Delicious Homemade Granola Bars!

I love to make these granola bars to give me a bit of energy during that 3 o'clock slump when I just want to take a small nap on the couch or in one of the kids beds or on the kitchen counter....  But seriously these are good and make a great post baby gift!  I gave these to two of my friends after they had a baby as a grab and go snack and they loved it!  The great thing about this recipe is that you can change it.... a lot! I will give you my recipe but feel free to experiment and play around a bit!

I take all the dry ingredients and put them in a bowl then put the honey and the brown sugar in a sauce pan and heat until mixed together, you can also add some peanut butter if no one if allergic!  Don't boil the honey and brown sugar as the hotter it gets the sweeter it gets, so if it boils it gets very sweet but not really in a good way...  When that is all melted you pour into the dry ingredients and mix until wet.

After all ingredients are wet with honey/brown sugar mixture press into a greased (or not, seriously it doesn't matter that much) and keep pressing with hands or spatula.

Now it is time to put them in the fridge for 1 hour (if you can press once or twice in that hour to make them super packed, all the better), cut into bars (makes about 15 bars), store in the fridge to make them harder so they don't fall apart when you eat them.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup filler (rice puffs, millet puffs, etc.)
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup wheat germ (optional)
1/2 cup slivered almonds (optional)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup coconut flakes (optional)

Wet ingredients:
1 cup honey
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp peanut butter (optional)
( I have used coconut oil in place of some honey as well, do half and half)

Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Heat wet ingredients in a saucepan and once liquid mix into dry ingredients.  Press into 11x9 pan and press repeatedly.  Place in fridge and press two more times if possible before cutting an hour later.  Store in fridge, eat within 6 weeks, if they last that long!

Thai Chicken Salad

I can't say this was purely my idea, but it was purely my invention.  Though it has been done before.  My husband asked for thai food (takeout) but me being the purest that I am (and also very cheap) I said, I got this.  In the end he really enjoyed it!  He snuck seconds even though I said to save it for lunch!  I chopped half a small cabbage, 3 carrots, 3 green onions, a handful of cilantro, 6-8 oz chopped (cooked) chicken, I used rotisserie chicken so I didn't measure exactly... 1/2 cup bean sprouts (no need to chop), and 1/4 cup peanuts.

Separately mix 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce (I used stir fry sauce), 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1 chopped garlic clove, 1 lime squeezed.  Keep mixing until peanut butter is smooth throughout.

Forgive the container but I didn't want to dirty another dish so I used the one that the chicken was in!  Pour this mixture over the dry mixture and stir until everything is wet and peanut buttery!  Serve on bed of lettuce or just on a plate as we did!

 Ingredients:
1/2 small cabbage head chopped
6 oz. cooked cubed chicken
3 chopped carrots
3 chopped green onion stalks
1 handful chopped cilantro
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup peanuts

Sauce:
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 chopped garlic clove
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 lime squeezed

Mix sauce ingredients separately until peanut butter smooth.  Mix into dry ingredients until wet.  Serve and Enjoy!

It's as easy as that!

Broccoli Salad

This is a very easy, healthy, yummy lunch!  So using Greek yogurt is my go to when anything has mayo in it.  This recipe is no different!  We will still use mayo but halve it so that way we can keep the calories down.  Here is a pic of the ingredients:

So as you can see there is a fresh broccoli head as well as the broccoli slaw.  The chopped broccoli head really helps to add some texture to the salad.  I don't include the stalk but usually save it for a stir fry later in the week.  I also ran out of slivered almonds here so I chopped some up in my blender and used those!  You can do that too or just buy the slivered almonds...  Mix all the dry ingredients like so:

 Then mix the 'wet' ingredients, the mayo, the apple cider vinegar, greek yogurt, honey, and lemon juice and pour over the rest.

Mix it all up and serve 1 and 1/2 cups!  This can be a meal or a side dish to a baked potato dinner, rotisserie chicken, kababs etc.

