Food Friday -We Love Bread!

from Tracey G.

This week, Kris and I raided our Fall issues of Sift, a most wonderful magazine published by King Arthur Flour, for our recipes. We both spotted breads that intrigued us, so, we decided to give them a whirl for our offering this week. I decided on the English Muffin Toasting Bread.

I decided on this recipe even before I read completely through it - I love English Muffins, so I knew I'd love this! After I read it, I had to re-read at least a couple times - because it couldn't possibly be that easy. I must have misread it - or misunderstood it...nope, it really is just that easy. Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, microwave the liquids in another until the liquid mixture is about 120-130°F. Add to the dry, and mix. Once mixed, dump it into the lightly-greased-and-coated-with-cornmeal loaf pan. Let rise until just slightly above the top of the pan. Bake for about 27 minutes. And done. That easy. No kneading, whatsoever. Mix and toss into the pan, let rise and bake. Now, for me, my dough seems to be ready to bake by the time my oven has preheated - so that makes it even quicker!

The only thing that I did that made it slightly more difficult was to make a double batch - it's so sticky, lol, that it was really hard to divide between the two loaf pans! But it disappears around here so fast (I've made it numerous times now!) making a double batch is most prudent. True to its name, this is a marvelous toasting bread. Oh my goodness, it's the best stuff ever for toast! It gets that delightful toasty-chewy texture, and the surface-texture of it holds the butter wonderfully! I even turned it into a lovely garlic bread - toasted, brushed with olive oil and then rubbed with a clove of garlic. It was perfect!

It seems to keep well, and it also freezes quite nicely, which I was happy to find out - granted, it wasn't in the freezer for long, since as I said before - the bread doesn't last long in this household! I do plan on trying to get ahead and getting a few loaves into the freezer because this is one bread I can tell you for a fact, will be a staple in around here. I have never ever made a bread this easy before, ever. Not only is it easy to make, but it's fabulous to eat too - toasted or even not toasted! I've been known to slice off a piece and eat it as is - nothing adorning it, just naked bread! Yummy! This is one bread that even if you've never attempted to make bread before - you will nail perfection the first time around. Because even if it doesn't look too perfect, it tastes perfect! 

So, please, give the English Muffin Toasting Bread a try, you will not be disappointed! 

English Muffin Toasting Bread   

English Muffin Toasting Walk Through


from Kris B.

 Tracey mentioned that the English Muffin Toasting Bread recipe was easy to make.  Thankfully, so was the Apple-Oatmeal Bread, my choice from the fall issue of King Arthur Flour's Sift magazine.  It is confession time.  Tracey and I usually bake and take our photos reasonably in advance of each week's post.  Somehow that didn't happen for me this time.  I was baking this morning, hoping with all my might that the recipe worked and that I could get decent photos before I ran out of time and light.  I have always been one who works to deadlines.  I am not exactly a procrastinator.  My method for accomplishing most things is to think about them, let them roll around in my mind until the eleventh hour, and then get it down, hoping that all the things that I thought about how the task would be accomplished actually work in reality.  I am happy to say that today's tempting of fate was not a disaster!

The method for making the Apple-Oatmeal Bread is much like that of the English Muffin Toasting Bread.  All of the ingredients, minus a cup of the flour, are all stirred together vigorously for two minutes and then the remaining flour is worked in 1/3 of a cup at a time.  Then the dough is turned out on a floured board and kneaded until it is "smooth and elastic."

This bread requires two rises.  The recipe suggests that both will take about an hour.  With the first, the dough should double in volume and with the second, it should rise an inch above the pan.  In both cases, my rise time was about 45 minutes.  The bread then bakes for 30 minutes.  The entire process from start to finish, beginning with peeling and dicing the apples, took about three hours, with only about thirty minutes of that being hands-on time.  The result is superb!

