This week I’m getting ready for a conference and I spent some time doing car work. The conference is our big annual conference, where over 1,000 people of many professions come together. It’s fun, but a lot of work. I help people get continuing education for our sessions and that is daunting, but always worth it.

In terms of car work, I thought this part would be easier to remove and replace. Three bolts and a couple of nuts. No big deal, right? Wrong. I couldn’t get the first bolt off. I ended up having to give up and get some help. It’s frustrating when I can’t get things to work, but sometimes that’s the way it goes.

Because of all of the things going on, I am making a simple recipe from Nicole Winegardner for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars. These are pretty much chocolate chip cookies in bar form with peanut butter. These are also a one bowl bar cookie. I think I can swap some of the sugar out to help with calories, and make the serving a bit smaller. The servings in the recipe are big and very high in calories.

Here are the original stats:

Here’s what I changed:

• I increased the servings from 8 to 16 to lower the calories.
• I replaced the peanut butter with peanut butter powder to reduce the calories.
• I replaced the butter with applesauce to reduce the calories.
• I replaced the all purpose flour with almond and coconut flours to reduce the carbs.
• I replaced the sugar with its sweetener equivalent to reduce the carbs.
• I replaced the chocolate chips with low sugar variety to reduce the carbs.

Here are the final stats:

Here is the final recipe:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

Serves 16

• ¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 ⅔ cup brown sweetener
• 2 cups peanut butter powder
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1.5 cups almond flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 Teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups sugar free milk chocolate chips divided

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish or line with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl with an electric mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the applesauce and brown sugar for about 30 seconds on medium speed. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on high until lightened and well combined, about a minute.
3. Add the dry ingredients and mix on medium-low until combined. Add 1 ½ cups of the chocolate chips and mix just until combined.
4. Spread dough into the 9×13 baking dish and top with the remaining chocolate chips. Place in the oven and bake for 22-25 minutes, until the edges start to turn golden and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.