Ingredients:

1 bag broccoli slaw

1 broccoli head

1/2 chopped red onion

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1 lemon squeezed

1 tbsp honey

1/3 cup greek yogurt

1/3 cup mayo

3 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Mix first 5 ingredients, then mix the rest in separate container and pour over.  Mix well and serve!

Mushroom Goats Cheese Tart

I have been wanting to make this one for a while and finally was not too busy to attempt it.  I tried out an easy tart crust and while it tasted good I should have let it bake a little longer before putting the ingredients in the pan.  I started out with 8 eggs, 1 package of herbed goats cheese, 1 pkg mushrooms, half a white onion, 2 garlic cloves, some spinach, and that's it!

For the crust I used this recipe : http://www.chow.com/recipes/30213-easy-tart-dough
I would recommend baking crust (after pressing in pan) for 10-15 minutes giving it a chance to crisp up.

Sauteé the spinach, mushrooms, onion, and garlic with 2 tbsp evoo until fragrant and wilted.  I then put half the cheese in the tart pan before covering with the spinach mix.

Add the 8 eggs beaten on top and drop the remaining cheese on top of that.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes

Take out and slice into 8 pieces (I ate two, dont tell...).  Hubby put siracha on his because everything must be spicy but he really liked this recipe and so did I!  Excited to eat this for lunch or breakfast in the coming week!

Ingredients:

1pkg mushrooms

1pkg herbed goats cheese

8 eggs (beaten together)

2 cups spinach

1/2 white onion chopped

3 garlic cloves chopped

2 tbsp evoo

1 whole wheat crust (see earlier link for recipe I used)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Sauteé onion, mushrooms, spinach, and garlic together until wilted.  Place half goats cheese in crust.  Top with spinach mixture.  Pour egg mix over that and top with remaining cheese.  Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes.  Slice into 8 and serve.  Each piece comes to about 200 calories. Enjoy!

Thai Pizza my way...

So I admit that I still indulge in pizza every once and a while (who doesn't right?!), but I love to make them myself as they are pretty easy when you get the hang of it.  I make a honey whole wheat crust recipe that I got from allrecipes.com a long time ago but I will post here to keep it simple.

Crust Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ (this is totally optional as I have made without before)
1 tbsp yeast
1 cup warm water
2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp salt

Mix yeast with warm water, mix flour, wheat germ, salt until fully mixed and then create little hole in the middle and put the honey in the hole in the middle.  Then stir in the yeast/water mixture until mixed.  Place dough covered on top of oven while you preheat to 400 degrees.

Now onto the thai part of the pizza!  Of course you need hoisin sauce and peanuts.  That is primarily what makes this pizza 'thai'.  Also a little garlic and bean sprouts too!  You can use shredded zucchini and carrots (I just did the broccoli mix from the store because I am lazy and it was already shredded), however I did have to cut the red pepper myself.  I know, I know, thank you.  Then some green onion and mozzarella cheese to top it all off!  If you want a crispy crust roll and bake the dough for 8 minutes before you put on the ingredients, otherwise if you like a softer crust roll that dough and put the ingredients right on top!

Ingredients:
1 shredded zucchini
2 shredded carrots (or just buy the broccoli mix and skip the first two steps!)
1 bunch green onions chopped
1 red pepper sliced thin
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
3 chopped garlic cloves
1/4 cup peanuts

Spread hoisin on crust, top with chopped garlic spreading evenly.  Next put veggie ingredients and then peanuts, top lastly with cheese to insure peanuts stay on pizza.  Bake in 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is to your liking.  Slice and eat!

Let me know how you like this recipe!

Halloumi Mango Cous Cous!

Tonight's dinner was an adventure.  I had seen a pin on pinterest that basically showed these ingredients but the link to it did not work.  So of course my brain said, "I can do that!"  And you know what?  I did.  Here is a pic of tonights ingredients although you will notice the garlic and macademia nuts are missing (because I forgot to put them in the pic....erg).

