No-Bake Chewy Granola Bars

This was truly a grand and exciting experiment. I honestly have been so excited to share these with you because they turned out so incredible. They are delicious and so incredibly easy to make and once you have purchased the ingredients you can make a ton of them for really really cheap! 

Plus, the very best part about them, is that I feel great feeding them to my family. Granola bars that you buy from the store will always have preservatives in them - and some of them have A LOT of them. Not to mention that most of them are chuck full of sugar and if your family eats them like my family does, they can munch their way through an entire box in an afternoon. 

I found a super simple recipe for chewy granola bars and really wanted to try it. I was a little afraid of the "work" that it was going to take, so I set aside an afternoon where I didn't have any plans.  Little did I realize how simple these were going to be. The hardest part was deciding what to put in them - because sadly I couldn't fit Everything in. 

Chewy No-Bake Granola Bars

Makes 24 bars (9″x13″ pan)

INGREDIENTS:

2 ½ cups Rice Krispies (if you want to make these healthier, you can use plain puffed rice cereal)

1 ¾ cups quick oats (regular rolled oats work too - I used Steel Cut Oats)

¼ cup wheat germ (or ground flax seed, wheat bran, or additional oats)

½ cup additional mix-in ingredients, optional (i.e. shredded coconut, chopped nuts, raisins or other dried fruit, sesame or sunflower seeds, etc.)

½ cup honey

½ cup brown sugar 

¼ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup chocolate chips

Watch this mixture carefully. The first time around I wasn't paying attention and burned the sugar - so I had to start over again. Wasted ingredients don't make for a lot of savings - plus the failed process just makes me mad.

 DIRECTIONS:

Combine first 4 dry ingredients in a bowl.

In a saucepan, mix the honey, brown sugar and salt. Over medium-low heat, stir until the mixture comes to a complete boil for 30-60 seconds.

Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla until smooth.

Pour over the dry ingredients and mix well.

Let cool for 5-10 minutes before mixing in the chocolate chips.

 Press into a greased 9×13 pan and let cool before cutting into bars.

These freeze well!!

I actually just put the bars right into the fridge so they would "set" and I could cut them sooner. It worked out beautifully because the extra coolness allowed me to handle them and get them wrapped without the chocolate chips melting all over my fingers.

 These are going to be a staple at our house from now on!  I am already planning on making ones with coconut and dried cherries (my favorite) and my kids went bonkers for the sunflower seeds in them.

All that is left is to train them that the granola bars live in the freezer now, instead of a box in the pantry.

Light and Creamy Cucumber Salad with Dill

We are in the middle of a cucumber boom right now.  They are coming out of the garden like a flash mob! I was thinking about classic cucumber salad, but wasn't feeling very happy about the sour cream and mayonnaise that the traditional recipe calls for. I decided to try it with just substituting greek yogurt for both and I am very pleased with the end result. It was Quite as creamy as the original, but I think the trade-off for such a healthy switch is definitely worth it. 

Here’s what you’ll need to make it yourself {serves about 6}

Ingredients

2 Large Cucumbers

1 cup of Plain Greek Yogurt

1/2 of a medium sized red onion

about a 1/4 cup fresh chopped dill

3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

about a teaspoon each of sugar, salt and fresh black pepper

Slice your cucumber and red onion as thin as possible…If you have one,  put the cucumber down the tube of your food processor with the slicing blade and it does the work for you.  I don't have one, and I probably wouldn't want to clean it anyway, so I just use a cutting board and knife and try and get it as even as I can. 

Then I’ll slice the red onion. 

 In a small mixing bowl add your sugar, then the vinegar and mix together until it dissolves. Now add in the yogurt, garlic and dill, mix well. - I had some left over chives from making ranch dressing, so I added those too.  Don't worry if you don't have them. 

 Add your cucumbers and onions to your serving bowl and pour the dressing over top, toss together and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Refrigerate no more than an hour before serving so it wont get soggy.

Simple Strawberry Smoothie

For as incredibly simple and wonderful as they are, I find myself almost never making smoothies. It is strange, because Creating a Smoothie is almost the easiest thing you can do in the kitchen. 

I think it is because I don't have one of the Fancy blenders. You know, one of the ones that cost hundreds of dollars and can grind up phones and rocks and stuff. I just have a regular old kitchen blender (that I actually got as a hand me down when my mom got one of the Ferrari Blenders - that grind rocks)

So here is a simple classic recipe, for my simple classic blender. You can add ANY fruit you want, but we had some strawberries that were needing to be used. If you want to be a flavor scientist you can experiment with flavors of yogurt today, but since this is a simple, classic recipe, we are going to stick with vanilla. 

