Peanut Butter Power Bars (Vegan/Gluten-Free)

As you may know, I am a total sweet tooth and whenever I see my family and friends, I usually want to bring some NBB goodies. This time, I was planning on working out with a friend. A part of me thought - maybe it's not a good idea to bring some "sweets" to a friend who's working out with me which came to the conclusion of making Peanut Butter Power Bars! What I really like about this recipe is that it only contains 4 ingredients: Rolled oats, unsweetened/unsalted peanut butter, honey, and vanilla extract.
The key to this recipe is to use "unsweetened/unsalted" peanut butter. If you look at commercialized peanut butters, they contain added sugar and salt. In general, peanuts are already high in calorie (good ones at least) so adding added sugar and salt is absolutely unnecessary. It's just extra empty calories. That's why our family use unsweetened/unsalted peanut butter! I especially like the ones at Trader Joe's and the Laura Scudder's - although I've been purchasing the Trader Joe's one for years!

Gluten-free Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten-free series continues! As I mentioned previously, I have been trying to explore more options for NBB. I think this goes back to when I was in school but I made these gluten-free cookie dough bites using... chickpeas YES, I said it... chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) but trust me - you won't even taste the beans (;

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies (PBCCBO)

Peanut butter, chocolate, banana and oatmeal - four of my favorite combinations in one big circular sweets is like heaven to me. I don't think any of my families are crazy about these combinations but I absolutely love them. Let me just tell you about peanut butter and chocolate... This is just me, but I feel like I always have a nice conversation with someone, when my starter ice-breaker conversation revolves around peanut butter and chocolate. And I think that has to do with the fact that as humans, we LOVE to talk about what we love right? And we LOVE commonalities with others - that's just human nature. Now if you're not a peanut butter lover, I'm sure this doesn't apply to you (and I respect that), but I thought I'd mention that thought as a peanut butter and chocolate advocate for this blog post (: