Looooong awaited recipe: Liberty Bars

[Niecie]

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]

Minus1 approves. And eats.

[ATM]

nom nom nom

Awesome stuff right there!  Thank you!

[techres]

Mmmmm.....

[Mudcat]

MMM well worth the 20 plus hours I spent from home yesterday. 
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[AuntieBellum]

  Niecie, you rock!   

[Indydrew]

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)

[Niecie]

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

[Chilidog]

Huzzah! Niecie! Huzzah!

[4bfox]

Wow! These sound great...have to whip up a batch for our next shoot....have attached a .pdf, for ease in printing...

[TBE]

Niecie just might be an angel. 

[Colcord]

It's gotta beat fire-cakes! 

[GoldFish]

I've got to get my own personal cook, er, I mean, Rifleman-sister-of-mine-that-still-cooks to try this recipe out.

[Niecie]

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.

[colycat]

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.

[Ratchett]

Oh wow those sound yummy Niecie! Adding to my list, THANK YOU!!

[Niecie]

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 

Come on over - we'd love to see ya'll again.

Niecie

[techres]

Not helping my diet!

I mean, look, what am I supposed to do with ingredient #4 after I have eaten ingredients 1-3?

[Edheler]

   •   1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

Thats all I needed to read to know the recipe is great!

[Niecie]

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.   

Niecie

[Swamp Thing]

Wow this sounds great!

There has to be a way to wrap this in bacon.


ST

[Niecie]

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.

[SteelThunder]

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...

[yellowhousejake]

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

[HQ]

Because really, what is white chocolate? That's like non alcoholic beer.

Couldn't agree more.

[GoldFish]

Because really, what is white chocolate? That's like non alcoholic beer.

Couldn't agree more.

That makes 3 of us.

[stagehand steve]

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

[BlueFeather]

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.

[twh731]

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!       

[BlueFeather]

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