Easy Granola Bars

I like these granola bars because they are easy, versatile, and all of my kids like them!

Ingredients:

4 cups of oats (instant or old fashioned)b
1 cup of brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup of applesauce (today I substituted pumpkin butter and no one noticed)
2 tsp of baking powder
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of honey
1/2 cup of chocolate chips
1/4 cup of chopped nuts (today I used sunflower seeds)

Combine everything and press into a greased 9x13" pan. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until golden. Cool slightly before cutting into squares. Enjoy!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I know it's not quite the right season for this recipe, but I thought I'd go ahead and share it anyway. We were given a huge white pumpkin last week. One of my favorite parts about fresh pumpkins is roasting the seeds. Here's how you do it:

Take your seeds out of your pumpkin and put them in a bowl of water for a little while. This makes it a little easier to separate the pumpkin membrane from the seeds and washes off your seeds. Drain them & rinse them (getting as much of non-seed off as possible). Pat them dry.

Melt a tablespoon of butter and stir it into the seeds, giving them a nice tasty coating.

Spread the pumpkin seeds out on a lightly greased cookie sheet and sprinkle them with salt. Roast at 300F degrees until they're golden brown. It may take an hour. Stir them once or twice while baking.

Enjoy!

Popcorn Cake

Check out this new treat I recently discovered! It's like a giant rice crispy treat, only it's made with popcorn instead of rice crispies. The kids loved it (as did I) and it was really pretty and simple to make!

Ingredients:

About 4 quarts of popped popcorn, seasoned with salt & butter
1 stick of butter/margarine
1 bag of marshmallows (10oz)
About 1 cup or so of m&ms

Grease a bundt pan with butter or cooking spray. Melt the marshmallows and butter in a large pot over low heat, stirring constantly until the marshmallows are completely melted. Stir in the popcorn until it's thoroughly mixed & coated with marshmallow goo. Place 3/4 of the m&ms in the bottom of the greased pan. Pack (be careful - it's hot!) the gooey popcorn into the bundt pan, occasionally sprinkling with m&ms, until the pan is full. Chill for about 15 minutes. Turn over onto a serving dish or plate. Cut into chunks and wow your kids with this tasty treat!

Pink Lemonade Sherbet

I have Sugar Baby (my 12 yr old dd) to thank for discovering this yummy treat! Lucky for us - she loves trying new recipes.

She found this one on allrecipes. It is pretty, creamy & delicious! I'm sure we'll be having this a lot this summer when the temperature goes up. And as pretty as it is, I could easily see it being served at a Mother's Day brunch or something like that...

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 (.13 ounce) envelope unsweetened orange soft drink mix or flavor of your choice [she used a .23oz packet of pink lemonaid flavored Koolaid]
  
• 3 cups milk

Directions

1. In a bowl, stir sugar, soft drink mix and milk until sugar is dissolved. Pour into a shallow freezer container; cover and freeze for 1 hour or until slightly thickened. Transfer to a mixing bowl, beat until smooth. Return to freezer container; cover and freeze until firm. Remove from the freezer 20 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Pudding

First off... my sincerest apologies if you are a reader of this blog and are allergic to chocolate...

And now, back to the subject: Chocolate Pudding!

Recently, when my kids came down with the flu & had very sore throats, I splurged and bought 3 packages of Jello pudding cups. Within what seemed like seconds, all three packages were gone, and my kids were still looking for more. (Not really, but almost... Anyway, they devoured them in no time.) There went my $4, and we were left with lots of trash to boot.

I thought to myself, "there must be a better way!" And then I remembered that pudding is food. And people make food. Yes! I can make my own!

So, off to allrecipes I went and found this delicious recipe. For about $1.50, I made 10 servings. That's half the cost of the packaged stuff and I was left with no packages to fill up the trashcan and it was all made from pronounceable ingredients. Plus, it soothed sore throats & made my little people happy. You can't get much better than that:)

Oh, and I doubled the recipe to get the 10 half-cup servings.


Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons margarine or butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, stir together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt. Place over medium heat, and stir in milk. Bring to a boil, and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat, and stir in margarine and vanilla. Let cool briefly, and serve warm, or chill in refrigerator until serving.
   

Tower of Calories

A.K.A. No Bake Chocolate Oat Bars

This is another allrecipes treat. I've made it once and will definitely make it again, but add more peanut butter next time. Personally, I'd love to add coconut as well, but I don't want to incite rebellion or anarchy, so I'll have to wait until I'm an empty nester for that.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter [next time will add a few Tbs more, or even a handful of peanut butter chips, or maybe even butterscotch??]
  

Directions

1. Grease a 9x9 inch square pan.
2. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla. Mix in the oats. Cook over low heat 2 to 3 minutes, or until ingredients are well blended. Press half of mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Reserve the other half for topping.
3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture over the crust in the pan, and spread evenly with a knife or the back of a spoon.
4. Crumble the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate layer, pressing in gently. Cover, and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours or overnight. Bring to room temperature before cutting into bars.