 Ingredients 
makes 2 servings

 8 strawberries, hulled
 1/2 cup skim milk
 1/2 cup plain yogurt
 3 tablespoons white sugar ( you should try and leave this out - it isn't great for you, but sometimes - it needs it)
 2 teaspoons vanilla extract ( this is the super secret ingredient to making it taste Amazing!)
 6 cubes ice, crushed

Simplest Peanut Noodles Ever

I think one of the greatest feelings in the kitchen is when you find a recipe that is super simple, can be made without having to buy special ingredients, has amazing flavor and satisfies your family. That is a really tall order than few dishes can live up to, it is really hard to please Everybody!  But this peanut noodle recipe really hits the target for our family. Everyone loves it, I always have the ingredients on hand (who doesn't own a giant jar of peanut butter?) And with the peanut butter added, I don't have to add an additional protein. I just heat up a bag of frozen veggies and we are ready to be in the time it takes to boil spaghetti!

Easy Peanut Noodles Recipe


Ingredients
2 cups broccoli florets
8 oz linguine or spaghetti

for the sauce
3 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3/4 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon sesame oil. Substitute with canola oil.
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
Crushed red chili flakes, as much as you like

2 tablespoons chopped green onion or cilantro or parsley for garnish

 Method
1. In a large pot, bring plenty of salted water to a boil.

2. While water is coming to a boil, work on the sauce. Place all sauce ingredients (peanut butter through red chili flakes) in a bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of water, and whisk everything together till a sauce forms. Set aside.

This is the first time I have made peanut sauce this way, and I was pretty sure it wasn't going to work. But I added all the ingredients to my glass mixing bowl and just gently whisked. It took a minute but it came together really well no special steps were necessary. 

When your pasta is done cooking, drain it in a large colander.

 Pour the peanut sauce all over the pasta and toss well. Taste the pasta, if it needs more salt, add soy sauce half a tablespoon at a time, tossing and tasting as you go.

Garnish with chopped green onions, cilantro or parsley. Serve warm or cold.

Fluffy Zucchini Muffins

Something I find really strange about zucchini is that it is so plentiful in the summer that you can often find people just giving the stuff away. You'll find it on your porch when you come back home from running errands if you aren't careful. But in the winter time buying a tiny zucchini at the grocery store can cost you an arm and a leg. I find this unbalance of supply and demand quite the paradox. I really love zucchini and it kills me to not be able to buy it in the winter months. So I am going to get all I can while the getting is good. And right now, It is Very good. 

My sister is gone on vacation for a week, so she had to have someone go out and pick the garden. I lucked out double and my mom and dad went out and picked the garden and then brought the yumminess to me. It doesn't get much better than that! Fresh picked garden produce delivered right to your door, if you can manage to have someone do it for you, I HIGHLY recommend it. 

The chocolate zucchini bread was a wild success around here. (As you can imagine any sweet bread with chocolate and chocolate chips added to it might be!) But I was wanting to make something a little lighter. While I think the dense texture of the Chocolate Zucchini Bread was delicious and fit the style of the bread perfectly, I really didn't think it would go well as a muffin. So I set out to make a light fluffy zucchini muffin, with a great muffin texture and a spice flavor. 

Fresh Zucchini Muffins
Makes about 12 muffins

1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1.5 cups grated zucchini (about 2 small to medium-size zucc’s)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tsp. baking powder
Cinnamon and sugar for topping (optional - it will crisp the tops of your muffins)

1. Preheat oven to 375. In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.

2. In medium bowl, combine grated zucchini, eggs, vanilla, and oil. Stir well to combine, then gently stir into flour mixture. Be careful not to overwork this—it will lead to dense muffins!

3. Fill lined muffin tins about 3/4 of the way up with the batter and then sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on each. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden.

I only put cinnamon sugar as a topping on one pan of muffins (and I tripled the recipe and made three). I don't think it needed the "extra" sugar for taste and I didn't like the way that it made the tops of the muffins extra crispy. 

The ones without the sugar on top turned out a lovely golden and had that great muffin top texture to everyone secretly (or not so secretly) has as their favorite. 

I had some larger zucchinis and some smaller ones. I used the larger ones to bake, because I really like to cook with the smaller tender ones. If you end up in the same situation as me, and you are using large zucchinis to bake, feel free to cut them and then use a spoon to scrape out of the seeds. Like you would a large winter squash. The seeds don't end up grating well and then don't "blend" well into the muffin batter - they just stay seeds.

 I am extremely happy with how these muffins turned out. My 5 year old helped measure the ingredients and bake them. I was nervous that after seeing the zucchini go into the muffins that he wouldn't be too excited about eating them. But I was wrong, he ate them right out of the oven, then for "dessert" last night and again for breakfast this morning. He has even requested that every Tuesday from now on be Muffin Day. That sounds good to me!

