Finally, I got it posted.
These have been a staple at Indiana shoots for the last 6 months. These bars have magical properties, one bar per hour will keep any instructor on his or her feet for two days. Enjoy!
Niecie's Liberty Bars
Ingredients
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted nuts or trail mix)
• 3 cups Quaker® Oats (old fashioned, uncooked)
• 2 cups Cranberry Nut Antioxidant Trail mix (Almonds, cranberries, sunflower kernels)**see below
• 1 cup Hersheys Premium White Chips**see below
Preparation
Heat oven to 350°F.
In large bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamy.
Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well.
Add oats and trail mix; mix well.
Bar Cookies: Press dough onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake 30 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered. 24 BARS.
** Make your own mix of Craisins and/or raisins, Sunflower kernels, almonds (or other nuts) and chocolate or white chips etc. You need approximately 3 cups of this mix.
Minus1 approves. And eats. ..:..
nom nom nom
Awesome stuff right there! :bow: Thank you!
Mmmmm.....
MMM well worth the 20 plus hours I spent from home yesterday. ^:)^
Thank you, thank you, thank you! O0
^:)^ Niecie, you rock! :bow:
Oh no...!
You posted the recipe just when I am starting to work on getting into shape again...
Oh well, I guess "round" is technically a shape... ::)
Andy, (AKA Indydrew)
Quote from: Indydrew on October 31, 2010, 11:39:47 PM
Oh no...!
You posted the recipe just when I am starting to work on getting into shape again...
If you cut them into bars, all the calories escape! At least that is what I tell my self ;)
Niecie
Huzzah! Niecie! Huzzah!
Wow! These sound great...have to whip up a batch for our next shoot....have attached a .pdf, for ease in printing...
Niecie just might be an angel.
It's gotta beat fire-cakes! O0
I've got to get my own personal cook, er, I mean, Rifleman-sister-of-mine-that-still-cooks to try this recipe out. :)
I have had a few requests for the LibertyBar recipe, so I updated the recipe and am reposting. I have also included the .pdf for easy printing. Enjoy!
Niecie
Niecie's Liberty Bars
Ingredients
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted nuts or trail mix)
• 3 cups Quaker® Oats (old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 cup Craisins (Cherry flavored work well, too!)
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup Dark Chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup Premium White chips
Preparation
Heat oven to 350°F.
In large bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamy.
Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well.
Add oats and mix.
Add Craisins, pecans, & chips; mix well.
Bar Cookies: Press dough onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake 30 minutes until light golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack for about 10 minutes. Flip on to wire rack and remove pan and continue to cool. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered. 24 BARS.
**You can use 2 cups Cranberry Nut Antioxidant Trail mix (Almonds, cranberries, sunflower kernels)
** Or make your own mix of Craisins and/or raisins, Sunflower kernels, almonds (or other nuts) and chocolate or white chips etc. You need approximately 3 cups of this mix.
Thanks for posting that Neicie.
Reminds me of another skill I do not possess. Tell you what, you keep making them and I will come and eat them. :)
Oh wow those sound yummy Niecie! Adding to my list, THANK YOU!!
Quote from: colycat on October 05, 2012, 10:36:22 PM
Tell you what, you keep making them and I will come and eat them. :)
I will hold you to that! I'll even make you a
special batch >:D
Come on over - we'd love to see ya'll again.
Niecie
Not helping my diet!
I mean, look, what am I supposed to do with ingredient #4 after I have eaten ingredients 1-3?
@@)
Quote from: Niecie on October 05, 2012, 10:32:39 PM
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
Thats all I needed to read to know the recipe is great!
Quote from: techres on October 05, 2012, 11:53:20 PM
I mean, look, what am I supposed to do with ingredient #4 after I have eaten ingredients 1-3 @@)
You slurp down number 4, then do jumping jacks to mix well.... That will help your diet, too. O0
Niecie
Wow this sounds great!
There has to be a way to wrap this in bacon.
ST
Quote from: Swamp Thing on October 06, 2012, 12:41:53 AM
Wow this sounds great!
There has to be a way to wrap this in bacon.
ST
I have considered adding bacon bits for ATM ;) I think I would reduce the salt - you know, to keep it healthy.
I made these last night for my kids (substituted margarine for butter and made my own trail mix with raisins). By the time I got home from work tonight, my family had eaten the entire pan.
Yum...
I don't think Niecie has ever made these the same way twice. My favorite is the dried cherries and dark chocolate only. That's twice as much chocolate when you leave the white chocolate out. Because really, what is white chocolate? That's like non alcoholic beer.
I'm just saying...
YHJ
Quote from: yellowhousejake on October 08, 2012, 10:07:02 PM
Because really, what is white chocolate? That's like non alcoholic beer.
Couldn't agree more.
