Easy, Adaptable No Bake Breakfast Bars

Marge (00:00:05) - Welcome back, friends to episode 257. Today we're doing no bake oats and honey breakfast bars. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles where I help you take control of your high life. I'm your host and Certified Ganjier. Marge and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here. And thank you for joining me today. Hello, friends. Welcome back to another fantastic episode of Bite Me. If you're tuning in for the first time, I think you're really going to enjoy this one. It has been really hot where I am lately, so something that's no bake is going to be attractive to those folks who are dealing with the heat, because who wants to turn on their oven when it's like 30 degrees outside and humid as well? I certainly don't. And of course, if you've been a long time listener, I really appreciate you. I appreciate everybody who's listening because honestly, otherwise I'd be sitting here talking to myself. And that's not a whole lot of fun.

Marge (00:01:04) - So we're doing no bake oats and honey breakfast bars now. This recipe was originally written for CBD in mind, but of course, when you're taking control of your life, you can do whatever you want. And before we get into today's episode. I am trying to get this episode done relatively quickly. It's a little earlier in the morning than I tend to record, because I do let like to let the cobwebs, you know, wipe the cobwebs away with lots of coffee in the morning. But I have had my coffee, but my daughter is bringing over her new puppy, and I have two kids who seem to be collecting pets right now and God bless them. Pets are wonderful. I understand the appeal. I'm just not in a in a place in my life right now where I want the responsibility of a pet and my daughter has a puppy that, has been, I think, dealing with a little bit of separation anxiety when my daughter goes to work and I agreed to look after the dog when she got a surprise shift at her work, and I am seriously regretting it.

Marge (00:02:15) - I'm happy to help you be helping my daughter out, but I'm like, what am I going to get done today? I really reminds me of looking after a toddler. Like, Will I be able to go to the washroom without being interrupted? Am I going to get much work done on my laptop today? Because there's always things I need to be doing for the podcast and the website and other things am I going to be able to just my day is going to be totally disrupted. I know this and the dog is really cute. I don't get me wrong, she's adorable. She is a little nippy though, so that's something we'll probably have to work on together. But it was raining this morning. Thankfully it's cleared up so hopefully we can spend some time outside because there's lots of places for the puppy to run around out here, and having the puppy outside I think is way preferable to her being inside and possibly chewing on everything because she really is chewing on a lot of stuff. And my other daughter also has a dog.

Marge (00:03:11) - He's not a puppy any longer, thankfully, but he's he's really cute now Now, when my daughter got this puppy, she decided to do some quizzes beforehand to make sure that she was getting a breed that would fit in well with her lifestyle, which I think is really smart because anyone who's had experiences with dogs knows one breed to another can vary significantly when it comes to personality, energy requirements, how they get along with other people in a household, all those things. And so she ended up with a bull terrier, and she's really sweet. And I thought, you know what? If I ever wanted to get a dog, I had a bison freeze before when the girls were little. And that's in large part because the girl's father at the time, his parents, bred these dogs, and we ended up with one. And so there wasn't something that was planned. It was a surprise because what does every new mother need but another four legged animal to look after? She ended up being a wonderful dog.

Marge (00:04:16) - And because I'm also allergic to most animals cats, dogs, horses, you name it, she was great because she didn't shed and she lived a long and healthy life, probably till about 16 years old. And I do miss that dog quite a bit. But I thought, what? What kind of breed would these quizzes suggest that I get if were I to go out and decide that I wanted a puppy or a dog? Well, I did a quiz. I answered all the questions. The results surprised me because the result ended up saying you should get a plant. And I was with one of my girls at the time when this when this quiz result came up, and we had a really good laugh about it because at first we were like, is this? Is this for real? But when I drilled down and looked through the the actual text that came along with the initial picture of a plant, a house plant, yeah, it was totally correct. And I thought, you know what? That was accurate.

Marge (00:05:20) - I'm not really in a place where I want to have to look after a dog. I have numerous houseplants already, so I'm set. But today is going to be interesting. It should be it. It'll be fun, but I'm fully expecting to have this little puppy here that is going to totally distract me from getting anything done that I normally would, and it's going to take me outside of my normal routine. But, you know, it's kind of nice to have pets in my orbit because I have the opportunity to spend time with them. It's much like being a grandparent where you can enjoy the grandkids and then send them home at the end of the day and put your feet up and think, ooh, I'm glad I'm not doing that full time now. So I am feeling very fortunate for that. So that should be my day. So I'm recording this relatively early so that I can get this done before she comes over to drop the dog off before work. Let's get into today's recipe. The no bake Oats and Honey CBD breakfast bars is how the recipe was originally written, and this recipe came from the CBD Handbook over 75 recipes for Hemp Derived Health and Wellness.