I deviated slightly from the printed recipe.  In addition to oatmeal, apples, and a touch of cinnamon, the recipe calls for the addition of walnuts.  I am not a fan of nuts in bread, and if I am going to include nuts, walnuts are my least favorite.  Being in the South, pecans are my "nut of choice."  I debated with myself about leaving them out, but I wanted to maintain the integrity of the original recipe, so I made the substitution.  Another confession; I like the nuts in this bread.

Both of the recipes that Tracey and I have shared this week are part of an article in Sift about ways to dress up a grilled cheese sandwich.  Both the breads are so good on their own that at neither of our houses did they last long enough to get to sandwich making.  They were eaten hot out of the oven.  In fact, because everyone at my house was home all day today and were surrounded by the smell of the baking bread, I had to fend them off long enough to get the photos taken.  Once I surrendered the loaf, they were right there with a knife and butter.

I am definitely going to make this again with the intention of using it for grilled cheese sandwiches.  I also think that it would make a delicious french toast.

This recipe was originally posted on the King Arthur Flour website in January 2008.  That recipe makes two loaves.  The recipe included in the Fall 2016 issue of Sift is halved, thus it makes only a single loaf.  Other than that, the recipes are identical.

Apple-Oatmeal Bread

Food Friday - Breakfast On the Go

from Kris B.

Tracey and I do our best to share recipes on Food Fridays that we both enjoy making and eating and our hope is that you will find a few that you like as well.  There is no question that we both enjoy the cooking, photographing, and then eating whatever it is that we share in these posts as well.  But honestly, often the “behind the scenes” conversations that we have about what we are doing is the most fun of it all!  I am going to share a bit of this week’s text messaging about our progress toward getting this week’s post done.  You guys will either lose complete respect for us (assuming you ever had any, LOL!); or, you will wish you were part of our circus!

One of my favorite things to think about is text messages that are sent that if were read and of context are either hilarious, frightening, or grounds for a stay in a mental health facility.  Here is one such exchange between us this week.

Me: I need to go shoot muffins.

Tracey: “And what did you do on Saturday?  I shot some muffins!”

Me: It is hunting season, right?

Tracey: Small game I think, so that would be mini muffins…

Me: Uh oh!  I am shooting jumbo muffins…without a license!

Tracey: I won’t tell the DNR!

I am so glad that I have a friend who has my back!  Oh, and this whole conversation was going on amidst another conversation about cup sizes…and not measuring cups!!!  You are going to have to wait for Tracey to share that one with you!!!  Trust me.  You won’t want to miss it!

Now for this week’s recipe, which I believe originally came from Taste of Home…

I have been trying to get up early enough on school mornings to have a nice, calm slow breakfast that involves multiple cups of coffee.  (Nope! Not coffee cup sizes either.)  This works fairly well on the days when my first class is a 9am.  Tuesdays and Thursdays when class starts at 7:30, it’s a once cup morning, with that cup being a travel mug, and sometimes a grab and go breakfast.  These Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins are a great compromise when my taste buds want oatmeal and my schedule say, “Not today, sweetheart!”

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 Cups quick cooking oats

 1 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour

1/2 Cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp  baking soda

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 Cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 Cup milk )I used almond milk)

3 TBS canola oil

1 egg white

For the topping:

1/4 Cup quick cooking oats

1 TBS brown sugar

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon (I probably used closer to 1/4 tsp)

1 TBS melted butter

Mix together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl, excluding those used for the topping.  In a second bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring just until incorporated.  *Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 of the way full.  

Mix all of the topping ingredients together and sprinkle evenly on the tops of the muffins.

Bake at 400 degrees for 16-18 minutes.

This recipe yields 10 regular muffins, 6 jumbo muffins, or 20-24 mini muffins.  Choose responsibly depending on whether or not it is muffin hunting season in your area!  

And, using muffin liners negates the need for greasing the tins. :-)

One more thing...There is great debate in food photography as to whether drips and crumbs should be left in photos.  I am a realist.  I think they should.  And, I can't get muffins in the tins without dripping somewhere. So, I left the burnt on drip.  That is me!  If you are a perfectionist and secretly, or not so secretly, want to be Martha Stewart, clean your pans carefully before you bake and photograph.  Or, become a Photoshop whiz!  I have neither the real skills of Martha nor the PS skills to make me look like a fake Martha. Therefore, drips it is.  