Quote from: HQ on October 09, 2012, 03:27:12 PM
Quote from: yellowhousejake on October 08, 2012, 10:07:02 PM
Because really, what is white chocolate? That's like non alcoholic beer.
Couldn't agree more.
That makes 3 of us.
Quote from: techres on October 05, 2012, 11:53:20 PM
I mean, look, what am I supposed to do with ingredient #4 after I have eaten ingredients 1-3?
You're a man after my own heart.
-ss
Yes, they look good... and I used to make something like those years ago... before I learned better.
24 bars works out to 266 calories a piece with 32 grams of carbohydrates. If you sub margarine for butter, you are eating hydrogenated soy/canola oil, which makes them even worse. Carbohydrates metabolize into glucose in the bloodstream, and anything not needed for immediate energy is stored as fat.
Carbs also spike blood sugar in a terrible way. You eat these at lunch at a shoot and you will be dragging an hour later.
I've long lamented the poor health of Appleseeders, which is just a sign of our poor diet: SAD (Standard American Diet.)
(Haven't you noticed? Even Fred has changed his ways, and is looking much more healthy and slender!)
Saving the country requires that you save yourself and your family first. The huge rise in obesity and type two diabetes is reducing our lifespan and our life quality, dramatically increasing medical costs and enriching pharmaceutical companies.
BTW, this is what I GOT from my fist Appleseed back in Sept 2008: I realized that I was out of shape and middle-aged. Getting older does not mean you have to become decrepit, as long as you start moving. Changing your diet is the first step in a transformation to health... and it is the easiest step.
Yes, this is a hijack... but this is important since it relates to our ability to Appleseed. Appleseed is largely a mind-set -- we tell our students that those brave long suffering colonists are the mettle from which we are made. They weren't fat or idle. They couldn't afford to be -- they didn't have the time. Neither do we, and on many levels. My generation, the baby boomers, are the first to see a declining life expectancy, and that is self inflicted.
Aren't you a better Appleseeder if you improve your health?
You may be annoyed at me for this post, but I would venture to say that you probably are also carrying around an extra 20 lbs or more, right? (not ammo) There is a pretty easy solution and it doesn't involve situps.
I'll post a link later that will give you some explanations and some alternatives.
Right you are BlueFeather. This year I have become more aware of fine tuning my diet. Although I am not a fanatic about what I eat, I do notice how different things affect my mind and body. Proper ingredients for healthy snacks will give an edge to those who pay attention to how they are performing and feeling mentally and physically. Can I live on products containing high fructose corn syrup and artificially manipulated food items (not that this recipe has any of that - I'm just making an observation from my own experience)? Sure enough, but I can tell after about 30 minutes that it wasn't necessarily the best thing for me. So will I eat pizza or even the occassional apple fritter? You bet! But I am willing to pay the price in worthless calories and sluggish response time by huffing away an extra hour on the bike or at the gym. Not saying that the above recipe does not have some nutritional value. Indeed it does. There are lots of healthy ingredients in it.
After all of my blathering what is my point? Peak performance requires attention to detail not only in our immediate physical and mental endeavour but also in our nutrition and sleep. The older I get the more I realize that I can't get away with sliding by on quick half-hearted attempts at health maintenance. If I treat myself to an active lifestyle and include a moderate amount of food that's "good for me" and get the proper amount of rest I might even live an extra week or two. I will definitely have a higher quality and more energetic life as I get older and who doesn't want that? So enjoy your snacks, but if you are going to the trouble to make them then you can control what ingredients will best suit your purpose by substituting higher quality (not necessarily higher price) items with a higher return rate in energy and longevity. Now where did I put that apple fritter!
As promised - an intro post on changing to a healthy diet plus two recipes ( fudge and a muesli bar ) that are easy, awesome tasting and good for you. Here: bluefeathersoaps.blogspot.com
Shameless plug: follow the blog and 'like me' on the Facebook link to keep abreast of new recipe posts, plus more on improving your health. I hope the time I've put to researching this will make it easier on you guys.
/Gill
I am probably carrying 15 I don't need. I am twenty-two above my weigh in from the last judo tournament I fought in. I understand what you are saying, but these things aren't why I am fat. They are, however, delicious and the five minutes I got away from the line chomping one and drinking a cup of coffee at Noblesville last Saturday were a God send. I can't blame Liberty Bars for me being fat any more than I can blame my fork for killing the cattle in the field behind the house any more than I blame guns for the decisions of their wielders. My question is, if I continue to play judo and softball a couple times a week and have an active lifestyle can I still eat two or three Liberty Bars once a month at an Appleseed? (because they are delicious and they make me feel good)
Those of us who don't need 'em ain't gonna until:
1. The old SC's lose as much in lbs as the current SC actually weighs.
2. We do 300 cal of exercise to offset the 226 cal of nom nom. That's 30 min on the recumbent bike currently for me.
Those are more doable than you might think... O0
As to the Appleseed Exercise Video I suggested in 2010, I still do think it is a doable project!
