Breakfast Bars

This week, instead of muffins, Dan suggested we make a breakfast bars using dried fruits. He picked up some dried apricots and dried plums, and we figured we'd wing it - which is exactly what I did.

After 3 days of working on the garden, and getting almost everything planted today, Dan went for a run and I got started on the breakfast bars. My starting point was this recipe for Apricot Oatmeal Bars, from CooksRecipes.com - the first result in a google search for 'fruit bars'. I altered the recipe pretty heavily. My adjustmenst to the crumb mixture included adding flax powder and protein powder to the dry ingredients, swapping out half the flour for wheat flour, using molasses instead of granulated sugar, and cutting the butter down to 1/2 cup. And in addition to apricot preserves & coconut, my topping has chopped dried apricots & plums, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, and about a cup of granola - which itself had a wonderful mix of dried fruits, nuts, and oats. Basically, I opened every cupboard in the kitchen and grabbed anything that looked healthy and seemed like it would go well in a breakfast bar - which was obviously a lot of stuff. I'm pretty sure the original recipe is a cookie recipe, so I figured I needed to healthy it up a bit. When they were done, I cut them into 20 bars, and Dan & I will take two each for breakfast each day this week.

Given my extensive ad libbing, here's the original recipe, which I'm sure would yeild a delicious cookie:

Apricot Oatmeal Bars
Crumb Mixture:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/4 tspn salt
2 tspns vanilla extract

Filling:
10 oz apricot preserves
1/2 cup flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350*F (175*C). Lightly grease a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Set aside. For crumb mixture, in large mixing bowl combine all crumb mixture ingredients. With an electric mixer, beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until mixture is crumbly, 1 to 2 minutes. Reserve 1 cup crumb mixture; press remaining crumb mixture into prepared baking pan. For filling, spread apricot preserves to within 1/2-inch from edge of crumb mixture; sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture and coconut. Bake for 22 to 27 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool completely. Cut into bars.