Recipe Tuesday: Low-Carb Tagalong Bars

I've been on and off the low-carb lifestyle since 2013, on this time since September of 2015. It's what works for me, and I've lost 55 pounds so far.

What I find most difficult is when the rest of my family is enjoying foods that I choose not to eat. We have a Girl Scout in the family, and I'm proud to say that I did not eat a single Girl Scout cookie this year. That being said, this morning when my husband pulled out a box of Tagalongs from his stash, I felt a pang of longing.

So, of course, I turned to my trusty internet, and found this fabulous and easy recipe. I didn't feel like shopping for any ingredients, so I made a few alterations, and I am extremely happy with the result. I used the sweeteners that I have on hand, and instead of using real peanut butter, I used pb2 powder.  I did this for two reasons; one because peanut butter is a huge pain for me to measure and clean up, and two because pb2 has significantly less calories. Even though I'm low-carb, calories still count! Here's my version of Joy Filled Eats Low-Carb Tagalong Bars.



"Shortbread" Layer
3/4 cup Almond Flour
1 Tbsp Granulated Splenda
2 Tbsp Powdered Swerve
pinch of salt
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla

Peanut Butter Layer
1/2 cup pb2 powder
3 Tbsp Powdered Swerve
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup water

Chocolate Layer
1 3.5 oz bar 100% cacao Ghirardelli chocolate bar (or anything over 80% cacao)
40 drops liquid Stevia
2 Tbsp Powdered Swerve

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease an 8x8 pan
2. In a medium bowl, combine "Shortbread" ingredients (I found a fork to be the easiest utensil to mix with), then spread thinly into prepared pan (this ended up being a lot thinner than I expected it to be, but I was able to cover the entire bottom of the pan)
3. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown 
4. While that bakes, prepare your peanut butter layer. Mix pb2 powder and powdered swerve together, then add water and vanilla.  Mix until smooth
5. Pour peanut butter layer over warm "shortbread." Smooth gently into edges. The residual heat will help spread the peanut butter smoothly
6. In microwave or double boiler, melt chocolate and add sweetener. Pour over peanut butter layer and gently spread to edges (I just used a spatula for this part)
7. Place in refrigerator until hardened
8. To cut into bars, I upended the pan onto a cutting board, and the entire thing easily came out of the pan. I then used a pizza cutter to slice into bars.  The tops of some of the chocolate cracked, but since I'm the only one eating these, I wasn't too worried about it

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the process because I didn't think about making a blog post out of this until I tried how delicious they are.  But if you head over to the original recipe, there are quite a few good pictures.  I hope you try these, and let us know if you like!