Enjoy!

from Tracey G

Ok, I'll admit it - after reading through my friend's post first, before I sat down to write mine, I realized I am a drip-wiper-upper before I bake! LOL! There's never really been any thought to it, it's just something I do, whether I am photographing it or not! Now I wonder if it's not some other manifestation of my tendency toward the perfectionist regime...something to think about for sure as to my motives to do so! Ha!

My post has been quite the project for me this week - not the making of or photographing of, but the getting-it-done-and-all-put-together done kind of thing. I've had a nasty cold and other another illness, involving needing antibiotic, that's been making me feel yucky as well. Geesh, when it rains it pours! So, my attention span has been really shallow, due to feeling tired and just plain blah and icky. It's hard to think when you just want to vegetate and sleep! So, I apologize now for it being later than usual!! Unfortunately, it now seems to have morphed again into a sore throat thing, which is not pleasant at all to deal with and making me rather annoyed, I just want to be back to normal healthy! LOL And here I thought I was starting to feel better....silly me! I should have known better!

I am still in my mode to find things that can be convenient to eat and convenient to store - preferably in the freezer until they're needed and can then be heated and eaten. No muss, no fuss. I found a few recipes for breakfast items that can be an individual serving right out of the oven or the freezer. This one is my own version of a few breakfast-in-a-muffin-cup kind of things. I adjusted ingredients and amounts to suit  my tastes, so that should tell you that you too can do the same thing. Adjust it, add to it - make it yours. Among the variations in my research, things like chopped onion or chopped green pepper can be added to change it up. I am thinking I am going to try a "Greek Version" using feta and spinach, and possibly chopped tomato in the egg mixture. I've lots of ideas for this one, and decided that if the child didn't like them, it didn't matter because I did - and this is something that can help me be on the healthier eating straight and narrow. It's quick and easy to make, and to reheat to eat later - especially if it's one of those times I'm rushed and would be tempted to turn to something either processed or not-so-healthy! And they even are good for brunch/lunch, not just for breakfast, I tested that out as well, lol.

So, here we go, here's the super simple recipe that could potentially have quite a few variations! Let me say here though, that I had a heck of a time getting them out of them out of the muffin cups, even though I sprayed them well. I am thinking that next time I make them, I may use the foil cupcake liners. I'd just have to make sure to remove the foil liner BEFORE I reheated in the microwave!

Egg and Sausage Muffins

Makes 12

1/2 lb bulk pork sausage

12 eggs

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese (or more to taste! Or even a different cheese if you prefer!)

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. In a skillet, cook sausage, breaking into crumbles, until no longer pink; drain.

2) In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add garlic powder, salt, onion powder and pepper. Stir in sausage and cheese.

3) Prepare muffin tin by spraying with cooking spray. Spoon egg mixture into muffin cups, about 1/3 cup in each. Bake for about 20-25 min, or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean.

Freeze Option: Cool baked muffins completely. Place on wax paper lined cookie sheets and freeze until firm. Transfer to a resealable plastic freezer bag (or another tightly covered freezer container) and store in the freezer. To use, place in greased muffin pan, cover loosely with foil and reheat in a 350°F oven until heated through. Or microwave each muffin on high 30-60 seconds or until heated through.

Nutritional Information (approximate), per muffin: 160 calories, 12g fat, (5g saturated) 207mg cholesterol, 346mg sodium, 137mg potassium, 1g carbohydrate, 11g protein

Food Friday - Breakfast, Lunch or Dessert!

From: Tracey G.

I'll admit it, I'd rather drink my breakfast in the form of coffee, rather than eat it in form of food. I've never been one to eat breakfast, it's always the last thing I want to do when I get up. And honestly, it still takes a backseat to my first cup of coffee, I can't jump out of bed and eat. And I've never been one for "traditional" breakfast foods AT breakfast, give me cold pizza over a bowl of cereal any day! But, if there is one thing I've always liked and that would be the warm cereal varieties. I love Cream of Wheat, that was my first love. Then when oatmeal went "instant" with yummy flavors (the fruit and cream varieties!) that one became acceptable as well.

