Sweet Potato Fries

My kids and husband WILL eat sweet potatoes this way and no other way....I love them like this too.

Peel and slice sweet potatoes. Steam till crisp tender. Toss with olive oil, garlic, and salt. Put under broiler till browned. Serve with fry sauce.

Fry Sauce:
mayo and ketchup mixed together.

Featured Product- Mini Peppers

These mini peppers are so sweet you can eat them right out of the bag for a snack. I haven't found these organic anywhere yet so I buy the bag at Costco. Oh, I guess this makes this a "Costco Finds" post as well...I haven't done one of those in a long time either!

Anyway, back to the peppers. They are great dipped in your favorite veggie dip or homemade dressing. My daughter loves to eat these as well and since I'm always trying to get my kids to eat veggies and fruit for snacks, this one is a winner!

Chewy Granola Bars

I've been searching and working to perfect a granola bar recipe that is chewy and healthy all at the same time. I have made so many batches I think my family might be tired of my failed granola bar recipes. But alas, I have finally created one that I'm happy with.

4 c oats
2/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c honey
4 tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Toast the oats on a cookie sheet @ 400 degrees (for about 10 min.) while mixing together the remaining ingredients in a sauce pan. Heat over medium heat till bubbly and thin. Butter a 9x13 glass pan. Remove oats from oven and pour into a mixing bowl. Pour honey mixture over the oats and mix well till all the oats are coated. Pour into the 9x13 and cover with wax paper or parchment paper. Use a spatula or the back of a measuring cup to press the mixture down and spread it evenly. Let cool for 2-3 hours until there is no warmth to the pan. Remove the bars carefully by inverting the pan onto a cutting board. Cut the bars with a butcher knife and either wrap individually or store between layers of wax paper in an air tight container.

If you'd like to add some mix-ins you can do so the following way:

Chocolate Chip - add 1/2 cup of mini chips to the above recipe. Add the chips when mixing the oats and honey together.

Peanut - add 1 cup of crushed peanuts and use only 3 cups of oats. Toast the peanuts with the oats.

Oatmeal Raisins - add 1/2 cup of raisins to the above recipe and 1 tsp cinnamon when mixing the oats and honey together.

Health Nut - add 3/4 c wheat germ, 3/4 c sunflower seeds, 1 cup of crushed peanuts, reduce oats to 2 cups and toast with the oats and then add 8oz. dried fruit when mixing the oats and honey together.

Fruity - add 1 cup dried fruit to the above recipe when mixing the oats and honey together.

Homemade Almond Granola

I'm making this today and I updated the recipe a little so I wanted to re-post it for you.

This is really good and my family loves it. It's usually gone in about two days. It's great served as cereal, sprinkled on yogurt, or as a plain snack. You can also mix it into your own trail mix if you'd like to.

4 cups old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup saffola or olive oil

1/2 cup honey

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

optional 1 1/2 cups total of any dried fruit

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 F. In a bowl mix the oats, almonds, salt and cinnamon. In a saucepan warm the oil and honey. Whisk in vanilla. Carefully pour the liquid over the oat mixture. Stir gently with a wooden spoon; finish mixing by hand. Spread granola cookie sheet. Bake 40 minutes, stirring carefully every 10 minutes. I like ours a to be clumpy so I don't stir it until after it's cooled completely. Let it cool complete. It will have hardened so now you can scrap it with a spoon. Stir in dried fruit. Seal

granola in an airtight container or self-sealing plastic bag. Store at room temperature for 1 week or in the freezer for 3 months.

Variations ~
-try adding 1 tsp almond extract for an extra almond taste
-use different types of nuts
-use raisins, cranberries, blueberries, etc.

Edible Play Clay

My daughter begs me almost daily if she can bake something. She really just wants to mix dough and roll it out and cut it into shapes. AND nibble on the dough. This homemade play clay is not only incredibly fun and easy to make but it's edible (and HEALTHY) so your little ones can pretend bake and nibble away. You can store it in a container in the fridge for a few days and take it back out and let it sit at room temperature till softened.

This recipe provides hours of entertainment at our house.

1/2 c smooth peanut butter (I use Costco's organic PB)

1/4 c honey (I use Fit To Eat brand, non-pasteurized)

1/4 c unbleached flour plus a few tbsps extra as needed (I use white organic flour)

Mix together the above until crumbly like in picture adding 1 tbsp at a time of extra flour to get the right consistency. Then knead it till smooth.

