Food Talk – Page 80 – Life as Lauren

If only you knew the evolution of Joey and I’s nicknames for each other. Actually, I would rather get a papercut on that piece of skin between your thumb and pointer finger (again!) than tell you any of the embarrassing things we’ve called each other. But, I don’t mind telling you that Joey often calls me “Dorsey,” which is just my last name and therefore a pretty normal thing to call someone.

I’ve been making these little peanut butter/pretzel/oat no-bake snack bars and Joey has been lovingly calling them Dorsey Bars. I love that so much and after sharing a few with my mom and sister and hearing they love the name and the taste, I thought I’d share (both) here with you! They couldn’t be easier and I look forward to mine every afternoon 🙂

I was on the phone with my mom while futzing with this parchment paper and she was like “what is that noise?!” so maybe don’t do that.

Still working on perfecting those corner pieces, but I used the bottom of a second 8×8 pan to make these nice and even on top and it felt really life-changing.

Dorsey Bars

1 cup pretzels (I use Snyder’s Sourdough Nibblers, which are salted)
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup chunky peanut butter
heaping 1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Line a 8×8 pan with parchment paper and set aside.
Use a food processor to crush pretzels until only very small chunks remain (see photo).
Mix pretzels and oats in a large bowl.
Whisk peanut butter, honey and vanilla extract together (do it quickly, otherwise things start to get thick!).
Add peanut butter/honey mixture to pretzel/oat mixture and stir to combine, making sure the dry ingredients are fully coated in the peanut butter/honey mixture.
Dump mixture into the 8×8 pan and use your hands (and/or the bottom of another 8×8 pan, if you have one) to spread/flatten evenly, especially in the corners!
Place pan in the freezer for 30 minutes then remove and slice into squares (I do 16 of em). Enjoy!

I wrap each bar individually in plastic wrap, then stick them all in a Ziploc bag and store them in the fridge (sometimes for 2 weeks), grabbing one for each of us every morning.

DORSEY BAR, DORSEY BAR, DORSEY BAR!

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In other news, it’s my birthday weekend! Going to dinner tonight and BBQing on Sunday, for my actual birthday. S’gonna be the best!

Sometimes you skip your workout because you got your hair done the day before and don’t want to wash out those professionally-styled waves.

Sometimes you brew beer for the first time in a long time and forget to add the damn malt. Aka a KEY ingredient.

Sometimes you go to marinate your chicken wings and they smell RANK and you get to make an emergency trip to Whole Foods for more.

Sometimes your 4th of July maybe doesn’t go to plan, but it’s still perfect because you got a few extra hours of sleep, made waffles, tried a new kombucha flavoring method, read in the hammock, used your BRAND NEW GRILL (!!!!!!) to make some bomb wings, went for a evening stroll, ate cobbler and felt all around happiness.