My how time flies! Somehow it is already May and brochures have started coming in the mail for summer camps, etc. I don’t feel ready to plan the summer yet. I LOVE having my kiddos home with me, but I am sitting here wondering what the heck happened to winter??? Time needs to slow down a bit.
A new month means another Secret Recipe Club assignment and this month’s was a good one. I was assigned the blog, An Opera Singer in the Kitchen which got me all excited because I had already spent quite a bit of time surfing Noelle’s blog prior to even being assigned it. We both share similar food styles (she has a fondness for vegan food) and both of us are very into the health aspects of food, so this is a great pairing for me (Click HERE to learn more about Noelle).
There were a LOT of recipes I wanted to try; Fluffy Pumpkin Biscuits, Farmhouse Veggie Burgers, Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic & Mint (A post she did for SRC), Lasagna Soup…I could go on and on.
When i sat down to make my final decision I was in a sweet / crunchy kind of mood and decided to make the recipe she posted for Peanut Butter Granola Bars since it looked so AMAZING. I have always loved peanut butter and I am a granola monster, so I knew this would be a winner. I had a truckload of gluten-free oats in the pantry, so I thought I was all set to make this recipe and then I found out…I am ALLERGIC TO OATS!!! I had been suspecting this for a while and during my last appointment with Dr. Galitzer I had him test me and he informed me that my body REALLY doesn’t like oats.
Despite my new found knowledge that I have an oat allergy, I was bound and determined to make this granola bar recipe because I had my heart set on it, so I lugged myself to Mother’s Market on a quest for quinoa flakes. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised to discover Eden Organic’s Short Grain Brown Rice Flakes (Roasted & Rolled). These puppies looked very similar to rolled oats. Score! They are harder than rolled oats, but that is easily rectified by adding a little bit of liquid. I made the recipe as listed below with my notes in red. The next time I make these granola bars (you’d better believe there will be a next time, and a next time, and a next time), I plan on adding 1/4-1/3 cup of liquid (water, fresh juice, nut-based milk) to soften the brown rice flakes even more.
This recipe was a winner…
Peanut Butter Granola Bars
makes 18 bars
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (1 1/2 cups Eden brown rice flakes)
1 cup puffed brown rice cereal
3/4 cup puffed millet cereal (3/4 cup quinoa flakes)
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1 1/2 cup dried sweet cherries (3/4 cup raisins & 3/4 cup dried cherries)
3/4 cup brown rice syrup
3/4 cup Trader Joe’s Peanut Butter with Roasted Flaxseeds (organic peanut butter)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and line a medium baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray with coconut non-stick spray.
In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients.
In a small bowl add the peanut butter and the brown rice syrup. Place in microwave for 30 seconds (or heat in a saucepan on the stove over low heat…I would add the extra liquid at this point too).
Add the warmed wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well until evenly distributed.
Pour the mixture on a lightly greased baking sheet or casserole dish. Pat until evenly distributed. I pressed the granola mixture down as evenly and flatly as I could and then placed an identical pan on top and pressed that down to compact it further and even it out as much as possible.
Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool for 5-10 minutes. Using a knife, cut into 4×2 inch bars.
NOTE – I accidentally dropped the pan when I was flipping it onto the cutting board (oops!). The pieces that I couldn’t rescue and make into bars became granola. I broke them up into a pan and baked them for another 7-10 minutes…delicious!!!
Cool completely and then wrap individually in Saran Wrap or store in a glass container (glass mason jar works perfect for the granola.
WOW, thanks for such a lovely post! I am so glad you chose these and I am SO going to have to try your substitutions, first of all, because I have never used any of those flakes. Lovely pictures and so sorry to hear about your oat allergy. 🙁
Thanks Noelle!
These look absolutely perfect! Love Noelle’s blog
Thanks Erica! I love her blog too 🙂
Oh La La! These look wonderful. I’ll need to sub almond butter for my little one but I think these will be a perfect snack for our family.
That’s such a wonderful recipe! Healthy, yummy and looks good! Great pick!
Also, I would like to invite you to check out RecipeNewZ – a new photo-based recipe sharing network. It just launched today, and was built by your fellow SRC member 😉
The best part of this site is: NOTHING IS REJECTED! ALL RECIPE PHOTOS ARE PUBLISHED and appear on RecipeNewZ minutes after you click Submit.
I hope you try it: http://recipenewz.com (RecipeNewZ – with Z :-))
What a great recipe. Love the ingredient list. A healthy, yummy combo!
This is awesome. I’m going to try this with sunflower butter since my husband is allergic to oats and soy/peanuts!
That would be awesome…I love sunflower butter!
Oh sunbutter….yum!
These are great! I’m so glad you used regular peanut butter. I recently found out I’m allergic to flax, after having that peanut butter from Trader Joe’s with the added flax. Talk about an unpleasant surprise!
Wow…a flax allergy…bummer! It would have been a bigger bummer to be allergic to the peanut butter 🙂
looks amazing! great job improvising after you found out about your allergy. 🙂
great recipe and gluten free substitutions. Nice.
These are truly incredible. I love how decadent it looks. You don’t expect a granola bar to look that way but it totally does.
Thanks! They taste decadent too 🙂
These look really good – love how you made these gluten-free. I have a son who is gluten-free, so this is perfect.
arggh. Cannot find the brown rice flakes and my husband is allergic to oats -this was the whole reason I wanted to make these. Do you think I could use quinoa flakes instead and used the puffed millet for your quinoa flakes? I live in So Cal – but not in Orange County. I thought either Sprouts or Whole foods would carry it, but neither have it!
Bummer you couldn’t find them. I think that subbing in more quinoa flakes, puffed cereal, seeds, coconut shreds, etc. would work just fine. Granola bars are nice and forgiving that way. Let me know how they turn out.
Happy Mom’s Day!
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I made your Peanut Butter Granola Bars and not one person who ate them disliked them. Even my son, who I thought would not like them ate them and raved about them.
That’s wonderful to hear! Thank so much for letting me know.
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The rice flakes I’ve found are (uncooked) hard like glass- so I have to use some liquid to soften them. The big question: when adding the liquid? When the flakes getting wet they stick together like hell, so it’s pretty impossible to mix the other things to them.
Hi!
I would add the liquid to the saucepan when you warm the brown rice syrup and peanut butter. When you add the liquid to the dry ingredients and then press them into the pan and cook them it should soften the flakes.
Let me know how that works out.
Gretchen