Granola Bars

After weeks of making granola from several recipes found on line I finally gave up and decided to try granola bars.  I made this recipe not too sweet and not to decadent so it can be eaten at breakfast. It is also very pliable.  It can be made gluten free, vegan, and you can add other ingredients pretty easily.      

      I used butter (which could be subbed with earth balance or margarine), sugar, honey and molasses (or just molasses),  vanilla (optional), gluten free quick cooking oats,  ground pecans,  unsweetened coconut, and chocolate chips or some sort of fruit.

Mixing all the ingredients

 The first step is to melt the butter, sugar, honey and molasses together. Then add the vanilla, oats, nuts,coconut, and chocolate chips to the mix. Next you put the mixture into a prepared pan, pressing evenly, and bake for 22 minutes, then wait five minutes to cut into the bars and then another hour to cool and break apart completely. After that they can be stored on the counter in an air tight container. They don't last even a week around these parts!

Pressed into pan

Finished baking

Cut into bars

Here is the recipe !

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of honey

2 tablespoons of molasses

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 cups of quick cooking oats

1/3 cup of ground nuts

2 cups of unsweetened coconut

1/3 cup of chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 º and prepare an 11 x 8 pan by buttering and then layering with parchment paper, once lengthwise and once crosswise.

      Then melt the butter with the sugar, honey, and molasses. Add the vanilla and stir. Add the rest of the ingredients. It will look dry but will be some what sticky. Then pour the ingredients into the prepared pan and press evenly. Sprinkle with extra coconut and chocolate chips and put in the oven for 22 minutes. Take the granola bars out and then let sit for five minutes. After five minutes cut into 14 bars. Then let sit for about an hour before removing the bars from the pan.

Simple syrups

I like to make simple syrups. They are easy to make, and add different flavor dimensions to drinks and other foods. A simple syrup is usually equal parts sugar and water with some sort of flavoring. I like to use a bit less of sugar and lots of spices. The two I have give here as examples are a lavender syrup and a chai syrup. Other ones that I have made are a rosemary and sage simple syrup and a juniper berry and sage simple syrup.
The first syrup for this blog is the lavender simple syrup.
I used one and a half cups of water, a half cup of sugar, and one and a half tablespoons of lavender.

I combined all the ingredients and heated it on the stove until the sugar dissolved. I then bring it to a boil and then simmer it for 15 minutes. After that it steeps for another 15 minutes. Once it cools I strain the lavender out and pour it out into a mason glass.
This syrup is good in mixed drinks, lemonades, and with earl grey tea.

Another syrup I like to make is the tealess chai syrup from Entertaining for a Veggie Planet by Didi Emmons. I make chai tea and sometimes add it to my mixed drinks from time to time.
I use raw honey, cloves, star anise, cardamon pods, and fresh ginger, mix it with water, stir it and then bring it to a boil. Then it simmers for an hour, making the whole house smell like a big cup of chai tea !
 After it cools I strain it into two mason jars .

Not as Dense Brownies

The last brownie blog that I posted was, admittedly, a very dense brownie which some people like. Others prefer a less dense brownie, so this blog post is for those who like the slightly fluffier brownie.

This recipe is a variation from the Alpha-Bakery Gold Medal Flour Cookbook found under F is for Fudge Brownie.

This recipe is simple and only uses one pan for prep and one for cooking. I follow the recipe, except that I add about 1- 2 Tablespoons of Cocoa, depending on how "chocolately" I want the brownie to be.
The ingredients are a half a stick of butter, I use unsalted, 6 oz of chocolate chips, sugar, flour, vanilla, baking powder, salt, eggs, and chocolate chips and nuts if you want.
As a note, I tried using Sunspire chocolate chips in this recipe, but it made it have an odd texture so I suggested just using Hershey's or Nestlés for these.

The first step is to melt the chocolate chips with the butter at a low heat, then after it melts  take it off the heat and add all the other ingredients and stir.

