Granola Bars

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup of wheat germ

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup chocolate chips or raisins (optional)

1 tsp of salt

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 egg, beaten

2 tsps vanilla

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees and grease a  9x13 baking sheet.

Combine the oats, flour, wheat germ, brown sugar, cinnamon, chocolate chips and salt in a mixing bowl.  Once mixed, create a well in the middle and pour the oil, egg, honey and vanilla into the well.

Mix together with your hands, then spread out evenly into the pan.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges.  Let the granola bars cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm.

Almond Crescents

Lately, I've been exploring new things to bake to have with my afternoon tea.  When I saw this recipe, I didn't hesitate to try it out!

I started by measuring out sliced almonds and pouring them into a food processor.  I blended until it was very fine.

I combined the ground almonds with flour and sugar, then added vanilla.

Next, I mixed in 1 cup of melted butter (note that the recipe calls for room temperature butter, but I didn't have any, so I was forced to melt it.)  I mixed it in with my fingers until I had a ball of dough.  The dough has to chill in the fridge for an hour.

Even after an hour after chilling, the dough was still extremely fragile and crumbled at the slightest touch (perhaps because my butter was melted and not room temp?)  For this reason, I was unable to roll the dough into balls, then out into rolls, and then into crescent shapes.  Instead, I very carefully shaped the dough into crescent-ish shapes, which I think were probably thicker than the recipe intended.  This was tedious because the dough literally crumbled at the slightest touch.

I added sliced almonds to the top of only two, assuming the kids wouldn't want almonds on theirs.

I baked them on ungreased cookie sheets at 350 degrees for 15 minutes

The effort was well worth it, because these are delicious!  I wasn't sure what to expect the consistency to be, but I would describe them as cookie-like.  My 6-year-old loves them.  And they were smashing with a spot of tea. :)

Almond Crescents
2 cups unblanched almonds
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sweet butter, room temperature
Powdered sugar (optional)

-Grind 1 3/4 cups nuts very fine.  Chop the remaining 1/3 cup.
-Mix flour, sugar and ground nuts in a bowl.  Stir in the vanilla extract.  With your fingers, work in the butter until thoroughly blended.  Chill the dough for 1 hour.
-Roll the dough into balls, about 1 3/4 inches in diameter.  Form into rolls about 3 1/2 inches long, then into crescents.  Press the tops of the crescents into the remaining chopped nuts.
-Place them on ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Cool on the pan for 7 minutes (exactly!), then remove to a rack.
-While the crescents are still warm, roll them in the powdered sugar.

Variations: Use hazelnuts instead of almonds, or a combination of the two.  You can use 1 tsp of cinnamon instead of vanilla.

Homemade Graham Crackers

I've always wanted to try making homemade graham crackers, and I finally did.

First, I assigned a very cute toddler to Spatula Licking Duty.  I never like to bake anything without having this special task assigned to a small, cute person.

Next, I measured out 2/3 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of butter.

I beat the sugar and butter until well mixed, then added the remaining ingredients: flour, water, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

Once thoroughly mixed and a ball of dough formed, I placed the dough in a bowl and let it sit for 30 minutes.

After allowing the dough to rest, I rolled it out to 1/8 inch thickness.... which actually means I rolled it as thin as I could without it ripping apart, which may or may not have been 1/8 inch thickness.

The cute toddler who licks the spatula chose dinosaur shaped crackers, although we did also cut some into traditional rectangle shapes.

I placed them on a greased cookie sheet and baked at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.

The house smelled so good!

And the cute toddler approved of the taste.

These crackers go well with a glass of milk or a cup of cocoa!

Homemade Graham Crackers

1/2 cup softened butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
2 3/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp (or more) of cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
In a large bowl, put the softened butter and the sugar.  Beat until smooth and creamy.  Add the remaining ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture and mix well.  Let the mixture sit for 30-45 minutes.  Turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll it to about 1/8-inch thickness.  Cut into squares or long rectangles, or with cookie cutters into whatever shapes you like.  Place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350' for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

How to Make Almond Flour + Muffin Recipe

I really wanted to purchase some almond flour the other day, but a small bag at the local natural food store was $11.50 (plus tax), and I wasn't about to spend $11.50 (plus tax) just so I could make ten muffins.

Instead, I decided to make my own almond flour, which was still a lot more expensive than buying wheat flour, but I was able to save about $4.50 by buying slivered almonds.  I bought three packages from the baking aisle of my grocery store, which was 18 ounces of slivered almonds for $7.00.

I put them, one package at a time, into my food processor.

I processed them until they were a uniform powder consistency, and stopped as soon as I saw the slightest inclination of clumping (I didn't want to accidentally make almond butter).  The result looked like this:

You would get better results from a vitamix if you have one.  The vitamix can get it into a smooth powder within about 20 seconds, but the food processor is going to leave it with a grittier texture.

After I had done all three packages (18 ounces), I had this jar full + 1 additional cup.

That's it.  That's how you make almond flour.  You can do this with whole almonds, too, but there will be little brown flecks from that outer shell covering (it doesn't effect taste/consistency, though).

Now here's a recipe you can use your home made almond flour in!

In a large bowl, combine your dry ingredients.  First, 3 cups of almond flour:

1 tsp of baking soda, and 1 tsp of baking powder:

1/2 tsp of salt (I always eye-ball it from the grinder):

In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients.  I put them all in my food processor to ensure the bananas were thoroughly mashed (okay, actually I just hate mashing bananas by hand).

First, 3 eggs:

Then, 3 over-ripe bananas:

1/4 cup of maple syrup and 1/4 cup of honey:

1/4 cup of coconut oil (or butter, if you so desire):

1 tsp vanilla:

Now combine wet and dry ingredients, mixing just slightly until combined.

