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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Strange Dear


You know something is good when even the dog can't resist it. I love Thatdog to bits, but he is a very unusual dog. First, he hardly ever barks. We love this. In fact, if it wasn't for a visit with his bark-happy Aunt, he'd probably never have picked it up. Second, he's not a chowhound...for the most part. You can leave you food at his head height and unless you give him the go ahead, he'll completely ignore it. Now, he does like to cuddle up REALLY close to you while you eat it, and check your mouth after for crumbs - but once I gave him a plate of pancakes and he looked at me like "what am I supposed to do with this?"

All this changed last week. I wanted to make Thatboy and I a breakfast on the run. Something we could easily take with us in the car on the way to work, surfing, or the beach. I wanted something high in protein, low in calories, and loaded with good stuff. So I took an oatmeal cookie recipe and manipulated it to create some breakfast bars - or some insanely oversized cookies.

So I left these out to cool on the counter. Normally things are safe on the counter - Thatdog has no interest in counter surfing. But this time things were different. DH and I went out and when we came back, the rack of bars was on the floor. Or rather, I should say the rack was on the floor. The bars were gone. Do you see the size of these bars???? 6 of them. He ate 6 of them!!!!! Luckily these are made of pretty healthy ingredients. Save the raisins, they could very well be dog treats. Which is what Thatdog tried to explain to Thatboy as Thatboy tried to eat one of the remaining bars. What? You've eaten 6 and you're still hungry? That must be the true complement.


Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
  • 1 1/2 cups oats
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 stick butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 individual pkg apple sauce
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine oats, flour, and baking soda.
  2. In separate bowl, beat together butter and peanut butter.
  3. Add sugar, egg, vanilla and applesauce. Beat until combined.
  4. Beat in flour, just until blended.
  5. Stir in raisins.
  6. Place parchment paper on cookie sheet. Place large scoops of dough on parchment paper. (I got 16 scoops)
  7. Bake 20 minutes. Remove to wire rack and cool completely. Try to keep them away from your dog.
Serves 16.
Each serving has:
Calories 241.1
Total Fat 12.8 g
Saturated Fat 5.0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2.1 g
Monounsaturated Fat 4.9 g
Cholesterol 28.8 mg
Sodium 181.0 mg
Potassium 201.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate 28.0 g
Dietary Fiber 2.0 g
Sugars 0.7 g
Protein 5.6 g

13 comments:

  1. Wow! Did Thatdog feel guilty at all for depriving the rest of you of such goodness?

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  2. I LOVE oatmeal bars. Mean doggie. :( I would have cried at the loss of such greatness. lol.

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  3. Too funny! What a cool doggie.

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  4. I can just imagine walking in the door to find these on the floor! Too funny!

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  5. those sound awesome! your dog has good taste ;)

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  6. Well I hope he left some for you to eat!

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  7. Well - at least he has good taste.

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  8. I wonder if Thatdog will start to sample more of your offerings now that he knows he likes them.

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  9. You do know we've been channeling each other lately, don't you? First the lemmings and now the Bad Dogs. Only my Bad Dog is a perennial Bad Dog (this latest is not the first post it's been mentioned). When he is stressed he likes to steal food. Counters, garbage cans, shelves he can reach (seriously, once it was a bag of flour), you name it, if it has food it is not safe from him.

    I love the idea of breakfast cookies. These are going into the to try file.

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  10. That's so funny. Ours is like that too - big enough that the counter is at nose height, and we eat on the coffee table within reach every night but the only thing he's ever stolen is my corn bread. :) These look great!

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  11. They drive you nuts but I can never stay upset with mine for more than 3 minutes. I'd go counter surfing for those cookies too.

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  12. ditto amber - thatdog has very good taste!

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