No-Bake Chocolate Oat Bars

Now officially working three jobs, my baking time has sadly dwindled into a few remaining evening and weekend hours. (You know, the ones that are also occupied with walking the dog, preparing meals, fitting in exercise, time with friends and family, and catching up on my reality TV marathons). Luckily, summer days are longer and, hey, I’m getting paid to teach elementary school kids—that thing I’m trying to do as a career (until I open my own bake shop).

Like many of my recipes, this was inspired by one that my mom often made in the warm summer months for my sister and I. It doesn’t require an oven—just the melting together of cocoa, sugar, and (in my case) coconut butter on the stove before stirring in a few other basic ingredients. From what I can gather, no-bake cookies are a Midwest thing, usually with peanut butter and butter, and dropped in dollops onto cookie sheets to harden. Besides the obvious axing of the butter, I opted for almond butter over peanut (it’s just what I had on hand) and poured it all into a square baking dish, resulting in even-easier-to-make bars. The first time I made them they lacked a little something, so I added chopped nuts for more texture and kick of flavor. Go ahead, try them!

Rich and Moist Chocolate Swirl Cake with Peanut Butter Glaze

I meant to make two yummy little breakfast bowls—a cozy breakfast for two. A warm, vanilly, spiced bowl of quinoa, sparkled with a dazzle of summer cherries and a pretty little ribbon of pecans sprinkled across the top. In fact, I did make this. I stirred it, warmed it, and served it up, only to come face to face with what actually became my morning…and then the rest of the tear-filled, dramatic (maybe a touch overly so), everything-I-thought-I knew-was-suddenly-unsure day. A day that called for something sinful, decadent, and (forget the sweet) bitter—a chocolatiness that the sheer baking of it made me feel like I was creating a dark (albeit extremely yummy) illustration of how I felt: depressed and very, very angry.

But I suppose I should start at the beginning.

Peanut-Butter Frosted Chocolate Cake

(Trust me, it’s all about the frosting)

It’s been a bittersweet week. I’ve finally wrapped up my year of student teaching, and am all but officially a credentialed teacher in the state of California. It’s exhilarating, and I’m ready to move on, but at the same time it’s terrifying to look ahead toward absolutely zero job openings for new teachers, unemployment still rampant, and a whole summer without seeing my hilarious fourth graders. I told myself I wouldn’t, but I didn’t even make it halfway through the whole day without crying. My master teacher actually presented me a gift in front of the class, which included an Anthroplogie (!) gift certificate (aka my favorite of all favorite stores), and a little accordion-like book with pages created by each student, complete with their pictures and drawings. Tears. Some of my favorite gems, straight off the pages:

* “I learned from you how to be shareful.”
* “Yo quiero que te seas una maestra aqui.” (One of my students who learned English this year. She was my little Spanish teacher. Lucky for her, she picked up ingles much quicker than I improved my espanol)
* “You taught me to grafe.” (Perhaps I should have spent more time on spelling?)

I will miss you, my little estudiantes.

Along the bittersweet theme, boyfriend lost his job (someone made a BIG mistake, releasing that one). The good news is that this means he can come back from Michigan to the sunny Bay Area (woot), but now he’s got to find a new one somewhere, somehow. Hopefully it happens easily and close by (I’m confident that it will ☺ ).

Amid all this my sister ALSO lost her job. Luckily, I had stayed the night with her to attend a CPR class in her neighborhood, so when she got off of her (surprise) last day of work, we promptly zoomed across the Bay Bridge and landed straight in my kitchen to do the very best thing of all for lifting spirits (other than drinking about a bajillion Patron and sodas, which we also promptly got down to): We fired up the oven, broke out the bundt pan, and whipped up a bittersweet (I love themes) peanut-butter-cup inspired bundt cake.

Nutty Banana Muffins

Continuing onward with my almond flour experiment, I decided to use some to whip up some nutty, dairy-free (obviously) breakfast muffins. Inspired by the fabulous Elana’s Pantry blog (a must-read for anyone looking for white flour alternatives or just loves beautiful pictures of cupcakes), I added a little arrowroot powder into my almond flour. Let me tell you, that woman knows her cakes. These muffins taste like muffins—springy texture, moist with banana, and filled with the occasional bite from the crunchy peanut butter I used.

Mother’s Day Dairy-Free Banana Bread

Nothing says thanks for ensuring that I didn’t turn out a pregnant teen or Republican like a made-with-love loaf of bread. (It also says, “I’m poor,” but the belly-warming slices spread with (vegan) butter should sufficiently distract from that whole issue.)

This is my take on a classic banana bread—one of the early baking projects I made as a child with my mom, standing on a stool to reach the kitchen counter. This week I’m experimenting with oat flour, recommended constantly in one of my favorite healthy-eating books SkinnyGirl Dish. I want to like oat flour, since it doesn’t seem to require all the extras that other gluten free ones do, but I recently tried making a batch of cookies with it, and they turned out very dry. So, for this loaf, I used over half oat flour and the rest traditional white flour—and it turned out just as moist as it’s supposed to be. I’d like to tinker my way out of all of the processed white flour, and will try to do this with my two recipes this next week.

What else, what else? As always, substitutions are at the bottom of the recipe. If you’re like me, and, well, hurting a bit in your financial sector, this is an economical and thoughtful gift to make for this Sunday.

No-Butter Nutty Rice Crispie Treats aka Avalanche Bars

This week I realized that I had two care packages to send off. One for a friend in Colorado who was an AMAZING host a few weeks ago, and another for the boyfriend’s little sister whose 22nd birthday is next week.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet (as though more than my three faithful friends are reading this), but my part-time job in college was—that’s right—a counter girl at a local gourmet chocolate and sweets shop. Did I eat so much that I would have been the store’s best customer had I actually paid for any of it? Obviously. While it was no good for my morality as an employee (The truth: One does not get sick of chocolate when surrounded by it every day), I spent my days surrounded by caramels, dipped strawberries, truffles and creative concoctions like triple-dipped chocolate pretzels and tiger bark (Don’t. Even. Ask.).

One of my favorite chocolate-shop confections (that I’ve made regularly up through today) is one that we called Avalanche Bars. These nutty treats put a spin on traditional rice crispie squares by filling them with a natural disaster’s worth of marshmallows and mini-chocolate chips, held together by—not butter—peanut butter.

Send these in a care package and the recipient with definitely feel the love—no matter how far they’ve got to travel.