Marge (00:06:37) - And of course, as all of you know, you can infuse this however you damn well please. So if CBD is not what you're looking for, or maybe you want THC or a ratio, and it was a pretty simple recipe. So that's another thing that I liked about it, because I was looking for something that was quick to whip up, that wasn't going to take a lot of time slaving in the kitchen when it's really hot out. and wasn't going to require me to turn on the oven. And it's just a handful of ingredients. And of course, you can always substitute things as well, which I did end up doing in this actually. So the ingredients are honey, a full spectrum CBD oil, almond butter, toasted oat cereal, unsalted almonds and dried cranberries. And as I look at this list of ingredients, I realized I substituted or changed almost everything in this particular recipe. So first of all, I didn't use full spectrum CBD oil. I had infused honey. It was actually CBD infused honey because that way I really do like getting a dose of CBD first thing in the morning.

Marge (00:07:40) - I'm not really awake in Baker at all, and I do like to be able to share some of these with my dad, So I used infused honey instead of a full spectrum CBD oil. I use the almond butter. Of course, you could use whatever butter you have on hand, be that peanut butter or cashew butter or mixed nut butter, whatever you want. It's all going to work. The toasted oat cereal. I wasn't really sure what they meant by that. And frankly, I don't buy cereal like, ever anymore. I kind of stopped buying cereal years ago. My kids were getting a little older and not really wanting cereal cereal as much, and then it would go stale in the cupboard. And I was also really sick of, like, going down the cereal aisle and being confronted with like 6000 choices that were getting increasingly more expensive for cereal. That was also not necessarily that healthy. Like most cereal is so full of sugar that it's not really a healthy breakfast option. So I haven't really been buying cereal, but my dad does by cereal, so I used some.

Marge (00:08:40) - He had a box of this Chex cereal. I don't know if that's widely available or not. I think it is. It was like I forget what like what manufacturer makes a Kellogg's or something like that. And it's actually a they're coming like little squares, and it's more of a corn based cereal than toasted oats. But that worked really well, and so you could probably use whatever kind of cereal you happen to have on hand toasted oat, corn squares, whatever, whatever. So use what you have. You don't feel like you have to run out and grab something specific for this particular recipe. Unsalted almonds, toasted and chopped. I also did not chop the almonds or not. Sorry I did chop the almonds. I did not toast them because I buy raw almonds. I had a big bag of almonds from Costco, and I didn't really want to add this step of toasting them myself. It's not that hard to do, but it would have been nice actually. Now that I think about it. But I honestly didn't bother.

Marge (00:09:37) - And did I? Did anybody notice? No. Nobody noticed. And finally dried cranberries. Well, I didn't have dried cranberries, but what I did have was goji berries. I like to have goji berries on hand because I love the chewy texture of them, and they're supposed to have some good health benefits, but I just really like the taste of them. And I find the work really well in place of sort of a moisture dried cranberry that often has, like if you look at the bag of dried cranberries, they often have sugar and or some kind of sunflower oil coated on them, And goji berries don't have that, so I don't know why they do that with dried cranberries. Maybe it's because they're I don't know why. So I just find I tend not to buy dried cranberries, but I also used a combination of the goji berries and raisins. And I'll tell you why. Because when I first moved into this house with my dad, I had a whole bunch of kitchen stuff that I was bringing from the house I'd been in for years, because I pretty much did all of the cooking.

Marge (00:10:40) - And I, you know, I had accumulated 15 years. Well, actually, more than that, but I had accumulated another 15 years worth of ingredients and pantry items and cooking utensils and supplies and all this kind of thing that I brought with me and my dad after my mom passed away, shifted his diet quite a bit from fresh foods to a lot more frozen meals, which we have now corrected a little bit because he just found it disheartening to cook for himself, and he didn't really enjoy it the same way like he used to when my mom was alive. So needless to say, he still does eat some of those frozen meals if I'm not around. But when we're together, I tend to do the cooking because I enjoy it and I want to eat healthy. And a lot of those frozen meals aren't really that good for you. But I was cleaning out the cupboards in the kitchen because I hadn't really there hadn't been much attention put on the kitchen in the last several years after my mom had passed away, and I was needing to make a little bit of space for my things, and I did leave actually quite a bit of it left in in boxes and bins because I didn't really need to have it all out because my dad had a lot of stuff, but I was clearing out things.

Marge (00:11:57) - I would find things in cupboards that had long been expired, so I was throwing it out and stuff like neglected corners and in the cupboards and things like that. And what I found over and over and over again was raisins. I don't know why there were so many bags of raisins. It seemed like every time I opened another cupboard I'd find a big bag. And we're talking. Some of them were smaller, like, obviously purchased at a bulk food store. Some of them were in jars. Some of them were brand new bags, unsealed or sealed. Sorry. probably from Costco because they were pretty big bags. And I had a really good laugh about it, especially with my sister, who was a little more familiar with the situation, but it seemed like every time I opened a drawer or a cupboard, I would find more raisins. And so when I was looking at this, I was like, maybe I should use some of these raisins. And the first I had thrown out a ton of reasons because there were so many of them.

