no-bake granola bars

I printed this recipe from Enlightened Cooking a year maybe even two years ago.  It's kept making it's way into my pile of recipes to make someday and finally, finally I got around to making it yesterday morning for breakfast since we were out of eggs.  Once I tasted them I thought "how could I have gone this long WITHOUT these?"  Seriously I made them in about 5 minutes and they tasted SO good!  And they are good for you too!  The pan barely survived a whole day in our house.  Brandon and I thoroughly enjoyed them but quite honestly Jordan was probably the one who at the most.  I'm thinking she ate about half the pan by herself.  Next time I am doubling (possibly quadrupling) the recipe since this one only makes a square pan.  (No picture because these were eaten so quickly.  Sorry!)

Homemade Cliff Bars

1 1/4 cup Rice Krispies

1 cup uncooked quick-cooking oatmeal

3 Tbsp ground flaxseed

1/4 cup dried fruit (we used Craisins)

1/4 cup chopped nuts (we used peanuts and sunflower seeds)

1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup, light molasses or brown rice syrup)

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/3 cup nut butter (we used peanut butter)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chips

Optional:  1/2 tsp cinnamon (we did not use)

Combine cereal, oatmeal, flaxseed, fruit & nuts in a large bowl.

Bring the honey and brown sugar to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly; remove from heat.  Stir in nut butter & vanilla until blended.  

Pour nut butter mixture over cereal mixture, stirring until coated.  Press firmly into a greased 8x8 square pan.  Cool in pan (or eat warm!) on wire rack.  Cut into 12 bars, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store in fridge (if they last that long!)

*Quite honestly I got the honey & brown sugar mixture on the stove heating while I quickly mixed the dry ingredients.  This really decreased the time it took to make the bars from start to finish.

(For nutrition information per serving and other variations visit Enlightened Cooking's original post)

Yogurt

That's right, this recipe is for making your own yogurt at home.  The coolest part is you don't even need to buy a special (and pricey) yogurt maker, you can make this in your crock pot!  I got the recipe from Sarah's Musings and I am quite impressed!  We use this yogurt recipe primarily in our smoothies but I've also been using it to make our own cream cheese which is super easy too and I'll explain at the bottom of this post how to do that.

Crock Pot Yogurt

1/2 gallon (8 cups) whole milk
1/2 cup live/active plain yogurt (the container will say live or active on it)
you'll also need:
     -crock pot
     -heavy bath towel or blanket

1.  Pour milk into a 4 quart crock pot and turn on to low.  Cover and allow to cook for two and a half hours.
2.  After two and a half hours have elapsed, turn off crock pot, unplug from the wall and allow to sit, covered for three hours.
3.  After the three hours is up, whisk in the yogurt and re-cover.  Cover and wrap the entire crock pot with a large bath towel or blanket and leave on the counter for eight hours.
4.  After eight hours has passed the yogurt is done.  Just put it into containers and place in the fridge.  If you like flavored yogurt, now is the time to flavor it.  Stir in fresh or frozen fruit and maybe a little bit of honey or stir in some vanilla.  Make sure to save a half cup of the plain yogurt so you can use it to make yogurt again!

*To make cream cheese:   line a colander with cheese cloth or coffee filters, place over a bowl and fill with yogurt (see above image).  The whey will drain off into the bowl and you'll be left with cream cheese!  I hear you can save the whey for and use it to soak grains or make lacto-fermented foods (quite honestly I have no idea what those mean but I'm going to be looking into it so I'm not wasting the whey.  I've included links in case you want to do some research yourself)  It's also suggested to add it to smoothies, I haven't tried that yet but I think I will today!

Catherine's Banana Bread

I don't really like banana bread with a strong banana flavor. The cream cheese in this one really helps tone it down and it's so moist! I got the recipe from a friend at work several years ago and I am so thankful because I didn't care for banana bread until I tried this recipe! This is also fun to make in mini loaves like I did this time and give away as gifts; just make sure to cut the baking time down a bit so they don't over cook and get dry.

Catherine's Banana Bread

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. margarine

1 c. mashed bananas

2 eggs

2 1/4 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. bkg. powder

1/2 tsp. bkg. soda

1 c. chopped nuts

Combine cream cheese, sugar and margarine, mixing until well blended. Blend in banana and eggs. Add combined remaining ingredients, mixing just until moistened. Pour into greased and floured 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Serve with additional cream cheese, if desired.

