Granola Bars

Granola bars are great to have on hand when you need a quick or portable snack, but they can get spendy at the store (especially with as many people as we feed here) and have you ever read the back of the box? Gross.

I have spent so long trying to find a granola bar recipe I was happy with. I wanted healthy, but doesn't taste like dirt and something that was soft and chewy, but stayed together in a bar shape. Oh I found it! A no-bake granola bar that is all my dreams and more :) This is a highly adaptable recipe so feel free to substitute with what your family likes and what you have on hand, just be sure to keep the same ratio of wet to dry ingredients.

Some things you might use:

nuts
seeds
protein powder
wheat germ
the dried fruit options are endless.....
almond butter or another nut butter
pureed pumpkin instead of peanut butter....
chocolate chips
mini m&ms (freeze them first!)

These are pretty sweet so feel free to experiment using less sugar or no brown sugar at all, but you need the honey to help it all stick together. Pay attention to if your dried fruit already contains added sugar, most of it does.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup ground flax seed
3/4 cup high fiber cereal (we used Fiber One)
1 1/2 cups dried fruit (chopped small)
1/2 cup peanut butter (natural with no added sugar. If you only have some with added sugar leave out the brown sugar.)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey (try flavored honey!)
4 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and grease just for good measure.

Mix together your dry ingredients (except for brown sugar and salt) in a large bowl, set aside.

Over medium high heat melt butter, salt, brown sugar, honey and peanut butter until boiling (stirring constantly.) Boil and stir for 2 more minutes, take care not to let it burn.

Pour liquid goodness over your dry ingredients and combine well.

Dump mixture onto your prepared baking sheet and using a rolling pin covered in butter roll it flat. You want to press down hard so it all sticks together well.

Cool in the fridge (faster so you can eat them sooner!) or on the counter (Boo!) and cut into rectangles and wrap individually.

These will make a great treat to bring camping and hiking this Summer.

Vegetarian Split Pea Soup

Split peas are full of healthy fiber, helping to lower cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar. Just one cup of cooked dried peas provides you with over 60% of your daily fiber needs.

Day One of meat and dairy free week. I thought I'd try a vegetarian split pea soup recipe. I found this one on AllRecipes.com. I made some changes and ended up with the following recipe. This isn't your "traditional" split pea soup. Knowing my Father-In-Law would say "This would be great..... with ham" as soon as he looked at it I wanted to wow him with how much flavor this soup could have without ham. I looked at what I had on hand and what the recipe called for, tweaked some things around and ended up with a fantastic soup! Joshua gobbled this up with amazing speed :)

Ingredients:

2 cups dry split peas
1/2 cup barley
1 cup diced carrots (I had baby carrots on hand, this was about 15 of them)
4 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 teaspoon Thyme
1 teaspoon basil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 cups tomato & roasted red pepper soup
5 1/2 cups vegetable broth (this makes a thinner soup. If you like it thicker start with about 2 cups less broth, you can always add more later if you want to.)
2 cups water

Directions:

Mix ingredients into your slow cooker. Turn on high for 4 hours and then low or warm until you are ready to eat!

Orange, Mango, Banana Smoothie

We visit Starbucks at least once a week. I used to laugh at the thought of someone ordering a drink that takes 10 minutes just to order because the name is so long, custom drinks to the extreme. I am now that person... Me and my double tall, one pump, soy white chocolate mocha with no whip. I can't help it, I'm spoiled.

The kids like the Vivianno smoothies; the Orange, Mango, Banana is their favorite.

We've recreated this deliciousness at home to make it cheaper, healthier and tastier because it's made with Love :) I'm drinking one right now... Mmmmmmm. The perfect mid-morning snack.

Having very ripe fruit is essential to a good smoothie; brown spotted bananas, squishy oranges and mangoes are a must!

Ingredients (makes 4 servings):

2 very ripe bananas
1 large very ripe orange
2 very ripe mangoes.
1/2 cup yogurt (we used honey Greek)
1 cup almond milk (more or less to achieve desired consistency)
Handful of Ice (unless your fruit is frozen, then you can skip the ice)

Directions:

Throw it all in the blender and blend until smooth. Add more milk to thin it out if needed.

For even more fun, throw it into popsicle molds and freeze!

Banana & Chocolate Ice Cream Treats

Playing off of the Breakfast Ice Cream I just posted about I wanted some other fun ways and combinations to eat this healthy treat. Banana and chocolate? Absolutely. I was going to actually mix the chocolate and some peanut butter, but I didn't have any peanut butter so that nummy combination will have to wait for another day.


Ingredients:

4 very ripe bananas (make sure they have brown spots covering the peel, this is when they are at their sweetest!)
2-4 Tablespoons yogurt (I used honey greek yogurt, but use any yogurt of your choice)
Nutella

Directions:

Cover muffin tins with liners (about 20 small or 10 regular), it would probably work fine with no liners but I haven't tried. You could also use those cute silicone ice cube trays in fun shapes!

Mix bananas and yogurt in a blender

Pour banana mixture into each muffin cup (fill them all the way)

Cover and freeze overnight.

Unwrap frozen tarts and put on a serving plate. Top each with some Nutella. As you can see I need to work on my topping technique so it doesn't look like someone pooed on my tart....

You can put them either way on the plate, I tried both and I'm not sure which way looks better, what do you think? Muffin or upside down muffin?




Enjoy!

Some ways I will experiment with this recipe:

Add some peanut butter into the banana mixture before freezing and then top with Nutella.

Mix peanut butter in with the nutella.

Use different fruits and corresponding toppings:

Strawberry (or any berry) with a little whipped cream on top?
Apple with a caramel or peanut butter topping?
Mango and.....

