Mommy N Megi (overcoming autism): February 2012

We usually let our little dog Miss Bell sleep in bed with us. She's warm and cuddly but most of all she will awaken me if Megan gets out of bed, because Jesus knows I will sleep right through it all. Where did the days go when I could hear my little one suck her thumb or roll over? Man I was sharp, let me tell you. No one could sneak up, sneak out, sneak nothing! Well not any more. You see; when my head hits the pillow the world disappears. I don't know why. Not much has changed. Yes I am older, but that is NOT the reason for my coma like sleep. You see, the reason is simple. When it’s finally time for sleep I am exhausted baby!

OK, now that we've got that clear. I will just get on to what this whole blog is about any way. The other night while I was sleeping Meg got up! The dog was not in my bed. She was in her crate like a good little dog. NOT! I heard my husband waking me up like this "Honey Megan's up" or something like that. Well you get the point, right?

I get up to find her in the kitchen. She is saying things about food mostly chocolate. I thought perhaps she was hungry. YEAH maybe that's why she's up so late. I did what any good nurturing mommy would do. I tried to give her food. She was not interested in eating at all, which is rare for Megan Anna Banana. (That’s what I call her) THEN I saw why she was not hungry. There on the table was evidence that she had been up allot longer than we knew. Her box of gluten free protein bars. A box of 12 bars almost GONE! $17.00 a box! "OY vey!" Barbara Streisand said that one time and I thought it may be fitting for this. (I'm not really sure what it means)

I don't know about you but I am not going to just go out and buy another box! I can't just get these at any store. Megan's food needs to be purchased at Whole foods and that store happens to be like 35 minutes away from my house! Still Meg would need some kind of protein bar that would be readily available. So I thought, "Hey, why can't I make some protein bars for her? Someone had to come up with that protein bar recipe, right? Then charged 17 bucks a box! So I began to look at recipes and think about what I would want in her bars and I must say I made some pretty good, pretty healthy, good for Megi protein bars.

I thought I would share the recipe with y'all. I hope you enjoy it.

I went to allreccipes.com and ended up using the Farina bars recipe for the backbone of my recipe.

MEGS G-FREE C-FREE YUMMY

COCONUT CHOCOLATE

PROTEIN BARS

1/4 cup Earth balance softened soy free

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup organic sugar

3 teaspoons ground flax seed

1/4 cup powder cocoa

1/3 cup honey

2 tablespoons lemon zest (don't know if I really used that much)

2 cups dry cream of buckwheat

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon ground Cinnamon

1 cup coconut Amando yogurt

3 egg whites 1 yoke

1/2 cup flaked coconut, organic unsweetend

1/2 cup sliced walnuts (optional)
Today we added chocolate chips too :) (no longer optional ) YUM

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, applesauce, sugar and honey until smooth. Mix in the lemon zest. Combine the cream of buckwheat, flax seed,cocoa, baking powder and Cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Blend in the yogurt and egg whites. Try not to over mix, or the bars will fall. Finally, mix in the coconut and chopped or smashed walnuts if you like them. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges are brown but not the top. Cool and cut into bars.