is still all healthy-healthy, it seemed logical that I should make something that has a little nutritional benefit.
- ½ cup canola oil
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- 4 egg whites
- 2 tablespoons skim milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups of old-fashioned oats
- 1¾ cups whole-wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg whites, milk, vanilla and salt. Beat with an electric mixer (or paddle attachment of your stand mixer) on medium speed until the mixture resembles caramel sauce and the sugars have dissolved.
- In a separate bowl, combine old-fashioned oats, flour, baking soda and chocolate chips. Stir until just combined. Add to liquid mixture. Transfer to a lightly greased 13x9 inch baking pan.
- Bake 15-20 minutes until golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool until firm. Cut into squares and store tightly covered for up to 5 days.
14 Comments
Hollie Zepke
December 11, 2011 at 12:22 amI made these tonight for a Christmas party- sooooo good! I really wanted something healthy and also wanted to utilize the chocolate chips that I had in the pantry. Wa-la! I had just enough oatmeal and used 1/2 the sugar as I used applesauce for the other half. They turned out awesome! Thanks Maris!
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May 29, 2011 at 12:20 am[…] Low-fat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar at In Good Taste […]
Tasty chocos
February 8, 2010 at 7:03 amAll those bars look delicious. I’ll definitely have to give them a try.
Susan
January 15, 2010 at 7:25 pmAn oatmeal fest is such a good idea! And I want those.
Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)
January 15, 2010 at 3:59 pmI love the idea of a writer’s block outfit. I’m going to put one together because, let’s face it, we all have writer’s block from time to time.
Rachel
January 15, 2010 at 12:38 pmI decided to have oatmeal for lunch, and thought to myself I really should bake something with oatmeal. I then checked your blog. I guess I know what I will be baking! It’s great to have you back…missed your posts!
Sonja @ ActiveFoodie
January 15, 2010 at 12:55 amGreat minds think alike! I am just writing up my post for my vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! I love oatmeal chocolate chip anything, I can’t wait to give your version a try!
Jackie
January 15, 2010 at 12:47 amDessert for dinner sounds like the perfect cure for writers block, or at least it can make you feel better about it. Rest assured, we all go through it
elra
January 15, 2010 at 12:36 amYummy bars!
I never heard of oatmeal festival. Sounds pretty interesting.
E.P.
January 14, 2010 at 9:08 pmThose? Look amazing! I’ll definitely have to give them a try.
And isn’t it funny remembering all those eccentric people from college? I wish we all had something like that jacket to help us through writer’s block.
ErinsFoodFiles
January 14, 2010 at 6:19 pmAn OATMEAL FESTIVAL!? Ding dang, why didn’t someone invite me?! 😉 These sound delicious.
PS. I’m glad you appear to have stopped doing partial feeds in GR. 🙂
Maria
January 14, 2010 at 5:24 pmGreat healthy treat! Glad you are back:)
Daryl Callahan
January 14, 2010 at 1:25 pmI must tell you those bars look delicious. I really did miss your posts as well so unblock that block and get cracking!
Sarah Caron
January 14, 2010 at 1:03 pmYou do exist! Welcome back, your posts have been missed. And these bars sound amazing. And an oatmeal fest? How did I miss that?!?