Super Food Friday#1: Blueberry Oat Breakfast Bars

Recently, jwa sent me this link to an article on Super Foods That Everyone Needs. In case you don’t feel like clicking, here they are:

* Beans
* Blueberries
* Broccoli
* Oats
* Oranges
* Pumpkin
* Salmon
* Soy
* Spinach
* Tea (green or black)
* Tomatoes
* Turkey
* Walnuts
* Yogurt

I’m happy to say that we currently eat all of those foods, a lot of them fairly often. But, because it is a New Year and because this is the kind of thing I like to do, I’ve decided to make at least one recipe that uses at least two of the super foods and post about it each Friday. Thus, Super Food Friday is born.

This first installment is for a meal that, unless it’s a big, fancy, weekend brunch, I really don’t give much thought to — breakfast. I normally grab a cereal bar and go to work. Not horrible but not the best breakfast either. Then I came across this recipe. It’s based on one by Michael Chiarello, but I’ve changed the dry fruit to be mostly all blueberries, swapped almonds for walnuts and knocked out a lot of the butter.

The original called for 1/3 of a cup — I used only 1 1/2 tablespoons and added four tablespoons apple sauce for the remainder of the butter. I think that it even turned out better this way, as a lot of the comments at Food Network called the original bars a bit crumbly and a little dry. Not a problem for me — mine were very moist. Hooray for apple sauce.

So, give this a try. It makes a great, quick breakfast and it’s very, very good for you. Another Super Food Friday post coming next week.

Blueberry-Oat Breakfast Bars
1/2 cup walnuts
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup dried blueberries
1/3 cup dried mangoes, apricots, golden raisins, or other dried fruit of your choice
1 1/2 tbsp butter
4 tbsp apple sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup golden molasses
zest of 1 orange
1 egg
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup fat free milk
Non-stick spray

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place oats and walnuts on a baking sheet. Toast in oven for 10 minutes. Set aside. Turn the oven to 325 degrees.

Place the dried fruit, oats, and walnuts in a food processor. Pulse about 10 times until coarsely chopped. Set aside.

In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter, apple sauce, orange zest, brown sugar, molasses and egg until well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine both flours, dry milk, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and salt. Add to the wet mixture. Give it a few turns with the paddle. Next, add the milk and mix a bit. Finally, add dried fruit mixture and mix it all up until just combined.

Spray a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan with non-stick spray. Pour in the batter and spread evenly. Bake for about 30 minutes, until set. Cool in the pan. Cut into bars.

To store, wrap bars individually in plastic wrap. Will keep for about 1 week. For longer storage, freeze for up to 3 months.

Super foods used: blueberries, walnuts and oats (I’m not going to count the orange as it was only zest).

Disclaimer: Super Food Fridays WILL be disrupted by Sugar High Fridays. That’s just the way that goes…