Now that I'm trying to eat mindfully, breakfast at a some point is a must. And for me it needs to be super easy and quick or I'll skip it and drink more coffee. Lately I've been seriously enjoying the little instant oatmeal cups - they have such lovely varieties for a fairly reasonable cost, and they are so fast a simple to make. But then I remembered the recipe in my favorite-make-it-homemade-cookbook, The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila for homemade instant oatmeal! I was intrigued! I went to Pinterest (I've come to love that site!) to see if there were other recipes for it as well, and I found a few that also sounded pretty good and very very close in method/ingredients etc. So, I pulled from a couple recipes and adapted the one from my cookbook - and was super pleased with the results and how easily it came together. Was not time consuming whatsoever. Actually, chopping the almonds I toasted so they could be added to my portions if I so choose, took the longest I think! Now, you can of course mix all of your add-ins right into the base mix, but since Harry doesn't care for nuts in his oatmeal, I left the base as is and we can add in the extras at the time of making it. You're only limited to your imagination - I always have dried berry mix on hand, dried cranberries, raisins (even though I don't like them in anything other than Raisin Bran cereal, Harry and Jeremy do) and generally an assorted variety of frozen fruit in the freezer to choose from.

A lot of recipes use powdered milk in the mix, but I read somewhere that supposedly that can cause mold to grow over time, so I followed the suggestion of using powdered non-dairy coffee creamer. I chose to use Coffee Mate Fat Free French Vanilla. When I was actually adding it in though, I discovered that it might be a bit too overpowering, so I went half regular powdered non-dairy creamer (Coffee Mate brand) and half of the Fat Free French Vanilla. I think that worked out just right!

As usual, this recipe of course can be modified to your tastes. Leave out the cinnamon or add more if you want. You can use just the 1/2 cup of brown sugar as I did or more - one recipe gave a span of 1-2 cups for the amount. I discovered the 1/2 cup was just right - and wouldn't be too sweet if I wanted to add a little extra brown sugar or maple syrup on the finished product before I eat it.

There are also many possibilities for packaging - I have it in a screw-top canister, but it can also be portioned out into snack-sized bags for individual packets or even put into a canning jar with a lid for travel or even the hot coffee cups with lids you can buy in the grocery store. There are so many possibilities, I know I will likely get portioning some out into the snack-sized bags so that it's easy for Harry to fix himself a bowl when he wants.

I am having so much fun finding recipes to help me stay on track of mindful eating - and oatmeal is a super source of all kinds of goodness!

I chose to use Quick Oats - the 1 Minute variety, for speed's sake and easy preparation in the microwave. The original recipe from the book (and some I ran across out there) use the regular old-fashioned oats. You could prepare them with boiling water poured over and then cover the bowl. If using the regular old-fashioned, I believe it's a sit time of 5 minutes while covered. If you chose to prepare the quick oats this way, of course sit time would be less. You could microwave prepare the regular old-fashioned oats too, just again, adjusting the time accordingly.

And now, on to the recipe...

Homemade Instant Oatmeal

Makes 16 half cup servings

8 cups of quick-cooking oatmeal (the 1 minute variety is what I used)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup fat-free French Vanilla powdered coffee creamer

1/4 regular powdered coffee creamer

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp cinnamon

Add-ins of choice - dried cranberries, raisins, toasted nuts etc.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spread oats on cookie sheets and bake for about 20 minutes. Cool slightly then, in a blender or food processor, blend 4 cups of the oats, brown sugar and salt until powdered. In a large bowl combined the rest of the oats, the blended oat-mixture and the coffee creamers. Stir well to combine. Store in a covered container for 4 weeks, in the fridge in a covered container 3 months or in the freezer for 6 months.

