Let me wax poetic about Anne P’s Peanut Butter Bars for a moment.
These homemade bars have fueled the Husband and I through the last six weeks. Twice a week, I make a huge double batch, and we eat the bars for breakfasts and snacks. I’ve made the recipe so many times that I don’t even need to pull up the directions anymore – I know all the measurements by heart.
I’ve discovered there are many tasty modifications that I can make to Anne’s original recipe:
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Instead of brown rice cereal, any puffed cereal will do. I like puffed millet!
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Instead of peanut butter, sub in any nut butter. I’ve tried sunflower butter and almond butter. This recent batch was made with honey roasted peanut butter. OMG.
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The flaxseed and chia seeds, while tasty and nutritious, are not necessary ingredients. Leaving these ingredients out cuts down on the cost of the recipe considerably. Same with the vanilla extract – tasty but not necessary.
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Roasted and salted pumpkin and sunflower seeds taste the best because of the salty/sweet contrast with the brown rice syrup.
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Dried fruit – cranberries, raisins, apricots – are another tasty addition.
The thing that I love MOST about these bars is that I can eat them while nursing. Both Henry and I wake up ready to eat and grabbing a bar from the fridge means that I don’t have to wait 20 – 30 minutes to get food in my system. Feeling your blood sugar crash while the baby nurses is a terrible thing.
Once everyone was fed, we went on a long walk. I’ve been slacking on taking the dogs on long walks because it’s SO hot and not safe for Henry, but we were up really early this morning. It was practically cool out!
A little Henry factoid: He weighs 10 pounds and 5 ounces now! He was 6 pounds and 11 ounces at birth. That’s a gain of more than 9 ounces a week (the average for a breastfed baby is 4 – 7 ounces a week). I knew he seemed bigger but holy hell. I think it’s time to pack away all the newborn sized clothes… Must be all those peanut butter bars. 
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{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
I make a similar peanut butter bar recipe with date molasses in it (here’s the recipe). They’re delicious! I love bars like this, especially in the summer when you don’t want to bake.
I was going to say, “wow Henry has really grown!” You can really tell in this picture! He is such a doll Caitlin!
Just a growing boy!! Those berries look awesome!!
He’s such a cutie!
And I’m going to have to give those bars a try because while I’m not a nursing mother (or mother at all), we all could use a little on-hand delicious bar recipe now and again.
What a handsome baby boy! I am glad that you both are being fueled properly!
glad you gave those modifications to Anne P’s bars. i’ve wanted to try them in the past, but thought they might be a bit pricey. your tricks should help cut the cost! henry is looking so good!!
I made two batches of those in the last two weeks. Delish! I do dried apricots cut up, dried cherries (YUM!!!), and driend cranberries. I also added some shelled pistachios. So versatile. I’ve told people they could just leave out the chia seeds/flax or use less. At my co-op we can buy chia in bulk, so you could just use a little bit if you wanted to test it out and not buy a big bag.
My baby turned 21 yesterday. Henry is an adorable baby and you are doing a fantastic job mothering!!
Henry is really chunking up! He really is an adorable baby. My 13 month old twins are each 20 lbs so I’m wondering when Henry will totally pass them?
thanks for the link to the recipe–I’ll try it out. I love when recipes can easily be modified!
Way to go mama!! 9 oz a week is amazing for a breastfed baby! Packing up the newborn clothes was hard for me. People had given us all different sized clothes and I remember holding up the 9 month, 12 month, 18 month clothes and thinking my sweet little baby will NEVER be that big! It just didn’t seem possible. You always hear how fast it all goes but you don’t truly get it until it’s happening to you. At least I get to dust off the newbie clothes in January. Eeeek!!! I’m so excited.
Henry is such a cute baby. I love all of his pictures and your peanut butter bars look great! Thanks for sharing the recipe and your tips!
Yay for gaining babies! My boy was 9-13 on Monday at 5 weeks. Henry is adorable
. Isn’t it crazy how as a breastfeeding mom all you want is for your baby to gain and grow, but it’s still so sad to move up in sizes?? I want time to slow down already! (But I’ll take more sleep now.)
Hey Caitlin! You seem to be doing great as a new mom – congrats on this fabulous transition! Question about your city-mini: how did you find the whole car seat adaptor situation to be? I am trying to decide btwn the CM and the Britax B-agile and one of the things I am worried about with the CM is the difficulty/time in putting the carseat into the stroller and taking it out each time. It is tough to do or fairly easy and straightforward? I know you don’t drive a lot, but do you typically take the carseat out after your walk and bring Henry inside in in or leave it attached?
Sorry for the lengthy question, but any thoughts you have would be awesome!
It’s really not hard. You just drop in the car seat and click over the safety belt. In regards to whether I take him out of the seat or bring it in, it kind of depends on if he is sleeping. If he is, I will just bring the whole carseat in but if he’s awake I’ll just take him out and leave the car seat and stroller in the garage. I am glad we got the city mini, my only complaint about the car seat (key fit 30) is that it is really hot in the summer but I’m thinking that is all car seats?
I had to laugh at the 10lbs 5 ounce thing…. I was 10lbs when I came out of the womb!!
(Yes, I thank my mum each and every day for the pain she must have gone through!) And I love that you dedicated a post to Anne’s bars! I still haven’t made them but I’ve been experimenting with a few similar recipes lately. Maybe this weekend I’ll make hers too!