 Scrape the batter into a buttered 8x8 pan and bake it at 350° for about 20 minutes. Let sit for about a half hour, and then you may have a less dense brownie.

Almond Macaroons

    When life of cookie baking gets too sweet I make almond macaroons. These cookies are relatively easy to make, flourless, and semi healthy compared to other cookies.
      I based my recipe off of the Almond Macaroon recipe from Epicurious . My version has a lot less sugar in it, and instead of salt I use cream of tarter.
   

Pulsed almonds

Batter

    I start with 6 ounces of sliced almonds and pulse them in my food processer until it resembles a coarse flour, you could grind it more if you like a smoother cookie.
    Then mix in 2/3s cup of sugar, with the almonds in a bowl. Add the cream of tarter, 1/4, teaspoon, two egg whites, and 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract, then stir.
The batter should have the consistency of a good thick oatmeal. After that I plop the batter on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The size of the cookie is dependent on what you want, they usually double in size compared to the first plop. This recipe I usually get 24 cookies but this time I made them larger so I only got 12.

Precooking

On the cookie sheet cooling

Then you bake the cookies at 350° for about 10 minutes. You want the cookies to have a nice brown edge. If you like them crispy, I prefer chewy, then I would leave them in for another 2-3 minutes.
Take them out of the oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet until completely cooled.

Done !

Frittata

    Sometimes a cooking life leaves you with leftovers, and instead of just leaving them to rot, compost or trash, you could make a frittata. At least that's what I do. 

The first step is to take your left over veggies, in this case I had onion, spinach, roasted red pepper, and kalamata olives, and saute them in about a tablespoon butter. I usually saute the onions first and brown them with salt and then add the rest. I also will add fresh herbs as well.
 After that I add some sort of beaten egg mixture. This time I used 3 eggs and ricotta cheese. I have also added half and half to the mixture as well as other cheese, whatever is left over.

 After pouring the egg mixture on the evenly spread sautéed veggies I let it sit for about four minutes or until the edges of the frittata start separating from the edge of the pan. I then put it in the oven at 350° for about 7 minutes. The center part should be firm at this point. Sometimes I will also brown it with the broiler for a minute to get the top brown and crispy.
I usually make this for brunch, perfect for last nights leftovers.

Frittata with leftover sour cream.

Green Tomato Chutney

    Sometimes my boyfriend comes back from Capoeira class with some interesting items. For example, there is a girl in his class who's family is vegan and last year for Halloween they did go trick or treating but got some not so vegan candy, so she brought it to class and he brought some home... a lot of it home. This time he brought home a little over one in a half pounds of green tomatoes. They were fairly small so fried green tomatoes were out of the question, but green tomato chutney was not.
    Chutney is a condiment that you can use on a myriad of items. It's sort of liked pickled/ sweet whatever the main ingredient is. I would use it to dip veggies, pakoras, french fries, on veggie burgers, whatever is your taste preference.  
          This recipe comes from Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons and is pretty simple but takes a little over an hour to make but worth it for the pickled sweetness. It calls for onions, ginger, oil, coriander, allspice, sugar, apple cider vinegar, water, and raisins.

Ingredients sans oil

The first step is to heat up the oil, add the onions and then the spices for five minutes. Then you add the rest of it except the raisins and simmer it for about an hour. Then you add the raisins and let it cool.

Cooking and waiting...waiting...

Done!

This will supposedly last a month but it might not because there is so many tasty options with Chutney ! 

Chilaquiles !

An easy Mexican casserole, strangely enough made with ricotta cheese. This recipe comes from one of my favorite cook books Vegetarian Planet.

 The first step is to fry up some tortilla strips in a pan.

The only veggies needed, potato, zucchini, and garlic

   In the same pan fry  the potato,
zucchini, and garlic.

 After frying  the veggies add the ricotta, tortilla strips, salt and pepper, and stir. Then bake it in the oven for 15 minutes.  It's done !

Finished Chilaquiles with avocado and salsa