oatmeal peanut butter snack squares.

Is there really anything better at keeping you full than oatmeal? I mean... I can eat a bowl of oatmeal at 9am and be good until mid-afternoon. No joke.

So these "snack squares"? They're really just delicious little homemade appetite suppressors. I mean, okay, obviously you shouldn't eat them in place of a meal, but as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack to hold you over until the next meal? Absolutely.

If I had a full time job and worked all day, I would definitely make things like this and pre-package them up on the weekends into individual baggies and then grab one every day to bring to work. Isn't it way more exciting to eat a snack at work if it's homemade?

Same goes for lunches... which would you be more excited about eating for lunch at work: a microwavable frozen dinner, or leftover homemade lasagna? Exactly. You know which one has more flavor.

Another thing (okay, two things) I love about these snack squares is that (1) they have mini chocolate chips in them (LOVE mini chocolate chips! So, so, so cute.) and (2) they introduced me to natural peanut butter. Have you tried natural peanut butter? I buy the Skippy brand, and I SWEAR, it tastes just like regular peanut butter.

And to prove it, I ran a little experiment. You see, D doesn't like "weird" things. He would love it if I would just leave well enough alone. If I were to ask him "Do you want regular peanut butter or natural peanut butter?", well... I wouldn't even ask. I know the answer to that one. Because he (and maybe you?) pictures natural peanut butter as being all dry and healthy tasting and gross. Right?

Well, I just made him a peanut butter and banana sandwich with the natural peanut butter. Guess who loved his sandwich and didn't say ONE WORD about it being "dry" or "healthy" or "weird tasting"? That's right. Sara- 1. D- 0. Now if I could only find a way to sneak beans into something...

So what I'm trying to say is... go out and buy the natural peanut butter. And not just for this recipe, for everything that you use peanut butter for. Because the ingredient list is so much better than that of the regular ol' stuff. Seriously- see for yourself! Plus the natural peanut butter has 20 less calories per serving.

peanuts, sugar, palm oil, salt. THAT'S IT!

peanuts, sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil.

Oh, and if you would like the recipe for these delicious guys, head on over to How Sweet It Is.

Here's the recipe.

The only thing I changed is that I used all-purpose flour instead of whole-wheat flour. They turned out great with the AP flour! But I really would love to try making them with the whole-wheat flour just for comparison purposes (plus...any excuse to make more of these is a good excuse. Trust me.). If any of you try it with whole-wheat, let me know how it goes, okay?