Something that I think about often is setting (noun) up for success. I started thinking about this a lot more when we got a dog again, if I leave a tray of cookies on the counter where she can reach, I am not setting the big dog up for success. I am creating a situation in which a big dog will fail at not getting the cookies. If I know that she needs to go pee right after she eats, and I feed her, let her out of the crate, and then keep making dinner, I have not set her up for success, and so it is on me if she pees in the house.
With work, I much more often experience the opposite: being put into a situation where there is no possible way to succeed. When goals are unclear, and there is no support structure, I haven’t been set up for success, so I don’t feel particularly bad if I don’t do a great job. If my friends are feeling unhappy at work, and are being put into situations like that, I remind them that they are not bad at their job, they are being placed in a situation where they are meant to fail, and it’s not a reflection on them.
I have a lot of dietary requirements, and it took a long time to realize what setting myself up for success meant in that realm: don’t buy hummus, it doesn’t matter if you think it looks good. Keep a jar of peanut butter in the house at all times. Never buy cheese aged less than six months. If you’re going to eat more than one piece of pizza, just take half the cheese off it first.
I think I accepted my intestinal issues as normal for a long time, when perhaps I shouldn’t have. When we are adolescents we often think that whatever horrible things our bodies might be doing are normal, and also who would you tell about it? Certainly not your parents, ew. Your friends? So embarrassing, as if. And so as we get older, our digestive systems settle into whatever the fuck they’re going to do, we are often set up for failure.
I have a friend who recently realized that not everyone gets lightheaded and needs to lie down every time they eat pizza. I’d always assumed she was lactose intolerant with IBS like me, but instead she has a dairy allergy. I’d been assuming that whatever modifications I made to food that made it work for me would be good for her, but food allergies mean like, epi pens and stuff.
She’s a really picky eater, and has been told that she has to remove one of her primary food groups, and so I have been thinking about how to accommodate her, as we start to get to see one another again. I am so accustomed to thinking about what works for me, a person with lactose intolerance, and that’s obviously really different from being allergic to dairy.
That is all to say, my recipe this week is dairy free but not vegan. (And no, to all the midwesterners reading this—eggs aren’t dairy.) It just uses the eggs for binding, so I feel pretty confident a vegan egg substitute would work fine, but I don’t have one, and didn’t use one.
Peanut Butter Granola Bars
This is my take on David Liebovitz’s take on Ovenly’s bars. I love these but always find them a bit excessively sweet, so I am knocking the sugar down a bit, and also adding a half cup of nuts for extra crunch. The dried sour cherries are so good in this, I’ve made these with other dried fruits and they are not as good. These can be easily frozen for a month or more, and eaten once thawed. I always freeze half of these, but then again I only live with one person.
4 cups (395g) rolled oats
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (80g) chocolate chips
1/2 cup (45g) unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup (80g) dried sour cherries
1/2 cup small nuts of your choosing—I used roasted salted sunflower seeds, almonds would work if you’re trying to add some calcium
8 tablespoons (115g, 4 ounces) shortening (or butter), at room temperature
2/3 cup (130g) packed dark brown sugar (the recipe originally calls for 1 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, so if you want yours sweeter, you can go that high, 1 cup might be the ideal amount of sugar)
1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature (or your vegan egg replacer)
1 1/2 cups (375g) smooth peanut butter NOT THE NATURAL STUFF
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
flaky sea salt, for finishing
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Parchment a 9 x 13-inch (22 x 33cm) baking pan (you really want the parchment this will stick).
2. Mix the oats, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. In a small bowl, mix the chocolate chips, coconut, and dried cherries, and nuts.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl by hand, beat the butter and brown and granulated sugars until light and fluffy (like five minutes). Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides, to make sure they’re well-incorporated.
5. Add the peanut butter and vanilla and mix, then add the oat mixture and mix on the lowest speed of the mixer for two minutes (ahaha I am just now reading this part of the recipe for the first time. Two minutes? I never do that! Maybe this is why mine always crumble a bit).
6. Mix in the chocolate chips, coconut, and cherries and stir until completely incorporated, making sure everything is well-mixed.
7. Scrape the dough into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle gently with some flakes of sea salt and bake until the top is golden brown and the center feels just set when you press it lightly, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely before slicing.
I like these guys, I eat them for breakfast a lot, or after my midday workout (I love working from home because when I get bored I can lift weights for half an hour instead of being on twitter, which is what I would do when I was in an office). Anyway, this is a great thing to make on a Sunday to snack upon during the week. I would have included pictures (I took some!) but I don’t feel like it. It’s brown. It’s brown and looks like a granola bar. You know, it’s a granola bar. That’s what it looks like.