Baking - Muffins & Snack Bars

The boys are off school this week & when they're home all the time they seem to eat more! I decided to make some homemade (a.k.a. cheaper) snacks for them to curb their hunger.

This is my favorite, easy muffin recipe posted by another Feingold mom on her blog (http://www.gotpetroleum.blogspot.com/). It is super easy & versatile. I have made it with regular or gluten free flour, with egg or egg replacer and with rice or cow's milk or just plain water in it's place if I'm out of milk. They have always come out great! Thanks, Dana, for the great recipe! Tonight I made them with mashed bananas instead of pumpkin, used my favorite GF flour blend & half rice milk, half water. The beauty is that you can use 1-2 cups of whatever fruit you have on hand - pureed/mashed canned pears, applesauce, bananas, pumpkin... I also made them mini sized tonight so they will last longer...I hope!

I also made these Fruit & Grain Bars for snacks. This is a really easy one too! I made a whole pan with wheat flour & coconut oil & a half pan with gluten free flour & oats & coconut oil. (I was out of butter tonight after making lots of frosting for my neice's birthday this weekend!)

Easy Fruit & Grain Bars (think Nutrigrain without petroleum)

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1.5 cups rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter (softened or melted)
about 1 cup-ish of preserves or jelly

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the first 5 ingredients. Press half of them in a prepared 9x13 baking dish. Spread your favorite preserves in a thin layer on top. Crumble the rest of the mixture on top & mash down to form an even layer. Bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool completely & cut into bars.

To make them GFCF, use 2 cups of your favorite GF flour, GF oats & CF butter sub (I used coconut oil). Tonight I used pear preserves on half the pan & raspberry on the other half. I sprinkled some chopped pecans on a little portion for myself! If you don't have any preserves that your family can eat, I have boiled actual fruit in water until it is very soft & pureed it with some sugar, then spread it on for the middle layer before. It worked!