Mini Vans and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bars

Hello, my name is Meghan and I drive a mini van.

Wow. Getting that off my chest feels a lot better. Are we still friends? I hope. Because driving a mini van and spending a lot of my recent time washing baby clothes has made me feel like I need to do other Mom stuff, like, you know, bake.

Momma left me a couple of magazines she bought for her flight down here, and when I was going through my overwhelming stack of periodicals I found a what I thought looked like a pretty tasty recipe in a Health magazine she left.


I made these bars as a treat for the husband - and the babies, ha. We all really liked them. The husband thought they could have used less oatmeal, but I told him the oats help keep them healthy. I think he also could have gone for more chocolate chips, but I used the last of what we had in the house.

Hey, I didn't want a mini van, either. I wanted an SUV, but there's no way we'd ever fit three kids and a triple stroller and groceries into an SUV.

You can't always get what you want, right? But you get what you need.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bars
Inspired by Health Magazine, July/August 2012

nonstick cooking spray
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butterscotch peanut butter (or regular p.b., your call)
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups oats
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup macadamia nuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and spray a 13x9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Stir together the flour, baking soda and cinnamon. In a mixer, beat the brown sugar and peanut butter until combined. Beat in the eggs, oil and vanilla. Stir the flour mixture into the sugar-p.b. mixture.

Add in the oats, chocolate chips and nuts.

Use a spatula to spread the batter into your prepared pan. Bake for 18-25 minutes or until the bars are lightly brown and firm in the middle. (Our bars took 18 minutes, but if your oven isn't like ours, you may need to bake your bars up to 25 minutes.)

Cool and enjoy!