Granola Bars

I made these last week.  I was looking through some old recipes that I had used a couple of years ago and came across this one.  I remembered it being yummy, so thought I'd try it again.  It's not super-healthy, but it definitely has some healthy components.

Here's the original recipe (my changes are noted at the beginning) and some photos of the steps I took...

I used raw honey with bee pollen, extra-virgin olive oil, natural peanut butter (the kind with nothing but peanuts added), evaporated cane juice instead of brown sugar and I used all semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of a mixture of peanut butter chips and semi-sweet chips.  Oh, and I also added some unsweetened coconut.

Peanut Butter Granola Mini Bars

SERVINGS: 36

TIME: Prep: 20 min. Bake: 15 min. + cooling

Ingredients:

1/2 cup reduced-fat creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup peanut butter chips
1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat the peanut butter, honey, egg, oil and vanilla until blended. Combine the oats, brown sugar and salt; add to the peanut butter mixture and mix well. Stir in chips. (Batter will be sticky.)
Transfer to a 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Yield: 3 dozen. 

Peanut butter, honey, egg, vanilla and oil

Added the evaporated cane juice

Added the oats and Celtic sea salt

I also added some unsweetened coconut

Dumped it all into a 13x9 glass baking dish that I had sprayed with olive oil and lined with a parchment sling

Patted it all down before popping it into the oven

Removed it from the oven and allowed to cool and set

Cut into bars and voila!!

St. Patrick's Day Dinner

My original plan for last night's dinner was either a beef or lamb stew with Guinness or some sort of baked chicken with a Guinness marinade.  Someone mentioned to me that a local store had stewing beef on sale for a really low price and that it was 'buy one package, get one free', so I headed there to see what I could find.  Once I had a look at the meat section, I soon changed my mind.  The stewing beef was indeed on sale, but it was so incredibly fatty that there was no way I was buying it.  I think it was a good thing I didn't buy it though because on further inspection of the sale flyer, I found out that beef tenderloin was also on sale and was also 'buy one package, get one free'!  I jumped at this and bought some lovely steaks.  I also picked up a Savoy cabbage because I knew I wanted to incorporate that into the meal somehow.  Here's how the meal went...

  I chopped up the Savoy cabbage and placed it in the steamer basket atop my rice cooker (which I filled with Jasmine brown rice, a glug of extra virgin olive oil, water, salt and 2 tbsp. sambal oelek

 Seasoned the steaks with salt and pepper and seared them in a very hot cast iron skillet

 Took some shiitake mushrooms 

Cut them into thin slices

Removed the steaks from the pan and into a hot oven to finish cooking, then sautéed some sliced onions, scraping up the tasty bits from the bottom of the pan.

Added the mushrooms and some chopped garlic (maybe 4 or 5 cloves) and sautéed until everything was softened

Poured in about 1/2 cup of Guinness (and added some salt and pepper)

I love how creamy and rich the Guinness looks!

Sautéed the mixture until the Guinness had evaporated

Once the rice was done, I mixed it with the steamed cabbage

Served the steak atop the rice/cabbage mixture, with the sautéed mushroom/onion/garlic mixture draped over top.

Yummy Healthy Cookies

Meghan Telpner strikes again with yet another delicious, healthy recipe for me to enjoy. 

I saw this picture of these cookies on her website.
and just knew I had to try them.  

They were even better than I imagined.  They remind me of those lacy, syrupy cookies that are crispy and sweet.  But these cookies are chock-full of goodness.

Here are some pics. I took of the process...

Start with rolled oats

Add some raw honey

This is the kind I've been enjoying lately

Some maple syrup and flax seeds

Some freshly ground flax seeds and raw cocoa nibs

Add some goji berries (I didn't have any chia for this batch, but will get some for the next)

Mix it all together

Dollop on a baking sheet covered with parchment

Look how colourful the goji berries are!! 

Crispy and delicious!!