Strawberry and Lime Parfait

Believe it or not, this was a request from my 11-year old. He professed a love for fruit and yogurt parfaits over the weekend and said how excited he was for school to start so he could have them again.  Way To Go, School Lunch!! You are succeeding in helping my children to love healthy food. 

These couldn't be easier to make, and honestly, I feel a little bit bad that he had to ask me to make them (because we didn't have a box of granola and that required a trip to the store) Now that I know how much he enjoys them (and they were quite a hit with everyone else too - I will try and make sure we have the supplies) 

All you need is some fruit, granola and a bit of yogurt. We sat down together and decided what might be a flavor combination that we wanted to try and we decided on lime and strawberries.  We were leaning a bit towards the raspberries, but the store was completely out of them and so that was decided for us. 

As we were eating the whole family got talking about how they would make their perfect parfait. Some said they would like to add bananas to their strawberries and perhaps some banana cream pie yogurt. There were lots of requests for vanilla yogurt and some for blueberries. That is the beauty of making something like this. There are almost limitless possibilities as to what you can add to make it something you like. (unless the store is out of the berries that you wanted to buy) 

Homemade Ranch with Herbs and Yogurt

Ingredients

1 clove garlic

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup real mayonnaise

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

1/4 cup Italian flat-leaf parsley leaves, minced

2 tablespoons fresh dill, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh chives

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Dash hot sauce

1/4 to 1/2 cup buttermilk (as needed for desired consistency)

Directions

Chop your fresh herbs. You can mince them really really small if you want a more "authentic" ranch texture. But I like to know mine is homemade, so I only chop them "regular small"

 In a bowl, combine the garlic paste, mayonnaise, greek yogurt, parsley, dill, chives,

Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, vinegar, paprika, cayenne and hot sauce. 

 Add the buttermilk to desired consistency and mix to combine, tasting frequently and adjusting seasonings as needed.

Chill for a couple of hours before serving, thinning with more buttermilk if needed. When I made this, I omitted the buttermilk entirely for the first use - which was as a dipping sauce for the Zucchini Fries.  Then I thinned it with buttermilk to use as salad dressing. This just gets better and better after letting the flavors meld and combine. You'll never go back to store bought - or packaged ranch again.

Pico de Gallo - Salsa Fresca

I love to watch cooking shows on TV. I especially love the one where they travel around the country and show different restaurants and chefs cooking regional cuisine and their own home cooking. 

I recently watched one where they went to Mexico and the chef made a fresh salsa. He had a very interesting technique and I was very interested to try it. So I picked up some ingredients to recreate what he made at home. 

Pico de Gallo, or Salsa Fresca is a little bit different that what most of us think of as "salsa".  Although I really love cooked salsa (and I eat a lot of it), I really love it when summer rolls around and the tomatoes get red and ripe and are at the peak of their flavor - that screams to me that it is time to make salsa!!

I used two different kinds of onions in this recipe. My husband Really likes onions and the onions were part of this technique that I wanted to try - so why not go all in. 

I chopped the purple and green onions and mixed them up in a bowl. I didn't make them tiny, but left them in kind of a rough chop. I think that for this recipe that each ingredient does well when it can stand on its own. 

To the onions, I added juice of two full limes. And then I let the onions sit in the lime juice without anything else added for about 5 minutes to let the juice of the limes "cook" the onions. This reminds me of a ceviche where the citrus juices are used to cure the fish. 

I chopped up about 8 roma tomatoes. I prefer to use roma tomatoes instead of slicing tomatoes in this recipe because they are "meatier" and contain less juice. I think it makes the salsa hold together better and be less juicy or saucy. 

I added one bunch of fresh cilantro, washed and chopped. And two jalapenos with the seeds removed. I always try and wear gloves when I chopping jalapenos.  They are very hot and the oil that makes them that way is in all parts of the pepper. So touching the pepper and then touching your eyes or nose (or even lips) can cause of lot of pain. (And yet we eat them like crazy because they are soooo delicious!) 

I seasoned the Salsa Fresca with some salt and pepper and some fresh minced garlic. I just use the garlic from the squeeze tube because I like the convenience. But you can chop your own - just be sure to do it finely.

And I like to put the salt and pepper right onto the tomatoes. I think they benefit the very most from being directly seasoned instead of adding the salt and pepper to the entire dish.  When my brother makes this salsa, he chops the tomatoes and then salts and peppers then right on the cutting board before adding them to the bowl. Then he hardly seasons the finished dish at all. (There is no denying summer vine ripe tomatoes with salt is very very good!)

Add this to grilled chicken or fish, or eat it like we do - Plain with tortilla chips. Although it is almost always associated with Mexican food, Pico de Gallo is great with absolutely everything. The fresh summer flavors go well with just about anything you can put in your mouth.