To prepare: Combine 1/2 cup of the oatmeal mixture and add-ins of choice if desired and 3/4 to 1 cup water and microwave 1-2 minutes or as long as necessary to desired doneness, stir and serve with  toppings of choice.

Nutritional Information for 1/2 cup of dry mix, prepared with water, with no additions (courtesy of plugging in my ingredients in the SparkPeople Recipes app):

Calories 194, Total Fat 3.4g (saturated fat .9g, polyunsaturated fat 1g, monounsaturated fat 1g) Cholesterol 0g, Sodium 151mg, Potassium 26mg, Total Carbohydrates 39.3g, Dietary Fiber 4.2g, Sugars 11.3g, Protein 5g. 

from Kris B.

Before you continue reading, there are a few things you must know.

• Breakfast is my favorite meal
• I love peanut butter.
• My idea of diet food probably differs from that of most.

Now we can continue..

One thing I know about myself is that if I am going to be successful with losing weight, it has to be done somewhat on my terms.  What that means is that I need to control my caloric intake by adjusting my portion size rather than depriving myself of certain foods.  All in all, I am a healthy eater in terms of the types of food that I like and enjoy eating; I just tend to eat more than I should for a serving.  That said, I also don’t want to be overly hungry.  That will lead me to failure as well.

The SparkPeople app is more bound by routine than I am.  Every day by 12:30 it is probing me as to why I have not logged my lunch.  Simple answer.  I have not had lunch yet.  If I have a designated lunchtime, it is not until 1:30 in the afternoon.  Several of those days, breakfast happens at 6:15 am.  That makes for a long haul to lunch.  Therefore, I need to eat a breakfast that will carry me through that seven hour stretch.  That means that my breakfast generally needs to be a high protein meal and is therefore a higher calorie meal.  Enter the Peanut Butter French Toast.

This recipe came into being from the fact that I could not decide what I wanted for breakfast.  Oatmeal?  An egg sandwich?  Toast with peanut butter?  Because I could not make up my mind, I had a little bit of everything.  Oat bread spread with peanut butter, topped with bananas, and dipped in a French toast egg batter and cooked on a griddle.  With a bit of sweetness from powdered sugar and a little light butter for cooking, this recipe totals 397 calories.  Based on my schedule and eating patterns, that works for me.

MY INGREDIENTS

1 egg  (78 calories)

1 TBS light almond milk  (3 calories)

1 1/2 tsp powdered sugar, divided  (15 calories)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 slices Orowheat Healthful steel cut oat and honey bread  (160 calories)

1 TBS Jif creamy peanut butter  (95 calories)

1/2 banana  (55 calories)

1 tsp Land o Lakes light butter  (17 calories)

In a bowl big enough to dip the bread, beat the egg.  Add the almond milk,  1 tsp powdered sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.  Beat until thoroughly combined.

Divide the peanut butter and spread half on each slice of bread.  Then layer one side of the bread with banana cut into slices 1/2” thick.  Top with the other slice making a peanut butter and banana sandwich.  You could stop here and life would still be good!  lol.

Dip the sandwich into the egg mixture making sure to cover both sides.

Over medium high heat, melt the butter in an appropriately sized skillet for your sandwich.  Place sandwich in skillet until the bottom is  golden brown and slightly crispy.  Turn and repeat for the other side.

Remove from heat.  Slice in half and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 tsp of powdered sugar over the top.  Serve immediately.

Half a serving of this makes a nice dessert or snack as well!

There are many ways that the calorie count of this recipe could easily be reduced.  

• Use egg substitute instead of a real egg.
• Skip the powdered sugar.  (But why?  It adds much more than 15 calories of goodness to the taste)
• Use a light or low calorie bread.  There are some brands available that have only 40 calories per slice.)
• Use a whipped peanut butter.  
• Skip the butter.  You can spray your pan with a non-stick cookie spray and that will keep your French toast from sticking.  The butter, however, does help it to crisp and brown with the desired golden color.

