My Post-Workout Power Bar (Or, Cookie)

Mike and I are in a big debate over my post-workout snack. I call it a power bar. He calls it a cookie.

I think he's just jealous of them.

In truth, they are granola bars. They are adapted from this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, which does lean closer to the cookie argument (what with the corn syrup and granulated sugar).

But these work for me. I'm on a kinda low-carb diet ... which I hate even typing, because I'm clearly not on atkins. And I'm soooo not on a diet. It's more like I want to cut out the flour, potatoes, rice and such. I still eat tons of chocolate, all fruits, lots of nuts, even dried fruit.

I've been eating that way since May, and i like it. I like what it does for my body, I like what it does for my energy.

I also like working out, and found that working out and just eating eggs right afterwards wasn't cutting it. I needed more. So I found this recipe with the oats and nuts and dried fruit, maybe added in some chocolate, substituted the corn syrup with honey, dropped the granulated sugar, baked them in cupcake tins, and ... bam! Pop one of these babies post-workout, and I'm a happy girl.

Here's Smitten Kitchen's recipe list, with my changes:

1 2/3 cups quick rolled oats √
1/2 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar (use more for a sweetness akin to most purchased bars; use less for a mildly sweet bar) Totally no need
1/3 cup oat flour (or 1/3 cup oats, processed till finely ground in a food processor or blender) No flour!
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 to 3 cups dried fruits and nuts (total of 10 to 15 ounces)*
      1 cup dried fruit -- my latest batch was 1/2 cup dried cranberries and 1/2 cup dried apricots
      1 cup chopped pecans
      1/2 cup coconut
      1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup peanut butter or another nut butter (I used almond butter) (optional) I found it really helps with the mixing if you heat the peanut butter for half a minute on half power with 1 tablespoon water, then whisk until smooth
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons melted butter Ok, ok, this is a questionable ingredient, but ... yum!
1/4 cup honey, maple syrup or corn syrup
2 tablespoons light corn syrup (see Note above) No way
1 tablespoon water

From there, it's easy. Mix the dry...

 
mix the wet ...

 mix them all together ...

scoop into cupcake tins, back for 22 minutes at 350 degrees and ... voila!

**** December 8, 2010 update: I lowered the cooking time by a minute, and I like that consistency better. Also, I tried Robert's idea of the almond flour instead of ground oats and I LOVE IT. So now I use Almond Flour.