Super Simple Cereal Bars!

Oh my gosh, that sounded way too Rachael Ray-ish. Anyway, these are so easy to make and you can use whatever fruit (or even jelly!) you have to make them, which is great! These are like those Kashi or Nutrigrain bars that are awesome to have in your bag but cost way too much!

Here's what ya need!
2 c oats
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c white flour (I'm sure you could use 2 c of either flour, I was just experimenting a bit)
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
Dash salt
1 c butter
1 - 2 c berries, fruit, jelly, whatever... you have to eyeball it a bit and make sure it covers the entire tray. (PLUS 2 tsp cornstarch if you're using just fruit

For the fruit part, I used about 1 3/4 c frozen blueberries,frozen strawberries, and raisins. I added the cornstarch when they were thawed and mixed it in to thicken them a bit.

So here's what you do:
Preheat your oven to 350. Grease a 9x13" baking pan.

Combine oats, flour(s), brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter, 2 forks, or use a food processor. It'll be chunky and crumbly, which is what you want. The cutting in the butter part is a bit of a pain, but not too bad. You can reward yourself by sampling some of the product along the way! :)

So anyway, take HALF of this mixture and press it into your pan. Bake it for 15ish minutes, until it's a bit brown and set. Spread your berries/fruit/jelly over top of this and then cover with remaining dough, press down firmly, and bake another 15 minutes!

Voila! It makes a ton of cereal bars, so I took that Glad Press 'N Seal stuff and laid each bar flat on it and covered with another piece and made individual wrappers to take the bars on the go! I also froze a bunch and they kept well! My uncle says a bit of lemon zest in the fruit part would be a nice touch, too, so try that if you want!

Hope everyone had a yummy, sugary Halloween! The holiday season is officially upon us, woo hoo! I can say that now without everyone getting annoyed, right? ha!

I have fallen off the face of the earth! :)

Hey guys and gals!

Sorry for being such a flakey blogger... I have so many recipes brewing in my head but I just haven't found the time to try them lately! We listed our house for sale about a month ago and every time I get a moment to try something out, someone (thankfully) schedules a showing and I have to run around, cleaning like a lunatic!

Anyway, I haven't given up on my blog or anything and I really, really hope to start posting recipes again soon! I'd really like to try my hand at some multi-grain crackers or homemade bagels so look forward to that soon.

Okay, off to clean some more...! :) More showings today so my fingers and toes are crossed. To my Nestie readers - miss you gals! Don't hesitate to email!

Kali

Black bean brownies

I can't wrap my head around the grossness of how these sound. And frankly, they tasted fine, but knowing they had an entire can of BLACK BEANS in them made me want to gag, but they weren't bad.. at all! Jude went nuts for them and everyone who tried them asked for the recipe! Soooo... here it is! Your poor, unsuspecting toddler will be none the wiser, eating this yummy treat, packed full of protein!

1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed very well
1/3 c honey
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c oats
1/4 c cococa
2 tbsp olive oil
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease an 8x8 square pan.

Combine all ingredients aside from the oats in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Stir in oats. Bake about 30 minutes.

I read all sorts of recipes for black bean brownies and combined a few to come up with this one. Another suggested leaving out the sugar and using an overripe banana in it's place! I still have some in my freezer (they freeze well) so I haven't tried that variation yet, but if you do, let me know! I hope to try it soon, as it gets cooler... this weather is killing me!

Hey - if you are feeling REALLY daring - throw in a handful of frozen spinach in there... tasteless and it'll blend right in. Oooh, health food on the sly!

Enjoy!
K

Edited on August 25:

So I just got an email from a fellow blogger, Janet from Mama Jan's Kitchen that I'd like to post! She tried the brownies without sugar and substituted an overripe banana, like I suggested, and they turned out REALLY well! Thanks, Janet, for making these and sending me the feedback!!!

I made your black bean brownies yesterday - and yes, it sort of makes me stomach turn. LOL I tried the overripe banana instead of sugar and wanted to let you know it worked just fine! I don't at all feel like I need to try making them with sugar to see if it's better. It added sweetness with a hint of banana but the taste definitely goes with the other tastes in the brownie. Caleb, my picky little eater, gobbled up the square I gave him! Wow! Next time I will throw some spinach in there too :)
Thanks!!
Janet

Whisper Down the Lane Butter Cookies

So I was reading Libby's blog when I came across a recipe for these easy butter cookies. They looked so yummy and simple that I had to try! I was reading her comments and noted that she thought she might add some almond extract in addition to the original recipe from Full Bellies, Happy Kids and thought how fun it would be to take a simple cookie recipe and change one little thing about it and pass it on to the next baker to see what she does to the recipe, only making one or two little changes! That's where the idea for "Whisper Down the Lane Cookies" came about. So if you're a baker and you blog, make this recipe, post it on your blog with what YOU changed, and link back to the person who you got the recipe from... if you want to link back a few times, like I did with Libby's Cooking Blog, and Full Bellies, Happy Kids - go ahead!

Here's the super simple recipe! The bolded portions are what I added.

1 stick (1/2 c) butter, softened
1 c of flour
5 tbsp of sugar, plus a bit more to sprinkle on top
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
Sugar to sprinke on top (I added some cinnamon to this to make cinnamon sugar on the top)
1/2 tsp cinnamon


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together. Roll into about 1 inch balls and flatten with the back of a fork. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for about 10 minutes. Now pass the recipe along to all your baking buds and let's see how many different variations of these cookies we can come up with! Enjoy!

Homemade GREEN chicken nuggets!

Back in the kitchen!

It's so darn hot and humid here that I've really been avoiding my kitchen (how I love the grill and crockpot) and feeling sad about not cooking, so I sucked it up and went for it today!

