"Be Quiet" Baby Fudge

In the book One Hungry Monster, the protagonist is plagued by…well…hungry monsters.  To ward them off, he gives them 10 jars of peanut butter.  He gives it without jam, because he wants “every monster mouth shut tighter than a clam.”  We apply the same principle to our own little monster, Max.  These chewy energy bites are perfect for those super whiny times.  Like when you and your best friend from college live on opposite sides of the country and have been playing phone tag for months.  And just when you finally get a hold of each other, he starts getting upset for some ridiculously minor reason.  Bingo.  "Be quiet" baby fudge to the rescue.  It does double quiet duty actually – not only when he eats it, but also when he helps make it, carefully dumping each ingredient into the bowl with little toddler concentration-face… until he gets too grabby with the chocolate chips.

Ingredients 
1 cup old fashioned whole wheat oatmeal
½ cup natural peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup ground almonds
¼ cup ground flax seeds
½ cup chocolate chips
pinch salt
pinch ground cinnamon
pinch ground cardamom

Instruction 
Place all the ingredients into a large bowl.  Use your hands to mix everything all together.  Feel free to use a wooden spoon, but I think it gets mixed up better when done by hand.  I like to mush the “dough” into a square Tupperware container.  Refrigerate for at least an hour, then cut into square bites.  Store in the fridge.