Marge (00:12:49) - Like, it was ridiculous. It was laughable. And I kept two sealed bags, two large sealed bags of organic raisins. And then when I went to get one of them out, I thought, I better double check the expiry date because I opened one of them and they looked. They still looked okay, but pretty shriveled even for a reason. And they had expired about six years ago. So I tossed that bag and then the other bag was okay, but probably set to expire within a year. So I thought I'd better start using up these raisins. So I included raisins in this as well, just because, you know, they're actually less expensive than goji berries. So I did a combination of raisins and goji berries, and I had a plethora of raisins to use up before their expiry date. And I didn't want to throw out any more raisins because it seemed ridiculous. And of course, raisins. Raisins aren't something that people get really excited about, not surprisingly. So. Yeah, that's why I have reasons in here, and I didn't really even notice the taste of the reasons that much either.

Marge (00:13:46) - So if you're not a big fan of raisins, just use whatever you have. Goji berries. Raisins. raisins, cranberries, what other dried fruits you can maybe even chop up like, I don't know, dried apricots or whatever you happen to have. It's all going to work. And that's why I love the whole concept of taking control of your life and making substitutions. Like, sometimes we look at these recipes, and a lot of these types of recipes are very flexible when it comes to making substitutions, especially when you're not having to do the baking. Baking tends to be more precise, but this type of recipe is very friendly to working with what you've got. And basically what you're doing is you're taking a pan and you're lining it with parchment paper. And then in the microwave, if you're using a full spectrum oil, you would include it with the honey and the almond butter. Of course I wasn't. So I just left that out and you put it in the microwave for five, three, 15 second increments so that you can melt it.

Marge (00:14:40) - You give it a stir after each, after each, you know, 15 second increments. And then in a large bowl you're combining everything else. And then you take the melted mixture and you pour it over all the cereal and the almonds and the cranberries, whatever you're using. And then you give it a good stir. Make sure it's well coated with your honey almond butter mixture. And then you press it into the pan. You transfer it to the freezer for about 30 minutes, and then you can cut it into bars. And it says it will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week, or freeze up to three months. Do be sure that you label it, but I will tell you they won't last a week if you leave them out there. They're delicious. I mean, when you coat anything with that much honey because it uses a half cup of honey is going to taste really good. So I would also note that as far as cereal bars go or breakfast bars, they are pretty sweet.

Marge (00:15:37) - And having made it, I would do it again because they were really good and they didn't last that long. But I would almost add more of the almond butter because they were particularly sweet. It only called for a half a quarter cup of almond butter and a half cup of honey. I would try it again and increase the amount of almond butter, maybe half and half, or you could almost do your half cup, or do a quarter cup of honey to make them less sweet. That might be something I would try. And of course, when I'm buying honey, I always buy unpasteurized because then you have all the health benefits of that honey, and you can easily infuse that honey with THC instead of CBD. Or if you want the easier solution. I shouldn't say easier, but if you happen to have a full spectrum CBD or THC oil on hand, you can of course use that as the recipe was written. I did find when I put them in the refrigerator, they're pretty easy to cut.

Marge (00:16:35) - After being in the freezer, I put them in the freezer and kind of forgot about them and came out later because you'll need to put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes. But I was doing other stuff and I forgot and they were pretty hard, but easily easy. I was easily able to cut them into pieces, and then I put them in the fridge. And of course I did find that they got pretty soft, like they were very soft. So you it did suggest that you wrap each piece in a piece of parchment paper, which I didn't end up doing because, I don't know, I just let them into little pieces in the same pan and even in parchment paper they are pretty soft. But if you were intending to take these out somewhere, just keep in mind they're going to be very soft and you're going to need to have them wrapped in some kind of parchment paper. So if you could also wrap them on parchment paper and then have them in the freezer and then take them out when you want them to, because that was that was good as well.

Marge (00:17:30) - Something else. Now that I'm thinking about it, that would even add the health quotient to this particular breakfast bar would be to when you have your your bowl of toasted cereal, toasted oat cereal in your almonds and dried fruit is to sprinkle in some hemp hearts because they are a nutritional powerhouse and they are going to up the nutrition quotient of this particular recipe. And I don't know why I didn't think about that, because I love hemp hearts and I love putting it on everything I put them in. I shouldn't say everything, but I do almost always put them in salads and things like that because they are really healthy for you. That would lend itself well to something like this. So these no bake oats and honey breakfast bars came together really quickly and they tasted excellent. And because there are no bake, you don't have to worry about overheating your kitchen when it's hot outside. So I suggest you give them a try and let me know how you find them and what substitutions you made. Because again, this recipe is easily adaptable for whatever you happen to have on hand.

Marge (00:18:35) - I would love to hear it reach out to me anytime through fan mail, email, DM on Instagram or wherever, wherever you want to reach out to me. And I would love to hear how you made this recipe your own. So that's it for this week, my friends. You know what else won't heat up your kitchen or the products and services on the Marge Recommends page? Head over there for anything that you're looking for edibles related that will help elevate your edibles game. And I'm your host, Marge. Until next time, friends, stay high.