I used the Juusto baked cheese because I couldn't find straight halloumi.  However, that is what halloumi is, baked cheese.  So this worked just fine.  I used parsley also but I think cilantro may be a bit better in this recipe.  I (or others) will experiment (tell me if you do!).  I cooked the cous cous in my rice cooker which is a brilliant invention!  I no longer have to babysit rice, cous cous, or black lentils etc.  Hurrah!!  I am too busy fending off children who want 'uppy' to have to sit around a pot of rice!  Anyway... I chopped up the rest of the ingredients, threw them in a bowl and waited for the cheese to bake (yes I realize it is already baked, but you want it a bit warm for this) and the cous cous to cook.  I then tossed them all together after chopping the cheese into 1" squares (after eating I recommend smaller cheese pieces so as to get all ingredients in one bite and not just a hunk of cheese, no matter how delicious).  And........ you're done!  Another quick and easy one!  Enjoy!  Only a cup of this to keep under 400, cous cous & macademia nuts are high in cals!

Ingredients:

1 block of halloumi

1 cup of uncooked cous cous

1/2 red onion

2 chopped garlic cloves

1/2 cup macademia nuts chopped (or smashed with the bottom of an aluminum water bottle, just saying)

1/2 bunch chopped parsley (or try cilantro)

1 sliced and diced mango

2 tbsp evoo

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp cumin

1 tbsp cayenne pepper (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Place cheese on baking dish in 350 oven for 10 minutes turning occasionally.  Cook cous cous to directions.  Combine all other ingredients in a bowl.  When cous cous is ready (and drained if using sauce pan) pour into fresh ingredients.  When cheese is done chop into 1/2" cubes and stir into fresh ingredients.  Violà!

Tarragon Chicken Salad

I don't eat that much meat, maybe only once a week as I get protein in many other ways.  I did however become rather fond of the tarragon chicken salad at the local Buegger's Bagels.  I took a few bites and knew instantly that I could recreate this recipe with ease and a couple of healthy substitutions.

Ingredients:

1 rotisserie chicken (you can use whatever kind of chicken you want really, breasts, pre-cooked, etc.  I just don't trust myself with raw chicken!) chopped into 1/2" chunks
5 celery stalks chopped
1/2 red onion chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup mayo (I use organic)
1/3 cup greek yogurt (I use 2% Fage)
2 tbsp chopped fresh (or dried) tarragon
1 lemon squeezed
salt and pepper to taste


Combine all of the above and enjoy!! Eat about 1 1/2 cups to keep around 320 calories!

Tonight I was in the mood for caprese.  I had seen a recipe similar to this one and decided to make it my own (as is customary for me).  First I sliced up the eggplant, then put it in a bag with 2 tbsp olive oil and some salt.  Shake it up.

Then I put the eggplant in the oven on broil turning at 5 minutes.  As that was cooking I was chopping tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, and red onion.  Looking back I really only needed 1 tomato but with the rest of the tomato I made a true caprese sandwich so it still turned out great and very yummy!

After the eggplant was cooked I took it out of the oven and layered it with the fresh ingredients.

Stick it back in the oven (I changed it over to 350 instead of broil).  Leave in for 10 minutes, remove and eat!  So delicious!  Let me know what you think!

Recipe:

1 eggplant

1 tomato (or 2 if you want just tomato caprese)

1 slice red onion

2 garlic cloves sliced

6 oz fresh mozzarella cheese

1 bunch of basil

2tbsp evoo

salt to taste

What to do:

Slice eggplant and place in bag with 2 tbsp olive oil and salt, shake up.  Place in broil oven for 5 minutes and flip, broil for another 5 minutes.  Slice up fresh ingredients and layer inbetween eggplant slices.  Layer 1 basil leaf, 1 slice red onion, 1 slice tomato, 1oz mozzarella, 2-3 garlic slices, inbetween 2 eggplant slices.  Place in 350 oven for 10 minutes and enjoy!  Salt again if needed.