I had some leftover roasted chicken from our "Christmas in July" dinner on Saturday so I decided to make some chicken nuggets.

Here's what you'll need:
~1 c cooked chicken - roasted, grilled, boiled, in the crockpot - whatever you prefer!
~1/4 c spinach (I used frozen)
~1/8 c bread crumbs (plus about 1/8 c more for rolling nuggets)
2 handfuls of mozzarella cheese
1 egg

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until they hold together and can be rolled into balls. Add more breadcrumbs if needed. If mixture dries out, add a teeny bit of olive oil. Form into balls and coat in bread crumbs. Flatten slightly to form "nuggets" and baked on an olive oil-coated cookie sheet at 375 for 15 min, turning once half-way through.

Jude isn't big chicken fan and refuses to eat spinach, but he's mmmmm-ing away as I type this. They're a hit! They are pretty similar to my broccoli bites but something new to try. Experiment with some other veggies and cheeses, too!

Stay cool, everybody!

Kitchen sink (SUGAR FREE!) banana bread

I decided to play around to try to come up with a sugar-free sweet treat. I really despise bananas, but Jude's "mmm!-ing" and my hubby's, "This tastes like Starbucks!" comments led me to believe that it turned out quite well. I call it "Kitchen sink banana bread" because I really just went through my cabinets and threw in everything but the kitchen sink!

Here's what I used...
~2.5 overripe bananas (NEVER throw out brown bananas! Freeze those bad boys!)
1 egg
2.5 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
1/4 c milk
1 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
Roughly 1/4 c? apple sauce... I made my own by simmering diced apples with cinnamon and a wee bit of honey over low heat until I could mash it up
A couple tiny boxes of raisins
A handful of old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan. Combine applesauce, bananas, oil, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and milk in a large bowl. Mix well. Add egg and mix. Add flour, oats, and baking soda and stir until combined. Add raisins, if desired. Pour mixture into pan and bake about 35 min. The mixtuer will likely only fill about half the loaf pan (height wise) but you can double the recipe, if you'd like!

I drizzled the finish product with a bit more honey and served it to my anxious little guy. He loved it!

I forgot to add - you can basically add ANYTHING you want to this! You can't really mess it up. So if you have extra pears laying around - throw them in! Dried fruits? Try those! Have fun experimenting!

3 ingredient hummus

This one is great for picky toddlers and so easy for mom or dad to make. All you need are some canned chick peas, partially drained, (try other types of beans, too!), olive oil, and garlic, to taste. Combine all 3 ingredients in a food processor and pulse. Add olive oil sparingly until mixture is smooth. This is a great recipe to hide some veggies in... maybe some spinach for a fun green hummus or some corn in a black bean hummus~! I love to throw in sun-dried tomatoes, too... so yummy. Serve with some steamed carrots for younger toddlers, on a grilled cheese sandwich, or just on some pita bread. Mmmm.. delicious!

My sister's blog!

Just wanted to post a link to my sister's blog and website. She's a graphic designer and just made the CUTEST moving announcements for our parents. She even gave me a handful of notecards that she made. Adorable! Her boyfriend is a super talented woodworker, too. I keep telling her to start a serious Etsy shop with him, but nada yet. So Caitlin, DO IT! Hello, baby toys, household items, etc!!!!

Here's her blog:
http://caitchebook.blogspot.com/

And her website:
www.caitchebook.com

Happy Fourth of July!!!!!!

I hope everyone enjoys celebrating our nation's Independence Day with family and friends, eating delicious food and relaxing a bit! My loving husband has THREE DAYS in a row off, so we are super excited to have a bunch of hang out time with Daddy!!!

Here's a picture of the delicious No Roll Sugar Cookie recipes that I use for almost every holiday.. sugar cookies - that don't require rolling!!!! I got it off of a pack of flour, but I'll post it next week when I have a bit more time. This is a photo of my poor cookies AFTER I dropped a bunch that I had painstakingly decorated. :\ Sigh. At least I could salvage some! (I lost my blue food coloring, so I added a few blue jelly beans as stand-ins, hehe!)


And here's Jude, showing his grumpiest face. He kind of looks like Uncle Sam, huh???





Here he is, finally holding the flag up, like I asked him to 20 times.


Happy 4th! Enjoy!

Lemon Water Ice

I worked at Rita's when I was younger (and subsequently got fired for giving food away to my friends - whatev! - ha!) and I always looooved the lemon water ice. Paul and I are having an "at home date night" tonight and it's really muggy outside, so I decided to make something cool and refreshing. This one is super easy and REALLY yummy!

All you need is:
1 3/4 c water
1 c sugar
The juice of 3 lemons (I added a bit of zest from a lemon, too)

Add sugar to water and heat in a saucepan. Bring to a boil until sugar is totally incorporated into the water. Turn off heat, add lemon juice, whisk well, and poor into a pan. I used a loaf pan and it fit well. It won't fill the entire dish up, so don't be alarmed! Put the dish/pan in the freezer for a couple of hours. I was out for about 3 hours and it was perfect by then. Rake a fork through the frozen mixture and voila - lemon granita! DELICIOUS! I saved the halves of the lemons I used to serve the granita. You can add a sprig of mint if you're feeling fancy!

And hey, if you're feeling saucy, maybe add some liquor (mmm - tequila anyone?!)!Obviously the saucy version isn't so kid-friendly, hehe! I just thought of how delicious it would be to puree some watermelon and make some watermelon water ice, too... another Rita's fave! Get creative and let me know what you did! I'll pick up a watermelon this week and let you know the ratios of watermelon, sugar, and water I used.

Stay cool! And don't mind this awful photo... a certain someone was climbing on the computer desk as I tried to take this!