Snowflakes

My daughter insisted that I put this recipe on my blog for her. We checked out some fairy cookbooks from the library and decided to make this recipe on our vacation this summer. Even though it was summer, she wanted to make snowflakes! She loves snow and loves winter which is the opposite of me...I love summer and heat. Now that we are headed into winter soon, I thought I'd go ahead and post it.

Directions:

Fold flour tortillas in half and then half again. Trim with scissors like you would making paper snowflakes. Open back up and lay on a cookie sheet covered with foil. Brush with butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixed together. Bake till just crispy. Let cool. Lightly dust with powdered sugar.

95 Theses Nut Bars

For Reformation Day today, my kids and I baked this nutty bars recipe into the shape of 95s in honor of Martin Luther's 95 Theses that he nailed on the door on October 31st, 1517. These are not only VERY healthy but yummy too! My kiddos opted to leave the nuts off.

2 sticks of softened butter (1 cup)
1 c honey
2 c whole wheat flour
2 c wheat germ
chopped nuts (optional)

Mix together till it forms a sticky dough. Turn out onto a well floured counter. Using extra flour and a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1 inch thick. Use floured cookie cutters to cut shapes. Or you can let the kids shape it with their hands into their own shapes. You can also just bake it as one flat rectangle and then cut it in bars after it cools. Sprinkle with chopped nuts before baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 min.

Happy Reformation Day!

Fried Zucchini

Just trying to use up all the garden produce still.....I love fried zucchini. Yum. So I figured I could give it a whirl. It went something like this:

1 c bread crumbs (plain or Italian style- if using plain then add 1 tsp Italian seasoning)
1 tsp garlic (mixed into the bread crumbs)
vegetable oil
eggs beaten

I washed and cut the zucchini into spears. Dipped the zucchini into the egg then into the bread crumb mixture. Into the skillet with the veggie oil they went until they were crisp-tender (I believe is the trendy term). These are piping hot so let them cool before dipping them in, yes, you guessed it, ranch dressing. My friends who know me well know that just about everything in our gets dipped in ranch dressing.

The breading didn't stick so well so maybe doing the traditional breading style would work...the one where you put it in flour, then egg, then the bread crumbs.

note- other than the zucchini these probably aren't very healthy so if you're dieting, you probably don't want to make these!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

With a few cooler days around here I'm getting that Fall feeling even though I haven't done nearly as much summer cooking as I had hoped. So the other day I decided to try out another version of the this eggless chocolate cake recipe. Instead of Devil's Food Cake mix, you use Spice Cake mix. Once again, I'm totally impressed.

1 box spice cake mix (I use Better Crocker)

(do not add any of the ingredients on the box.)

1 14 oz can of pumpkin or 1/2 of a 28 oz can (can NOT be pumpkin pie filling...just pure pumpkin)

Mix together and bake at 350 degrees for about 35 min. or until centers come out clean with a cake tester.

Notes: These were SO yummy that they could easily stand up to any complex pumpkin spice cake recipe. They were super moist too.

Try sprinkling with a bit of powdered sugar for presentation.

WW points (2 points per muffin) for all those keeping track.

Homemade Organic Yogurt

I have been wanting to make my own organic yogurt for some time now since our family loves yogurt and organic yogurt is expensive. (Not to mention it's just another way to cut out the store varieties that are filled with high fructose corn syrup and lovely things like that.) Nothing artificial about this one! So, I attempted it this week and it turned out well! =0) I bought a yogurt machine which isn't as "from scratch" as some but since I was wanting to make it quite regularly I thought it might be the way to go instead of having an ice chest underfoot in my kitchen all the time. Remember, I like healthy and homemade but I'm also all about easy and convenient! =0) If you want to do it the hard way, click here.

