Here’s a theme that’s going to be running through 2025:

I need to eat better.

As such, I broke out a cookbook we had bought a few years ago called Running On Veggies. It was being plugged by one of the Peloton instructors I followed on social media and I figured, if it works for her, it’ll work for me.

And then I tried to make some kind of falafel dish that was in there and I failed miserably and I put the book away, never to be opened again.

Until now.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m somewhat capable in the kitchen.

I have some reliable dishes I like to make - the thing is, I don’t often stray from them.

And I hardly ever do baking. (Other than, say, baked ziti.)

But we’re eating better and we’re trying new things and this ticks both of those boxes.

This recipe was the first one I could find for which we pretty much had every ingredient already in the house. (I’ve since gotten some other healthy things to have on hand that are in a bunch of the other recipes. You’ll be hearing about those plenty.)

I didn’t mess this one up at all. The only problem is I dropped the oats when I was taking them out of the pantry and they spilled all over the floor. There were some left in the carton (what do you call that - it’s an oval container with a plastic lid. Not quite a carton, but carton material…), and they were slightly fewer than the recipe called for, but not enough to make me worry too much.

I was surprised at, if you look at that top picture, how thin the final product came out to be. When I think ‘oat bar’ I think of something that’s a little thicker - like a Clif Bar or the Honey Stinger bars I’ve been enjoying recently.

I cut a strip from the left side for everybody to get a taste, and then I quartered the remainder for some what I thought were substantial bars. The first one I had (pictured), before a test workout on the bike just to see how they landed, was almost too much.

Which is why, I guess, the recipe says to cut them into twelve.

Overall, I’m proud of myself because these came out pretty good.

I’ll do them again, especially since they were certainly substantial enough that I could have one before an early morning run before I eat a full breakfast, for example.

(The big problem is remembering they’re in the refrigerator, where I’m not used to going before an early-morning workout. Monday morning I forgot all about them before I exercised. But I guess it’s also good to have as a mid-morning snack before walking the dog.)

The recipe also calls for chocolate chips, which I skipped in this one, so maybe I’ll try that next time.

Am I a baker now? Too soon to tell.

But it’s nice to have a success under my belt from this book. Looking forward to trying some more recipes. (And then telling you about it.)

Now the challenge will be remembering to eat them.