Oats Oats and More Oats

My recent pantry inventory revealed an excessive volume of cooking oats, so naturally I've been on the lookout for some not so predictable ways to use up this ingredient.

I started out by throwing together my own version of the 'no bake energy bite.' At the time, I had not yet graduated to technologically savvy with my new smart phone, so you'll have to settle with a stock photo from stridebox.com:

The glory about these delicious snacks is the fact that they can be assembled quickly and you can customize them based on what you have available. I didn't record exact measurements, but my bites were a combination of the following:

~3 c. cooking oats
2 leftover packets of Sweet & Salty trail mix (from Lily's birthday party)
~1 to 1-1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. Reece's spreads (can just use more peanut butter if you don't have any of this)
2 tablespoons honey
3/4 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 c. sugar free chocolate chips
1 tablespoon Hershey's chocolate syrup

Mix all ingredients well and shape into 1-2 inch balls. Refrigerate in a sealed bag for keeping.

More peanut butter or honey can be added to help hold the bites together when you shape them. They can be a bit sticky, so I found shaping them with damp hands was more efficient.

Some other ingredients that might be fun to add to these bites might include: shredded coconut, raisins, flax seed, any other chopped nut variety, sunflower seeds etc. The possibilities are endless, but basically these bites are incredibly filling and are great for satisfying a sweet tooth.

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My most recent attempts to reduce our stash of cooking oats includes a fantastic recipe that I found on thewholesomedish.com.

Amanda Fink's recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup applesauce
• 1½ cups skim milk (or whatever milk you like)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• Optional: your favorite toppings (fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper or paper/foil muffin liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, and brown sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add the applesauce, milk, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk until well combined. Stir in the oats and baking powder.
3. Fill the muffin tin with ¼ cup of the oat mixture in each muffin cup. Add your favorite toppings. Push the toppings down into the oat mixture with a spoon.
4. Bake for 30 minutes. Let them cool for 5 minutes before eating. Store in an airtight container or freeze in a zip top storage bag.

 

 

 

 

Don't skip the muffin liners in this recipe <-- seriously - these suckers stick to the liners and can be quite a pain.

 

We made banana/walnut, raspberry/blueberry, apple/raisin, and plain.

 Although our muffins were fun to create and ended up quite tasty, perhaps the best part about putting this recipe together was the leftover batter that I poured into a small baking dish (~3/4 inches thick) to result in oatmeal cereal bars, or 'breakfast cookies' as my daughter called them. They were delightfully soft and chewy.

When I make this recipe again in the future, I'll skip the muffins and just make a couple pans of the flat bars. Our favorite muffin variety was the banana/walnut, so I can only imagine how delicious these bars would be with some bananas and walnuts on top.

 

So there you have it, y'all - a few ways to use up some of those lingering cooking oats if you have any on hand and happen to be looking for something a little different. Enjoy!