Bran Muffins

This is a recipe that I got from my friend, Phyllis, and for those of you that know Phyllis, you know that any recipe you get from her is going to be good. I don't think there's anything she's made that's not good. At least not that I ever remember trying.
One good thing about these muffins is that you don't have to make them all at once. If you want fresh muffins every morning for breakfast then you can make up the mix and then just bake the amount you want each morning. The mix will keep in the refrigerator for up to a month. You can even add something different to the batter that you're using each day and have something a little different that day.
I made this recipe today and made some just bran muffins and some I added chopped up mixed berries. I also made regular size muffins for us "adults" and the smaller size for my grandsons just to make them a little special. They thought that was pretty cool!
Anyways, here's the recipe.


Bran Muffins

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix together:
2 cups milk
2 cups All Bran Cereal
Set aside.

Mix until foamy:
2 eggs
3/4 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar

Now add the milk and bran cereal into this.

Then add:
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Place in paper lined muffin tins or one that's been sprayed.
Bake for 20 minutes.

Savory Vegetable Mini Quiches

Don't you love when you screw up a recipe and it turns out fantastic?! I do too! This recipe is definitely one of those. Pampered Chef's original called for mushrooms, green onions, & bacon. I accidentally used all the mushrooms and completely forgot to buy green onions. The bacon...I cooked in the microwave but forgot all about it in there until I was about to reheat my tea later. Oops! But I made some alterations to make up for it and I was really happy with the final product! I like these because they are really easy for Brandon & I to heat up throughout the week and we are still getting a nice & healthy breakfast. These would also be perfect to take to a brunch!

Savory Vegetable Mini Quiches

1 pkg (15 oz) refrigerated pic crusts (2 crusts)

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup finely chopped zucchini

1/2 cup red & yellow pepper (1/4 cup each)

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 garlic clove, presse

dash of ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375. Let pie crusts stand at room tempurature 15 minutes. Lightly spray mini muffin pan with Pam spray. Whisk milk & eggs in medium bowl.

2. Chop zucchini & peppers. Add veggies, cheese, garlic & pepper to egg mixture, set aside.

3. On lightly floured surface, roll one crust to a 12 inch circle (only needs to go about 1 inch). Using Pampered Chef Scalloped Bread Tube (I'm sure a regular 3 inch circle cookie cutter would work just fine) cut out 12 pastry pieces. Press one pastry piece into each mini muffin cup & press down (PC mini-tart shaper works great). Repeat with remaining crust to fill remaining muffin cups.

4. Fill each muffin cup with about 1 tablespoon of vegetable/egg mixture. Bake 17-20 minutes or until crusts are light golden brown. Cool in pan 2 minutes; carefully remove mini quiches from pan.

**Original recipe did not have red & yellow peppers but instead called for:

4 slices bacon, crisply cooked, drained & chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped mushrooms

1 green onion with top, sliced

Add during step 2 with the zucchini.

Cherry-Lemon Scones

I absolutely love scones! There is this place in town that makes the best scones but all the workers there seem to have awful attitudes so I don't like to go in there very often and "support" them. I have tried a few different scone recipes at home and none seem to compare, well, that was until I made this recipe I found over on Katherine's blog. She really seemed to have a lot of fun with it and made several different variations. The first time I made the recipe about a year ago I decided to experiment without trying the original recipe and boy did I do a terrible job! But I could tell that this was a good recipe and that it was just me making a mistake on flavors so I pulled it out an tried again this time doing the original recipe and let me tell you, it's amazing!! I will be making these again and again!! I had planned on taking these to treat day at work tomorrow but now I'm thinking twice about it. I may end up taking the guacamole that I made instead. I'm loving these scones!!

Cherry-Lemon Scones

2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold & cut into pieces

1/2 cup dried cherries (I used cherry flavored Craisins)

zest of 2 lemons

2/3 cup buttermilk

glaze for scones:

juice of half a lemon

powdered sugar

vanilla extract

Mix dry ingredients in food processor. Add diced butter and pulse until butter is the size of peas. Add lemon zest and cherries and pulse 2 or 3 more times. Add buttermilk all at once and process until dough comes together. Pat dough on a floured surface into a circle that is about 7 inches round and about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut into circles or half-moons. I like to cut mine like a pizza into 8 triangles. I'm always surprised by how small my triangles look but as they bake they really do grow to a more "natural" size. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and brush with lemon glaze.