5 Ingredient No-Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars!

We've all had them. Those chocolaty, chewy oatmeal cookies made with tons of butter and sugar. While they can sometimes look like little cow pies, Chocolate No-Bakes Cookies are delicious.

One of my first memories of Chocolate No-Bake Cookies was the summer after my freshman year of college. I was out in Colorado being a camp counselor at an outdoor adventure camp. I was living at 9,000 feet, hiking, making forts out of tree trunks, swimming in freezing water and running after energetic kids from the inner-city. It was an amazing fun job...if you're into that kind of thing. And I was!

My mom, being the thoughtful person that she is, probably knew that I was expending tons of energy everyday living at such a high altitude and constantly being active. So throughout the summer she sent me care packages of delicious home-made goodies.

The first package she sent me had no-bake cookies in it. Wow oh wow. I had never had them before and I couldn't get enough. Let's just say they didn't last long, especially once my friends found out about them.

While your typical, no-bake cookies are stinkin' delicious, I'm not a huge fan of the amount of processed sugar and butter that can be packed into them. The other day I figured I'd try out my own recipe. I'm on a peanut butter kick so I thought I'd keep that the main flavor. I knew I'd have to sweeten them some, but I didn't want to use white sugar. I also knew that there had to be an ingredient that would hold everything together.

I only experimented once and was happy with the result! There are only five ingredients and these bars are dairy-free and sweetened with agave instead of white sugar. I also used coconut oil to hold everything together. They're chalk-full of energy and are delicious! Soon I'll be experimenting with no-bake bars that are only sweetened with bananas. I'll keep you posted:)

Peanut Butter No-Bake Oatmeal Bars

(Serves 16)

Ingredients:

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup agave nectar
¼ cup coconut oil
¼ cup almond milk

Directions:

Spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
In a medium sized sauce pan combine the peanut butter, agave, coconut oil and almond milk. Slowly increase the heat while mixing constantly until the mixture starts to boil.
Let the sauce boil for one minute while you continue to stir.
Remove the sauce pan from the heat and stir in the rolled oats 1 cup at a time until all the oats are fully covered in the peanut sauce.
Pour the mixture into your prepared baking dish and use a spatula to even everything out. Use your hand or the spatula to firmly press the mixture into the pan so that when everything cools, the oats will stick together.
Place the baking dish in the refrigerator for about 30 to 1 hour until it has cooled.
Cut into 16 squares and enjoy!