P.S. I doubled the recipe & used a 9 x 13" pan.

Black Bean Brownies

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't tasted it. These are really good! All six of my kids liked them and asked for seconds. (Of course, I didn't tell them there was anything different about the recipe - not sure if I ever will...)

This easy, moist & fudgy recipe came from allrecipes...

Ingredients:

• 1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder [the original recipe didn't call for this, but I added it anyway]
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee (I used 1 Tbs strong brewed coffee instead)
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (I added a couple of Tbs of sliced almonds, too)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8x8 square baking dish.
2. Combine the black beans, eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract, sugar, and instant coffee in a blender or food processor; blend until smooth; pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the chocolate chips/nuts over the top of the mixture.
   
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the top is dry and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes.
   

Streusel Topped White Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I love this banana bread. It is easy to whip up & makes a great dessert, snack or breakfast! It is really moist & sweet.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup buttermilk (may substitute milk w/1 tsp lemon juice)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Streusel Ingredients:
2 Tbs butter, softened
1 tsp cinnamon
3 Tbs brown sugar

Combine all except streusel ingredients in a mixing bowl. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, stir the streusel ingredients together until crumbly. After baking the bread for about 30 minutes, sprinkle the streusel on and bake until the bread is no longer gooey in the middle (about 5-10 more minutes).

Note: the white chocolate chips usually sink to the bottom while baking, but we don't mind. :)

Hummus

I love hummus. It is so yummy, healthy & easy to make. I've seen many recipes for it and have come up with my own version. If you don't have the Gochujang, never fear. It is not necessary, I just like the hint of zippy flavor that it adds. If you don't have it, just use a dash or two of tabasco sauce or cayenne.

Ingredients:
2 cans chickpeas (a.k.a. garbanzo beans)
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs sesame oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp gochujang
salt & pepper, to taste

Drain the beans, saving the liquid from the cans. Put all the ingredients into a food processor and process until it looks like mush. Mix in enough of the bean liquid to make it creamy. Serve with cut veggies, crackers, bagel chips or even spread it on bread & make a sandwich!


P.S. This is what Gochujang looks like. It has a very, very, VERY spicy and unique flavor. You should be able to find it at an asian grocery store.

Sweet Potato Chips

I've turned 35 and have entered a new phase in my life. (I'm not sure how long this phase will last, but that's beside the point.) I'm trying to seriously reduce the amount of white flour & white sugar that I eat, and add more whole grains, fruits & veggies to my diet. This excludes my Coffeemate French Vanilla Coffee Creamer. And ice cream. And cookies. Oh, and cake, pie, etc...

Anyway, my sister-in-law told me about this recipe. I love sweet potatoes, anyway, so I thought I'd give it a try.

It was really good! Three of my children liked the chips, two tried a small crumb & wanted no more, and one remained true to his anti-sweet potato convictions and wouldn't touch them. (Oh well, more for me!)

Even though the taste of these were really good, I probably won't make them very often unless I get a mandolin slicer. It was really hard to get them sliced thin enough (think paper-thin) by hand.

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato

oil

salt

Slice the potato into very thin slices. Lightly coat with oil. Lay the slices on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 350F for around 30-40 minutes (turning them over every now & then). Keep an eye on them! They won't be crispy unless they are a little brown. Remove them from the pan as they start to brown, leaving the rest behind until they are brown, too. They will get crispier as they cool, though, mine weren't 100% crispy. It was more like a combination of crispy/chewy and sweet/salty - which I loved.

One potato made 4 baking sheetfulls.

Graham Crackers

A box of graham crackers lasts approximately 38 seconds around here. (That's pretty much how it is with most anything edible.) So, it behooves me to learn to make these kinds of things from scratch. Afterall, it is much easier (and cheaper & probably healthier) to make a batch of them than it is to load all seven or eight of us up in the van & make a trip to the grocery store.



I love getting a chance to use the word behooves.



Ingredients:
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter/margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey (though I have used corn syrup in a pinch)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk


cinnamon & sugar



Cream the butter & sugar. Beat in the honey, milk & vanilla. Stir in the remaining ingredients (except the cinnamon & sugar) until thoroughly combined. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour. (You can keep it in the fridge up to one week.)



Divide the dough into fourths and roll a fourth at a time onto parchment paper. Roll it to about 1/4" thickness. Place the dough, still on the parchment paper, onto a baking sheet & sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar mix, pressing it down lightly. Cut the dough into squares or shapes & leave them next to each other. In other words, don't move it once you cut it. Prick it all over with a fork to keep it from bubbling up. Bake at 350F for about 12-15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. (And repeat with the remaining dough:)