Calories 398, Total Fat 17g (saturated fat 2.9g, polyunsaturated fat 1g, monounsaturated fat 1.9g) Cholesterol 192.6mg, Sodium 499.2mg, Potassium 215.7mg, Total Carbohydrates 50.3g, Dietary Fiber 10.1g, Sugars 14.9g, Protein 20.3g. 

Food Friday - Full Bellies, Full Hearts

from Kris B.

It is Valentine's Day weekend; for many that means that love is in the air.  By the looks of the supermarkets, it appears that many will be receiving  the obligatory flowers and candy.  For others, however,  it is just another day of being hungry and feeling unloved.

Sometimes the “why” of a story is much more important than the “what.”  The “what” of my recipe this week is Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.  These are undoubtedly one of my favorite cookies because they contain all of my favorite ingredients.  If I can’t decide what kind of cookies I am craving, I will make these because they cover all the bases.  You can’t go wrong with a cookie that has chocolate chips, oatmeal, AND peanut butter!  But, that is not the “why.”

I recently received a note from my youngest daughter that said, in part, “Thank you for showing me what parental love is all about.  Thank you for being willing to take on the hard questions.  Thank you for challenging me and helping me and inspiring me and encouraging me.  Thank you for helping me become me.”  The “me” that she has become is a caring and loving young lady who has made it her mission in life to do anything she can to make the world a better place for those around her.  In her daily life, she goes about this in many big and small ways; those of us that are on the receiving end of her kindness are blessed beyond measure.

This week she set her goals high, taking it upon herself to have a bake sale at work to raise money for the organization NO KID HUNGRY.  This was not your average bake sale with a few dozen slice and bake cookies and a pan of brownies.  Erin went all out, from taking pre-orders for loaves of homemade bread and chocolate dipped strawberries to baking all kinds of individual goodies to be sold today. 

 Last weekend she baked 20 loaves of bread to be delivered to friends and co-workers Monday morning as a kick-off for her fundraising week.  The rest of the baking was done yesterday for the actual bake sale today.  Her boyfriend posted the full tally of her baking efforts on Facebook:

My measly contribution to this massive effort was a few tubs of cookie dough that could be sold as take and bake.  Other than this, she did all of the work by herself with a lot moral support from her boyfriend and some from me.  Hopefully her co-workers will eat up today and she can send a nice check to NO KID HUNGRY.  

Creating a world where all people have full bellies and even fuller hearts is a grand but achievable goal if we all do what we can where we are.  All those small acts do add up to big results!

I am proud of the young lady that Erin is becoming and I am humbled to know that she credits me for even a part of that.  Hang in there all of you with little ones, those days will be over more quickly than you think.  And then comes the time when you look at your kids as they become adults and smile.  But perhaps more importantly, they will also look at you with appreciation and say, “Thank you!”

I am happy to report that Erin's goal for today's bake sale was $300.  She far surpassed this goal by raising  $1500 for No Kid Hungry!  Not only were her co-workers and friends supportive, her company volunteered to match her efforts at 100%!  If you would like to learn more about No Kid Hungry or contribute to this cause, click here.  I am thankful that there are so many people out there willing to help fill the bellies of hungry children.

Thank you, Jeff, for the photos!

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

INGREDIENTS

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 stick butter (at room temperature)

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 TBS vanilla extract

2 TBS milk

2 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups chocolate chips

Aside from the fact that these cookies taste awesome, I love this recipe because it doesn’t use every measuring cup that I own!  A cup measure and measuring spoons, that’s it!

In your mixer bowl, cream together the sugars, butter, peanut butter, vanilla, and milk.  Add the eggs and mix until thoroughly combined.  

In a separate bowl, mix together the flours, oats, baking soda, and chocolate chips.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing well.

Chill the dough covered overnight.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Form the dough into 1” balls and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes on the center oven rack.


from Tracey G.