Scallops with Mixed Mashed Potatoes and Baby Choi

 

I didn't do the loveliest job of plating this dish, but it tasted pretty good :-)  I wanted to use up the baby choi and Canadian bacon we had in the fridge and thought they would be nice sautéed together with some onions and garlic.  Scallops seemed the perfect accompaniment as they go so well with bacon.  For the mash, I combined a couple of Yukon Gold potatoes with a sweet potato and mashed them together with some sour cream.

 2 unpeeled Yukon Golds and 1 unpeeled sweet potato, mashed together with salt, pepper and sour cream

 6 baby choi, thinly sliced and sautéed with 1/2 a sliced Spanish onion, a few cloves of minced garlic and 3 slices of diced Canadian bacon

Sea scallops, patted dry and sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper and Celtic sea salt

An Experiment with Disastrous and Delicious Results

One morning last week I was up early and had finished my workout and some chores, so I decided to make some cookies.  I wasn't sure what I was in the mood for, but I thought I'd experiment with peanut butter and chocolate.  I opted to make the old standby flourless peanut butter cookie and top it with a Hershey Kiss.  The only problem was that the only kinds of Kisses I had were filled with mint or filled with caramel.  I didn't think mint would match well with peanut butter, so I decided to go for the caramel ones instead.  My next thought was whether to put the Kisses in the cookies before baking or to press them in as soon as they came out of the oven.  I decided to be reckless and go ahead and bake the cookies with the Kisses already in them.  I knew this was a big gamble as the Kisses might explode in the oven and make a huge mess, but I was willing to give it a try.  

So, here's what happened...

I combined a cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of peanut butter and an egg until well-mixed

Dolloped onto cookie sheets and popped the Kisses (upside down) into the tops of the cookies

Baked for 15 mins. and UHOH!!!!

I gave it a few minutes' thought and decided to try chilling the batter and the Kisses in the freezer before baking.  I popped both in the freezer and left them for about 15 minutes.  Put the next batch into the oven and voila...

Lesson learned!  Next time I will definitely freeze the batter and Kisses before baking.  But I must say that the 'exploded' ones tasted just as yummy as the others! :-) 

Evil Jungle Prince

 

This is one of our family's favourite meals.  I don't make it quite as often these days since Krestan no longer eats meat.  Last night K was staying over at a friend's house, so Perry requested this dish.  I made it with pork instead of the usual chicken, but it was just as good.

The recipe comes from one of my favourite cookbooks Keo's Thai Cuisine.

This is a simple recipe with few ingredients.  I usually serve this with brown rice, but the recipe calls for a bed of chopped cabbage which I tried last night for the first time and it was delicious.  It was also so much quicker and easier to shred some fresh cabbage than to cook the rice.  Here's what I did...

 

Took a couple of Thai Bird chilies

A handful of Kaffir lime leaves

Pounded them with some lemongrass in a mortar

Sautéed these in some coconut oil

Added coconut milk and sliced basil leaves and simmered for a few minutes (then added some fish sauce and chopped pork tenderloin and simmered for a few more mins.)

  

Served atop a bed of shredded cabbage

My Favourite Hummus

 

 This is my favourite way to make hummus.  I don't have a recipe as such, but I can give the basic guidelines.  This isn't a traditional hummus by any means, but it's incredibly tasty and you can make it as spicy or mild as you like.  I throw everything into my food processor and just blend until it's well mixed.  Easy peasy!!! 

P.S. I forgot to take a pic. with the chickpeas added to the blender.  I add one can, drained.

Some sundried tomatoes plus a good glug of the oil in which they're kept.  Also, some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

A nice big dollop of tahini and a couple of healthy dollops of pesto.

A few cloves of garlic and the juice of about half a lemon.

I also throw in one or two chipotles in adobo but I'm not sure they can be seen here.

Add the chickpeas and blend it all together and serve with crudités or crackers or pitas!