Recipe - Oat Pecan Cream Bars

Besides a breakfast cereal, a favorite way to eat oats is in breads, muffins, and desserts. Oats add a hearty texture and nutty taste, and are a great way to incorporate some fiber and some of the other nutritional benefits of oats into your diet - in a form everyone will eat! While you don't want to eat oatmeal cookies for breakfast every day, it's certainly okay to have them as a treat from time to time, and you know at least part of the ingredients are healthy.

These tasty bars make a yummy, hearty after-dinner snack, and you can cut down on the sugar, or substitute honey or other natural sweeteners if desired.

Oat Pecan Brown Sugar Bars

Image via WikipediaIngredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup sugar (or honey)
2 eggs, separated
2 Tbsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups old fashioned oats, uncooked
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar (for topping)
3/4 cup chopped, lightly toasted pecans

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray, or butter.
• In large bowl, put butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and white sugar (or honey).
• Mix with electric beater until light and fluffy.
• Add egg yolks, water, and vanilla extract and continue to beat until well blended.
• Add oats, flour, and baking soda and blend well with a wooden spoon until a dough is formed.
• Spread dough in bottom of baking pan.
• Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove and place on rack to cool.
• Turn the oven down to 325 degrees.
• In a new cold bowl, add egg whites and beat with electric mixer until light and foamy.
• Slowly add 1/2 cup brown sugar, continuing to beat until you get stiff peaks.
• Distribute this mixture over the bars, spreading to edges of pan. 
• Put pecans on top, sprinkling evenly. Put in 325 degree oven and bake 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned.
• Remove and cool for 10 minutes on a rack.
• Cut into bars, then when cooled completely, remove from pan and serve.

Oats - A Super Food For A Strong & Healthy Heart

Oats gained a special distinction as a super food back in 1997 when the Food and Drug Administration made the claim that there is an association between a diet high in oats and a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. With that announcement, oats, oatmeal, oat bran, and oat flour skyrocketed in popularity amount the whole grains, placing it right up there in the top 10 super foods. Let's take a look at what else this well known, but not totally understood, grain has to offer.

Super Nutrition for a Long Life

oats before blending (Photo credit: sweetbeetandgreenbean)We know that oats, along with other whole grains, provide protection against heart disease, potentially extending the lifespan of people who include this food regularly in their diets. That would seem to be enough of a reason to add oats to your diet, but there's more. This is a high fiber, high protein food that's low in calories and rich in important vitamins and minerals like iron, calcium, copper, potassium, manganese, and selenium.

Beta glucan is the main ingredient responsible for lowering serum cholesterol levels. Oats also contain special antioxidants called avenanthramides. Together these two elements have been shown to significantly reduce LDL cholesterol levels when oats are consumed on a regular basis.

Oats have a low glycemic index which means the energy from this food burns slowly and stays with you to satisfy your hunger for a longer period of time. Having nutrients released slowly into the bloodstream and throughout the body helps stabilize blood sugar levels, eliminating the spikes which can cause many health problems, concentration problems, and dieting problems. In addition, the B vitamins contribute to strong healthy skin, nails, and hair.

Along with other whole grains, studies have found that consuming oats can aid in the battle against breast cancer, Type 2 diabetes, and asthma in children. With this sort of super food on your side, why wouldn't you eat it?

Countless Ways to Enjoy

Oats are an inexpensive and widely available grain that can be easily incorporated into meals at any time of day. Oats are easy to store in containers or airtight bags, and have a very long shelf life.

A bowl of hot cereal in the morning is the most familiar way oats are served. Whether you buy raw oatmeal or quick cooking, you are starting off with a good basis for nutrition. Vary the toppings and you vary the recipe enough to eat servings of oatmeal a number of times each week without getting bored. Add berries, nuts, stevia, or protein powders to boost the flavor and superpowers of your oatmeal.

Oat Pumpkin Pancakes (Photo credit: digiyesica)Besides breakfast cereal, there are a number of other ways to incorporate oats into your daily diet. Oats can provide a toasty coating for baked or broiled fish, and are often used to make hearty muffins, cookies, and other desserts. Don't forget about convenient trail mixes or granola bars. Oats are often the central ingredient in those tasty treats.

Mixing oatmeal in as a binder in ground meat for burgers, meatloaf, and meatballs is another way to 'sneak' more nutrition into your diet. Oats also play center stage in a number of bread recipes, whether as a main ingredient or to add just a bit of heartiness and crunch. (Be sure to check back later this week for some tasty recipes to add more oats to your diet!)

As part of your healthy diet, incorporating up to three servings of whole grains a day is recommended by many nutritionists and health experts. Oats provide enough significant benefits for healthy living to make them a vital part of your good diet.