All I seem to be doing lately is going to conferences. I think there is a boomerang effect from COVID where we weren’t allowed to travel. It’s fun, but also exhausting. I despise flying. It’s expensive and the security theatre is a pain in the neck. Yes, I said security theater. Our airport security is vastly ineffective. It’s more for show and is reactive, not proactive. Some guy tried to blow up a plane with liquids, no more liquids. A guy with explosive shoes? Shoes need to be scanned. According to a report from the TSA, their security was 95% ineffective. In countries with more effective security, they don’t do the security theater and use plain clothes officers that hide in plain sight. You don’t know if you could get whisked away at any moment.

Anyway, this week I am doing a simple no bake treat. I am starting off with a recipe from Bake What You Love for Molly Bars. This is a fairly high carb treat. My aim is to make this lower carb. Many of the ingredients can be made low carb. Cereal is a tough one because most if not all cereal is carb rich. However, I know I can knock the carbs down.

Here are the original stats:

Here’s what I changed:

• I replaced the cereal with keto friendly variety like Catalina Crunch to lower the carbs.
• I replaced the honey with a sugar free variety to lower the carbs.
• I replaced the brown sugar with its sweetener equivalent to lower the carbs.
• I replaced the peanut butter with peanut butter powder to lower the calories and fat.
• I replaced the salted butter with unsalted butter to lower the sodium.
• I replaced the chocolate chips with sugar free variety to reduce the carbs.
• I increased the servings from 8 to 24 to lower the calories.

Here are the final stats:

Here is the final recipe:

Lower Carb Molly Bars

Makes 24 Bars

• 1 cup sugar free honey
• 1 cup peanut butter powder, reconstituted.
• 1 cup brown sweetener
• ⅓ cup unsalted butter
• 4 cups keto friendly cereal
• 1½ cups sunflower seeds shells removed, unsalted
• ½ cup sugar free semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil

1. Butter a 9 x 11-inch baking dish and set aside.
2. Mix the honey, peanut butter, brown sweetener, and butter in a bowl using a paddle attachment in a stand mixer or an electric mixer.
3. Toss the cereal, and sunflower seeds in another bowl to combine them.
4. Add the cereal and sunflower seed mixture to the peanut butter mixture and mix with a wooden spoon.
5. Press the mixture into the bottom of the buttered baking dish.
6. Melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil in a bowl in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring in between.
7. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of the Molly Bars.
8. Refrigerate until firm, then cut into squares and serve. Keep chilled.