When Kris was telling me of her bake sale contributions, it got me thinking of bake sales past. Mostly from my grade school days, the bake sales, cake walks and craft shows that my mom always contributed something to. I especially loved the cake walks, yep, definitely a personal favorite! I could win a cake! Yay! Not that I ever ate them, as I didn't care much for cake back then, but I probably enjoyed the chance to win one more than anything! It just brings back a lot of fond memories from 3rd grade all the way through 8th. Good stuff!

All the bake sale memories got me thinking on what would work for a bake sale as far as an item to contribute that everyone in general enjoys. Lots of things came to mind, but the one that stuck out to me was the good old Peanut Butter Cookie. They're so easy to make and you can turn them out pretty fast, (plus it's usually stuff I always have on hand - so if I'm ever in that "mom I need cookies for tomorrow!" bind, these are a good go to recipe), and perfect bake sale criteria! Fast and easy and people like them! Through the years, I've found a few recipes (as usual!), and this one is kind of a combination of a few, that got me to a cookie I really liked.

The recipe is supposed to, in theory (from the combinations of recipes), make 3 dozen, but I got at least 5 dozen out of this batch I made. Go figure. And now my taste testers/cookie eaters are sick and not interested in any cookies. I think this batch will find itself in the freezer!!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Preheat oven to 375° F

Yield: 3 dozen

1/2 c butter (1 stick), softened (you could use all vegetable shortening if you like)

1/2 c vegetable shortening

1 1/2 c peanut butter

1 c granulated sugar

1 c brown sugar, packed

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

3 c all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1) Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, cream butter, shortening, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well.

2) Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls and place 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Flatten with a fork. Bake 10-15 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool. 

Food Friday - Hittin' the Bars

from Kris B.

By the tardiness of this post, you’d think that Tracey and I have been hitting the bars literally and are just now recovering from our weekend.  Lol!  I am happy to report that that is not the case.  I was out of town for a retreat this weekend.  I had most of my work for this post done before I left and figured I’d load the photo onto my iPad, take my written draft, polish it up “after hours,” and post it while I was gone.  Little did I know that I was going to be part of a mandatory wireless weekend.  That was a good thing in most ways, but…here it is Monday.

If it had been one of my kids who had such a “plan,” I probably would have insisted that they get the project  done before they left, reminding them that procrastination is not becoming, nor is it a good discipline.  I can honestly say that I don’t think that procrastination was the real issue here.  I simply have not yet adjusted to being back in school and fitting all that I need and want to do in to the short twenty fours of every day; this  just isn’t working well for me at the moment.  I have no doubt that things will settle down into a manageable routine here shortly.  That just had not happened yet last week.

By anyone’s standards, my teaching schedule is strenuous.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach four hour and twenty-five minute classes (all different courses) back to back beginning at 7:30.  It is not the physical energy required that is the issue; it is the mental energy this demands that, well, kicks my rear.  Every class deserves my very best, but I have to admit that by the time I am five hours into teaching, my brain is tired!  I decided that I needed to find a recipe for a healthy, easy to make, and easy to eat snack that I could throw in my backpack and eat in the two or three minutes that I have between classes.  I had no such recipe of my own so I began looking at recipes by others.  There are MANY out there; I settled on the one’s found here on budget101.com.  As I scoured online sources, these sounded simple; and with twenty-four variations, there is enough variety to have a different flavor every week of school, and then some. 

Each recipe begins with the same base - 1 cup of nuts, any kind that you happen to have on hand or can find on sale, and one cup of dates.  Various other dried fruits, spices, or flavorings are then added to create the different varieties.  Visit the above website to see the complete list of recipes.

I made the “Girl Scout Samoa” Cookie and the Cappuccino.  Both were excellent, and the “recipe” is so easy.  Throw all of the ingredients into a food processor.  Process until integrated.  Press into a parchment lined loaf pan.  Freeze for an hour (or longer.)  Slice into 6 bars.  Wrap the bars individually in plastic wrap and store them in the freezer.  Easy, easy, easy!