Here's the recipe I used:

4 c milk (I used pasteurized organic whole milk-if it's not pasteurized you'll need to bring it to a boil first. Because I used whole milk it came out very thick and rich (similar to yoplait's custard brand)....but if you use low fat milk you may need to add some other things in which you might want to read this guide about making yogurt.)
1/4 c organic sugar (evaporated cane juice or rapadura but NOT refined sugar)
1 tsp vanilla (optional)

1/2 c plain yogurt (I used organic plain yogurt- it must be plain or it won't work-this is your "starter" for bacteria-it must be as fresh as possible and you can make a lot of batches at once using most of the carton. I plan on using some of the rest of the carton for frozen yogurt...post to come)

Heat the milk, sugar, and vanilla to about 170 degrees on the stove (just before a boil). Let sit and cool to around 90-110 degrees. (You'll need a thermometer.) Mix 1/2 c yogurt into the milk and pour into glass jars. Plug in machine and let sit for 8 hours (all machines vary so follow directions of your machine). If you let it sit too long it will become tart. Remove from machine and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least an hour before consuming.

You can make it into frozen yogurt, you can serve it with berries, granola, sliced fruit, etc.

Tip: I start this process in the morning because although easy, it is time consuming. Heating the milk takes about 15 min. Letting it cool takes about an hour to an hour and a half. Plus the 7 hours for cooking...then cooling takes another hour. Then an hour to refrigerate...which I just leave it till morning and we have it at breakfast.

Oh, and where did I get my yogurt maker? I knew you were going to ask that.....beat you to it. Walmart.com. But I won't tell you anything more about it cause it's my Favorite Gadget Thingy of the month for September....so simmer down and have patience. =0)

Layered Bean Dip

Have you made layered bean dip lately? One of my favorite summer things...yum.

I use:

vegetarian refried beans

guacamole or mashed fresh avocados

sour cream (I always use Daisy cause it doesn't have other stuff in it)

Mexican style shredded cheese

salsa or fresh chopped pico de gallo

olives

chopped cilantro

tips:

~if you want it hotter you can add a minced (seeded) serrano chili.

~sprinkle the bean layer with some garlic powder for an added flavor

~squeeze fresh lime juice over the top for a citrus zing

Blueberry Peach Yogurt Smoothie

Man, this was good! Pretty darn healthy too!


2 oz peach yogurt
1 cup frozen blueberries
juice (apple works fine but just about any kind will work...I used grape cause I had it on hand)

Blend yogurt, blueberries, and just enough juice together so that it will blend smoothly.

Healthy Cookie

1 cup butter, melted

¾ cup honey

2 eggs

1 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. baking soda

1 t. vanilla

½ cup buttermilk or milk

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 cups whole rolled oats

1/2 cup raisins or chocolate chips

Mix butter, honey, eggs, salt, cinnamon, soda, vanilla and buttermilk. Stir in flour and oats. Fold in raisins or chocolate chips. Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Allow cookies to cool 3-4 minutes on cookie sheet before removing cookies to cool on a wire rack.

Variations~

~don't have buttermilk? Mix 1/2 cup milk with 1/2 tbsp lemon juice. Let sit for about 5 min. then use.

~omit raisins or chocolate chips.

~add 1 cup of chocolate chips to make it sweeter.

~butter a glass 9x13 pan and smooth batter into pan. Bake till center comes out clean. Once cooled, cut into bars.

~you can freeze the cookies or bars for easy snack on the go or breakfast on the go.

Fruit Oatmeal Bars

These make either a great brunch cake, a fabulous tea treat, an extra scrumptious granola bar, or a pretty healthy (pretend there isn't so much butter in it) dessert with ice cream. Talk about a versatile recipe!

It was requested that I put this recipe on here after I served it to a dear friend the other day! =0) So here ya go.....

3 c whole wheat pastry flour

3 c old fashioned oats

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 c packed brown sugar

3 sticks refrigerated butter, cut into pieces

2 10 ounce jars Smuckers Simply Fruit jam

Mix all ingredients except jam. I used a pastry cutter to cut the butter in and then used my hands to blend it together well till it was crumbly. You could also try putting it in your mixer and it would probably work well. Press one half of the mixture into a buttered 9x13 glass pan. Spread with a jam. Sprinkle second half of mixture over the top and pat lightly. Bake at 350 for 30 - 40 minutes or until light brown. Cool completely (refrigerating works best), then cut into squares.

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Variations~

-you can cut this recipe in half and make in an 8 in. square pan.

-try different jams...in the pictures we used strawberry but you can make them apricot, blueberry, or blackberry....they are all fabulous!