Way to go (grow!!) Henry! I need to make those bars…so perfect for a workday afternoon snack
Definitely time to pack up the newborn clothes – I can’t believe he’s still been able to wear them! My daughter could barely fit in NB at 8 1/2 pounds…I guess body shape counts, too, not just weight? Anyway, good job growing, Henry!
Also, almost time to take the newborn insert out of the car seat! You may be already on top of this, but I was surprised when I realized the Chicco insert was supposed to come out by 11 pounds. (I didn’t catch this until my daughter was nearly a pound over that… Oops!)
Oh thanks for this – I was trying to figure this out. So it just comes out and nothing goes back in, right?
Yup! I did take just the part behind the body out first and left the head part in for a week or so because she just looked so small in the big bucket, but the teacher at my new moms class encouraged me to go ahead and take the head insert out too. I think she’s actually comfier with that out now because the slots for the shoulder straps aren’t blocked by the insert anymore, so there’s actually a small amount of ventilation. Maybe?
He looks exactly like K!
Yum, those bars look delicious! And this is a random question… I nanny a 1-year-old and I’m not supposed to give him peanut butter because he has never tried it. Does nursing a baby while you (the mom) eat peanut butter make him less susceptible to peanut allergies?
I have no idea! Good question though. I bet there’s something to it.
I was just in Charlotte for work, and I had the pleasure of eating at Cowfish! I kept looking for you, Henry and James walking out on the sidewalks, but no dice. I spent most of the time at Carolina Medical Center Main demoing new medical equipment. You live in a beautiful city!
Hahah glad you got to try Cowfish
It’s the bomb.
I can’t lie, I am totally jealous that your dogs are capable of walking with a stroller. We are a week away from having a one year old and our two dummies still get tangled in each other and the wheels. It makes walking a chore that usually gets pawned off on whichever parent isn’t busy- mostly hubby since we are separation anxiety stage and mommy can’t leave the line of vision without a meltdown! Congrats to you on bulking Henry up so quickly that’s great and means breastfeeding is working!
Hahah, well I don’t bring Maggie with us for a very specific reason.
Yes! We love those bars, too! My almost 2yr old loves them! To cut on cost I’ve used 3/4 brown rice syrup and 1/4 honey. Can’t do too much though since honey doesn’t harden as much as the syrup.
Here in AZ it’s blistering hot! I can’t wait until fall! I feel like my overall activity level plummets in the summer. No mid day walks here :/ waah!
Ps: Henry is adorable! How I miss that small baby stage!
I have to agree with Juliene; I had this beautiful vision of me, my cute baby, two dogs and the fancy jogging stroller running up and down the river path right up until the first time I actually tried it. The actual scenario was a nightmare (or comedy depending on your perspective). I can finally walk the dogs with the kiddo now that she is 4 and can follow directions (mostly). Thanks for the reminder about the peanut butter bars-we are going to make some today.
You are so sweet. Thanks for the love! I’m so glad the bar recipe has been so helpful and become such a favorite. I love your modification ideas, too – I’m totally going to update the recipe page to include those!
And Henry is looking adorable, as always! xo
Hot weather excersise is tough! I was runnning outside a few days ago and it was around 85*, I thought to myself “Man, this could be dangerous.”. So now I stash nuun in my purse and a throw a frozen water bottle in my car before a hot run.
What a big boy! Doesn’t it feel awesome as a breastfeeding mama to know they are growing quickly?
My one month old is already over 11 pounds. Ridiculous. But he did start out over 9. He never got to wear all the cute newborn clothes he was given. They are already at Goodwill for some other normal-sized child. haha
that’s great that he’s growing so well! And I’ve seen those bars, I should try them out sometime!
I can’t believe how different Henry looks already! He looks so comfy in his stroller, too. Jealous…hahaha.
Henry is getting SO big…what a cutie!
My dainty daughter started out at 8.5lbs but grew fast like Henry for the first 6 months, until she started moving, and didn’t get to wear all the cute clothes she got as gifts. Now at 10 months she has been in the 12m size for long enough that I am starting to get tired of what she has.
I know it’s a nitpicky thing, but you are a published author so I just wanted to point out that “These homemade bars have fueled the Husband and I through the last six weeks” should actually read “have fueled my husband and me”. An easy trick to remember which version is correct (me vs I) is leaving the other person out – “the bars fueled me” vs “the bars fueled I”.
pet peeve of mine too!
My son is breast fed and weighs 14 pounds at seven weeks. It’s scary how fast they grow. But dressing a kid who is out of newborn but not three months size is tough.
Clearly, healthy fats are a good thing for babies too!
I love it! I made some big pans of homemade granola protein bars with peanut butter, protein powder and dried cranberries when my little guy was born. I would stash one big chunk next to the glider before I “went to sleep” at night for middle of the night feedings (me and him!). Don’t forget to drink water!
I love those bars! I’ve tried out a bunch of different granola bar recipes, but I always go back to Anne’s recipe because it’s my favourite!
I love Ann’s bars! I use cheerios instead of the puffed cereal and add in chocolate chips-delicious!
I really need to make some of these (that and Mmm sauce!)
Just made these bars for the second time using millet-thanks for the idea. Also, I put them in muffin tins for easy out access–no cutting required!
adding 1/4 cup of chocolate chips is really tasty too…the chocolate melts as you mix it – yummers.
xo
YUM I keep meaning to make Anne’s bars. Have you tried anything in place of the brown rice syrup (e.g. honey)?
brown rice syrup?? where do you find it…never heard of it but want to make these bars..
check out whole foods or earthfare or a similar grocery store in the sweetener section!
No-Bake PB Breakfast Bars?! Yes, please! And thank you.