Because when I get tired, I tend to eat things that give me a quick pick-me-up but that aren’t necessarily healthy, I ran these two recipes through the Weight Watchers Point Calculator.  The “Girl Scout Samoa” bars are 7 points, and the Cappuccino are 3.  I guess we know which one will give me more bang for my buck.  Lol!  In place of a meal, the seven point bar is OK, but for me, as a snack, that is a few too many points to give up on something that takes less than a minute to consume.  I will finish eating the batch I have, and then move on to the Cappuccino bars which are just as good and are guilt free!  

The one thing that I will do differently the next time that I make the Cappuccino bars is grinding the coffee beans in the coffee grinder first, before adding them to the rest of the mixture and count on the food process to grind them finely enough..  It may be that the blades on my food processor are a bit on the dull side, but the coffee beans were “chunkier” than I would have liked.  I didn’t want to over-process the whole thing or I’d end up with nut butter garnished with dates and ground coffee.  I definitely did not want that!

If you are looking for an easy “hold you over” kind of snack, these are it!  Try one.  Try them all.  Let me know which one is your favorite!



from Tracey G.

Granola bars don't last very long around here - they are a big favorite of myself and my husband - and certain ones (involving no nuts, lol) are my son's. I've been wanting to try to make my own for awhile, but for whatever reason, I just never got around to trying it or even looking for a recipe for that matter. When Kris mentioned making some kind of "power" snack recipes this week I was happy to take on the challenge to find a recipe as I didn't have one. I knew Jeremy would appreciate packing some in his lunch for the day, and it would help me to choose my snacking food a little more wisely! So, the hunt began, and then there's the careful choosing, because it would really stink if I tried a recipe and it was awful and I didn't have time to find something worthy of sharing! So, I scoured a few favorite recipe sites, and there were so many recipes!! I'd think I found one, then I'd notice some weird ingredient that I know I'd never find in my area since I am pretty limited in what I can find for "special" ingredients in my small town. Then I ran across this one - and to be honest, I was a bit skeptical I'd find the ground flax seed, so I went shopping for the ingredients the day I found the recipe in case I needed to go back to the drawing board and look for something else, but, I was pleasantly surprised to find it at my local Walmart! Yay! It came from one of my favorite recipes sites, Allrecipes.com. The link to it will be with the recipe below. 

This particular recipe came together really fast, I was pretty surprised at the ease of making them. I did follow a few of the tips I'd read in the reviews of it - one was to combine the honey and the peanut butter in a microwavable bowl and warm it enough for easy mixing, another was to stir the ground flaxseed into the peanut butter-honey mixture before you combine it with the other ingredients. And the last tip I found useful was to refrigerate it at least overnight so the flavors blend well. It was easy to cut and serve - I took a spatula and loosened the edges in the pan, then flipped the pan over and they mixture came right out onto the cutting board for super easy cutting. There really is no need to grease the pan at all, thanks to the peanut butter!  The other great thing about this recipe, is, you could vary up the ingredients really easily, which is always a good thing!

In the making of the recipe, I did change a couple things - instead of a 9x11" baking dish, I used a 9x13" and instead of regular chocolate chips I used mini-chocolate chips and those worked really well. And after mixing with the spatula for awhile, I then switched to using my hands like for a meatloaf, it was a bit sticky of course, but it was a good way to make sure the ingredients were combined well.

For pressing into the pan, I did use a spatula AND my hands to press the mixture in the pan. The recipe calls for cutting it into 12 bars - that seemed a bit large to me, so I cut mine into 20, and that was perfect. I then ended up cutting those in half, for storage purposes and it still was a good size!

No-Bake Granola Bars

original recipe: No Bake Granola Bars

2 c rolled oats

1 1/4 c natural crunchy peanut butter

1 c ground flaxseed

3/4 c honey

3/4 c dried cranberries

1/2 c chocolate chips

1/4 c sliced almonds

1) Stir oats, peanut butter, flaxseed, honey, cranberries, chocolate chips and almonds together in a bowl; press into a 9x13" baking dish, using the back of a spatula to press into a flat layer.

2) Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

3) Cut into 12 bars and wrap each individually in plastic wrap for storage.