Nutty Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oat Bars

Good evening!  Welcome to my blog!  I am a mom who is determined to AVOID eating the Halloween candy myself this season.  Making a special pumpkin/chocolate/nutty/oat treat like this keeps me from feeling deprived yet also cuts me off from starting my slippery slope of unwrapping a single piece of what the kids are bringing home lately!  We eat clean around here but do follow an 80/20 rule.  We eat very clean about 80% of the time.  I am perhaps closer to 90% myself.  I just feel my best this way!  But we also live life in the real world and I would never want my kids to have some sort of healthy foods complex!  They have learned a lot about nutrition at ages 6 and 8.  We have been eating clean for two years now and it honestly is not a fight at all!  And for that I am deeply thankful!  They have seen huge changes in me (loss of 60 pounds and health transformed), many family members and quite a few of my friends.  I love that my daughter (approaching her 9th birthday) is busy thinking of ways to show others that healthy choices have many benefits.  

But, back to tonight's delicious recipe!!!  You have got to give this one a try!  First, I am just going to say that I SO appreciate baking recipes that do not use eggs.  I am not "anti-eggs" one bit!  We eat them often.  But with my little guy as my #1 chief kitchen helper and my own freak-out tendencies with food safety, avoiding raw eggs while cooking with him makes me so much more relaxed!  Sample all the batter you want!  Go ahead and handle it and just wipe your hand with a dry paper towel.  Under-baked a bit?  No worries!  Quite a contrast with my "hazmat!!!!" mindset in other cooking situations!!!  

Tonight I wanted to make something with pumpkin, nuts and oats.  Chocolate is always a bonus!  Especially during key times on the calendar!

 

This recipe is based upon a recipe that I found on Ambitious Kitchen.  I took a look at that recipe and just made it more "us".  My edition is found below!  And I do LOVE nuts.  So I added some!  The only sugar that we have around here is Coconut Palm Sugar.  It happens to be low-glycemic and is an easy substitution in any recipe. 

 

Nutty Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oat Bars

 

Ingredients

• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
  
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup chopped unsalted nut of choice
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, set aside a few to sprinkle on top before baking

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare 9" baking dish.
2. Make oat flour: Place oatmeal in blender or food processor and blend until oatmeal resembles flour.  It will be a coarse flour and need not be entirely fine.
3. Place oat flour in a bowl. Whisk in pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves; set aside.
4. In a separate large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, palm sugar, vanilla, oil and applesauce for 1-2 minutes until the consistency is smooth and creamy. Slowly add in oat flour mixture and mix until just combined.
5. Gently fold in the chopped nuts and most of the chocolate chips.  Save a few to sprinkle on top if desired. Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean or nearly clean. Cool 10 minutes on wire rack.  Enjoy warm if desired!