Ice Cream for Breakfast

Okay, technically more like frozen yogurt, but who doesn't love the sound of ice cream for breakfast? This has more protein & fiber with less sugar than most breakfast cereals! And to save 50 calories and 3 grams of sugar eat it in a bowl instead. Or to go the other direction, throw some colorful sugar sprinkles on top and watch those little faces light up! Perfect for breakfast, as a snack or dessert.

I'll get a picture up soon....

This came about because I had a pack of sugar cones to use up. I bought them to make the Cub Scout Camping Cake. We rarely have ice cream cones at home, it's really something we go out and do. The last thing I need in the house is a carton of ice cream, it wouldn't even make it into the cone before meeting it's fate.

If I have too much fruit that is really ripe and I know we can't eat it before it turns, I chop it up and freeze it for smoothies.... or this recipe :)

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped frozen fruit of your choice
2 Tablespoons honey greek yogurt
1 sugar cone

Directions:

Put fruit and yogurt in your blender and blend until smooth. Hold on, it's rough going at the start :)

You can scoop it into your cone with a spoon or put it into a plastic bag, cut the corner and squezze it into your cone all pretty like.

The nutrition facts are using one cone with apple as the fruit, but use whatever fruit you have or love! Mango, banana, berries, pear, orange......

	Nutrition Facts User Entered Recipe 1 Serving Amount Per Serving Calories 118.2 Total Fat 0.7 g Saturated Fat 0.1 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2 g Monounsaturated Fat 0.1 g Cholesterol 0.0 mg Sodium 25.7 mg Potassium 204.3 mg Total Carbohydrate 23.9 g Dietary Fiber 3.1 g Sugars 3.9 g Protein 5.5 g Vitamin A 1.2 % Vitamin B-12 3.3 % Vitamin B-6 3.4 % Vitamin C 10.5 % Vitamin D 0.0 % Vitamin E 2.1 % Calcium 7.5 % Copper 2.7 % Folate 2.6 % Iron 1.9 % Magnesium 3.0 % Manganese 3.6 % Niacin 1.3 % Pantothenic Acid 2.9 % Phosphorus 7.8 % Riboflavin 8.4 % Selenium 0.7 % Thiamin 3.2 % Zinc 0.5 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Oatmeal Muffins Your Way

I wanted something similar to eating a bowl of oatmeal, but without the mush... I'm not big on mush for breakfast. We all know oatmeal with a little fruit is a healthy breakfast so I was determined to come up with a fun way to eat it. Muffins. I love muffins. But many muffins can be worse for you than a donut as far as calories, fat and sugar are concerned!

These muffins were so perfect in my mind as I lay there trying to sleep, but unable to because of the NyQuil I knew I shouldn't have taken because it always keeps me up. Lucky me they turned out just as perfect the next morning.

Base muffin ingredients:

* 1 cup Oats
* 1/4 cup Almonds
* 1/4 cup Flax Seed Meal (ground flax)
* 1/4 cup flour
* 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
* 1/2 teaspoon Salt
* 3/4 cup Milk (1%)
* 1 Egg
* 1/4 cup Canola Oil
* 1/4 cup Applesauce, unsweetened
* 1 Banana (very ripe)
* 2 teaspoons Cinnamon

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 F and grease 24 mini muffin tins or 12 regular.

Mix oil, applesauce, banana, milk and egg in a large bowl.

Put dry ingredients in your food processor and grind to a fine powder.

Fold dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Fill muffin tins to the top with batter.

*For the regular muffin tins you can fill them half way, add some of the topping (I'll describe in a minute) and then top with remaining batter and topping. The nutrition information below is for the base muffin recipe (12 regular muffins) and does not include the toppings.

12 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		121.8
Total Fat		7.4 g
	Saturated Fat	0.9 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	2.6 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	4.0 g
Cholesterol		18.5 mg
Sodium		106.8 mg
Potassium		155.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate		15.9 g
	Dietary Fiber	2.8 g
	Sugars	2.6 g
Protein		3.2 g

Vitamin A	1.3 %
Vitamin B-12	1.8 %
Vitamin B-6	4.5 %
Vitamin C	1.8 %
Vitamin D	2.5 %
Vitamin E	8.2 %
Calcium	8.6 %
Copper	6.1 %
Folate	4.3 %
Iron	7.1 %
Magnesium	8.6 %
Manganese	39.6 %
Niacin	2.2 %
Pantothenic Acid	3.3 %
Phosphorus	12.1 %
Riboflavin	6.4 %
Selenium	4.1 %
Thiamin	9.0 %
Zinc	4.9 %

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

The toppings here are what make these muffins what they are. Think about what you like to top your oatmeal with and go from there. These are some of the toppings we tried:

Apple Cinnamon Brown Sugar:

1 Tablespoon butter (melted)
1 apple (chopped into small pieces)
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix melted butter into apples and cover well. Mix cinnamon and brown sugar together and then toss with apples.

Top each muffin with some goodness :)

Banana Brown sugar Cinnamon:

1 banana (sliced)
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix cinnamon and brown sugar together. Toss in banana slices and coat well.

Top each muffin with some goodness :) This was our favorite version.

Top with Blueberries as they are or any berries for that matter.

We also mixed in some dried cranberries with the apples.

Raisins and brown sugar would also be great!

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

The options are endless! What a fun way to eat your oatmeal in the morning or as a snack! Compared to the almost 450 calories and over 30 grams of sugar in a regular muffin these under 150 calorie with less than 2 grams of sugar muffins are the way to go. Thank you NyQuil.