If you are not the weight you want to be... first calculate your BMR, basal metabolic rate. This determines how many calories you need to consume, just to exist. You can then add your level of activity to see how many extra calories you burn when working out, vaccuuming, or sitting at the computer. The extent to which you consume calories in excess of this number, is why you are overweight.
In theory you reduce your calories and you will lose weight, but it isn't that siimple, and that is why 'starvation diets' where one eats 1000 calories or less a day, don't work for very long. The content of the calories, the time of day and the relation to when you exercised all play a part. In general, if you want to eat these cookies, or have your cake and eat it too, you need to create a caloric deficit elsewhere to make up for the rush you are getting from those 266 of almost all carbs.
You can play the game and have a caloric deficit on another day and then have a cheat day where you get to eat anything you want, like these cookies. But you will have to pay for it in either more exercise or less calories or both at some time.
All excess carbs beyond what you need for immediate energy will be stored as fat. Once there, it is extra difficult to get rid of. After age 35, we start losing muscle at an increasing rate. The more muscle mass we have, the more calories we burn to maintain our weight, so it gets increasingly difficult to maintain our weight as we age. The more you can do to regain muscle, the higher your BMR, and the more calories you can eat and not change weight.
As you get closer to your ideal weight however, your body will tell you what works and what doesn't and you will lose cravings for many of the things that are bad for you.
Sugar is highly addictive and creates a similar brain response as does cocaine. That is why it is so hard to kick the sugar habit.
These cookies also contain a lot of grains, and they pose their own digestive and weight problems. If you are going to eat such things, have them soon after eating protein or fat, like some peanut butter. At least that will slow down the metabolism of the carbs. If you eat a burger say, eliminate the bun and then have the cookie instead. (The bun has a high glycemic index of its own. So trade one for the other.)
Bluefeather, that was a marvelously brief explanation of metabolism vs diet. Aging makes us more susceptible to gaining weight and makes it harder to recover from injuries or heavy workouts. Therefore we who have not found the counter clockwise time machine need to exercise smarter and eat smarter. We can no longer get away with abusing our bodies and expecting them to recover as quickly or as completely as when in our 20's 30's and 40's.
I read a study in a college sports magazine that indicated that 70% of all chronic back pain is caused by weak core muscles. They had their college football team implement a series of core exercises along with their normal weight training. They found that after a few weeks of this adaptation that their rate of onfield and off-field injuries and chronic pain complaints were reduced substantially. A fair percentage of exercise and sporting injuries are caused by weak core muscles because weak core muscles do not allow us to balance and exert force in unusual directions as well. If pushing or pulling while off camber or with weight extented away from your body your core is what allows the body to maintain posture and an even force. Big weights or extended lengthy workouts are not necessary. Moderate weight training and exercises that focus on core areas are the key to maintaining good postsure, proper gait, and flexibility. Also, a moderate amount of aerobic excersice will eventually make those many trips downrange less exhausting and allow you to get back on target much more quickly. My weight training workout only takes me 20 to 30 minutes 3 times a week. I spent most of my allowed exercise time doing aerobic workouts only because my efforts this year have been doing bicycling events.
I think incremental changes are the easiest way for people to eventually accomplish major lifestyle changes. Such as the wonderful treats being discussed in this forum. As I said in my previous post, if just a few of the ingredients are substituted with healthier alternatives then where's the hard part. We all have to determine what we do with our bodies and what we put in our bodies. Since we are going to the trouble to "home make" the treats it doesn't take any more effort to include the best ingredients and enjoy them just as much. Actually to enjoy them more because we have the satisfaction of knowing that we are making a conscious effort to make a healthy change thus gaining more self-confidence at being incharge of ourselves. Of all the positive aspects of exercise, healthy diet, and mental challenge, I believe the gain in self-confidence is the most satisfying. It allows you to truly experience mastery of self. Even if things around you get chaotic your response to the situation will be better thought out and sensible because your mind will be sharper and your body will not go into a fight or flight stess mode. It's how we are meant to be.
Two points I'd like to make:
1. I love that Niecie goes out of the way to bring a special touch to the Appleseeds she attends. I rarely make such an effort to make Appleseeders feel so welcome. A little treat part-way through the day when lunch is long gone and blood sugars are dropping can go a long way to to getting through to that five o'clock hour and through tear-down and the drive home. This is one of her gifts to Appleseed, and I thank her for that.
2. I love even more that we all have the freedom to do with our bodies as we please. Are we to have freedom in some areas of our lives but not over what we eat? What is healthy for one may not be healthy for another. Don't feed me pecans. I will not be healthy afterwards. ;)