Distribute the batter between 12 muffin cups:

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes:

The result is REALLY delicious!  I'm so glad I was finally able to try almond flour!  Yes, the texture of the flour is a tad bit gritty, but I didn't mind it at all.  Neither did my kids. :)

Almond Flour Banana Muffins 

3 cups almond flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
3 eggs
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut oil or butter (melted)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.  Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix wet ingredients in a medium bowl.  Add wet mixture to dry mixture.  Stir just to combine.  Fill muffin cups.  Bake for 20 minutes.

This didn't occur me until after I was already eating them, but you might want to add a tsp of cinnamon and a couple tablespoons of ground flax seeds!

Meal Plan: June 30 - July 7

Saturday, June 30:
Breakfast: Fried Eggs and Whole Wheat Toast
Lunch: Oatmeal
Dinner: Crockpot BBQ Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Garlic Toast

Sunday, July 1:
Breakfast: Sweet Potato Streusal Muffins
Lunch: Pizza Bagels
Dinner: Potato Soup

Monday, July 2:Breakfast: Pancakes, Bacon, Blueberries
Lunch: Cheesy Crackers, Hummus, Cottage Cheese
Dinner: Beefy Enchilada Bake

Tuesday, July 3:
Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal Cups
Lunch: PBJ
Dinner: Taco Rice

Wednesday, July 4:
Breakfast: French toast
Lunch: Sloppy joes
Dinner: Alfredo


Thursday, July 5:
Breakfast: Whole wheat donuts
Lunch: Hot dogs
Dinner: Lasagna Casserole


Friday, July 6:
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, toast
Lunch: Chewy bars, string cheese, apple slices
Dinner: Hamburgers and homemade french fries

Saturday, July 7:
Breakfast: Waffles
Lunch: Pizza pockets
Dinner: Tuna Casserole

Six Day Meal Plan, May 26th - 31st

Saturday:
Breakfast: Pancakes, eggs, bacon
Lunch:  Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, applesauce
Dinner:  Crockpot Chili with golden crescent rolls.

Sunday
Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal Cups, blueberries
Lunch: Leftover chili with rice and string cheese.
Dinner: Cheesy Turkey Sausage Stromboli (turkey sausage)

Monday
Breakfast:  Fried egg sandwiches, avocado
Lunch: Left over Stromboli
Dinner: Crockpot BBQ Chicken (italian salad dressing, bbq sauce)

Tuesday
Breakfast: Bagels with cream cheese (make the bagels the night before), strawberries
Lunch: Left over chicken
Dinner:  Beefy Enchilada Bake with Homemade Corn Tortillas

Wednesday
Breakfast: Cheerios, scrambled eggs, kiwi
Lunch: Left over enchilada
Dinner:  Easy Alfredo

Thursday
Breakfast:  Sweet potato streusel muffins, bananas
Lunch: Left over alfredo
Dinner: Cheese pizza: dough, sauce

May 8: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

This morning for breakfast we had fruity vanilla oatmeal with fruit kabobs.  The oatmeal was really good, and the fruit kabobs were a hit with the 5-year-old, although he requested no yogurt or coconut flakes on his.  My daughter is so anti-fruit it isn't even funny, so she wouldn't touch these, but she liked the oatmeal.

For lunch, we made cheesy crackers and apple chips.

My adorable little helper here, in his Lego Star Wars underwear, measured the ingredients and mixed the dough for the crackers.  I rolled the dough into a log and sliced, then pressed on each cracker with a fork.

These were awesome!  It's pretty amazing that you can make such a delicious cracker with just three simple ingredients.  The kids and I topped them with cottage cheese which I think complimented them perfectly.

At the same time we were making the crackers, we were also making the apple chips.

I put the apple juice on the stove to start boiling and cut the apples into thin slices.  The instructions said not to worry about seeds because they would fall out during boiling, but that was not the case for us so I would recommend removing the seeds.

After boiling, we layed them on cookie sheets and pat them dry, then set them in the oven at 250 degrees.  We were waiting for them to be "dry and brown," and meanwhile we made, baked, and ate the crackers, and it was still another hour before the apples even looked remotely done.

 And after all that waiting, the kids did NOT like them!  Bummer!  I thought they were okay.  I'm just not a huge fan of dried fruit.  Neither are my kids, apparently.

I decided I really really wanted to try making home made ramen.  I mixed up the dough for the noodles and tried to cut them as thin as I could.

Not very thin, huh?  These look more like soba than ramen!

I cooked them in some homemade chicken broth and added soy sauce.

The result: the broth was amazing, I was chugging it.  The noodles were not so great. :)  I don't know if it was the recipe that was a bummer, or if I am just a terrible ramen noodle maker! ha.

For dinner, I had no idea what I was doing.  I kept searching around for recipes, but I didn't have the right ingredients, or the ingredients were heavily processed foods, and I was so tired I didn't want to put a ton of effort into anything. Waah.  I threw a life line out to my facebook friends, and decided to try taco rice per a suggestion.  Of course, none of the recipes I found were entirely "suitable" so I had to wing it a little bit.  Here is what I did:  I browned 1 pound of ground turkey in my cast iron skillet, then added 1.5 cups of chicken broth, 1 can of tomato sauce, cumin, red pepper, and onion powder.  I let that simmer for awhile and meanwhile had brown rice in the rice maker.  When the rice was done, I added 2 cups of cooked rice and 8 oz. of grated cheese.

It was really good!  The kids and I topped ours with sour cream.   I was simultaneously making these sweet potato crescent rolls, which I highly, highly recommend!  

They are very fall tasting... you know, Thanksgiving-ish.  I guess you wouldn't normally pair taco with sweet potato, but whatever.  The kids liked the rolls.  Nobody complained about the taco rice, either.