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Granola Bars v2

I posted this granola bar photo elsewhere and a few people asked for the recipe. Here’s my version, based heavily on the one from blessthismessplease.com

The original recipe called for using butter, and I tried to replace it with peanut butter to make them vegan for my vegan crew. (I left the chocolate chips out, of course.) They worked, so I stuck with using peanut butter instead of butter, and added the chocolate chip back in (making the “non-vegan” version.)

Sp if I make them for Dana and myself the chocolate chips go in and they are not vegan. If I make them for my daughter, I skip the chocolate chips, and they are still quite delicious. Dana says the chocolate chips add just the right about of sweet to the saltiness you get from the peanut butter, peanuts, and salt. So leave them out for vegans, or add them in for non-vegans.

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup nuts, roughly chopped (peanuts, cashews, pistachios, whatever)
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 Tbsp molasses
  • 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3/4 cup shredded coconut
  • 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch square baking dish with parchment and lightly spray with cooking spray.
  2. Place the oats and chopped nuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly toasted.
  3. Add the honey, peanut butter, molasses, and brown sugar to a saucepan. Cook over low to medium heat until the peanut butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Stir constantly. Let the mixture bubble while stirring for 1 minute and then remove from the heat.
  4. Place the nuts and oats in a large bowl. (We’ll be adding in the liquid when it’s ready.)
  5. Stir in the vanilla and salt to the liquid mixture. Pour this mixture over the oat and nut mixture and stir to combine with a rubber spatula. Add the shredded coconut (except for chocolate chips) and stir to combine. Stir it up good! Make sure none of the oats are dry.
  6. If you are adding chocolate chips, wait about 15 minutes for the mixture to cool a bit before adding the chocolate and then stirring to combine. (Otherwise they get all melty!)
  7. Place all of the mixture in the 9-inch square baking pan. Press it all down good! I use another piece of parchment paper to get it nice and pressed. The more compressed you can get it, the less chance they’ll fall apart after cooled.
  8. Toss it in the fridge and wait at least two hours. Lift the bars from the pan using the edges of the parchment and place them on a cutting board. Cut ’em up!
  9. Enjoy!

The original recipe calls for storing them in the fridge, I think because of the butter. I don’t know if these need to be stored chilled. I usually keep a few in my desk at work, but I tend to finish off a batch in about a week, so they aren’t around that long.

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Tofu Recipe (Sort of…)

This is sort of a recipe. It’s pretty loose, but someone asked for it, so I’m gonna write it up.

I got a block of tofu at the store. Probably firm, or extra firm. I don’t remember.

I took it out of the refrigerator, opened it up, drained the water, and then put a towel on the counter, put paper towel on top of it, then put the tofu down, added more paper towel on top of it, and then put weight on it to press it down to drain more water.

I grabbed our toaster oven pan and put it on top of the tofu, then put our tea kettle on top of that since it had some water in it and a little bit of weight. You can use plates, but sometimes the tofu causes things on top to slide off, so… whatever works for you. Let that sit for a bit… maybe an hour? I probably forgot about it.

Remove the weight, get rid of the wet paper towel, the wet tea towel, and all the jazz. Then cut the tofu into pieces. What size? I don’t know… look at the photo I guess. Not too large, but not too small. (More on that later.)

Next I got a big plastic Tupperware-style container, large enough to lay all the pieces into without stacking them. Before I put the pieces in I added soy sauce, some sesame oil, a little bit of rice vinegar, then more soy sauce…

Next came the spices… Here’s a few I remember: smoked paprika, cayenne, chili powder, garlic powder, pepper, and… whatever else I had that seemed like it would fit. Dump a bunch into that soy sauce mix and swirl it around.

Put the tofu pieces into the container, flip them until all sides can soak up the liquid, then sprinkle more spices on the top and stick it in the refrigerator. Come back an hour or more later when you remember you forgot about it. It can sit a long time… whatever.

Now get some corn starch and dump a bunch on a plate. (That shit is messy! It goes everywhere!) Okay, take the tofu pieces out and roll them in the corn starch, covering each side, nice and thick is good. It’ll absorb into the tofu, that’s cool.

Do one piece, put it on a clean plate, surface, whatever, and then do the next, and do them all. Cool.

Once you’ve got them all done, put some oil in a big frying pan. I used olive oil, but use whatever you like/got. Heat that oil and put the tofu pieces in!

Use some tongs, but be careful not to tear the pieces, and check them for crispy done-ness on the bottom, then flip and do the other sides. If you use enough oil you can probably just do the top and bottom, otherwise do the sides as well. They should look browned and crispy, but not burned. Unless you like burned food, like Milt does. (Or did. I don’t know.)

When done take each piece out of the pan and place on new clean paper towel. Once you have them all on paper towel put more paper towel on top and blot out a bunch of oil. Sometimes it’ll stick to the paper towel so be watch out for that. Just press lightly I guess.

Enjoy!

Oh, the size of the pieces… if you make them too large, you don’t get enough crispy outside part and you get too much inside part per piece. If you do them too small it’s a pain to coat them, fry them, etc… So pick a good middle group.

Sorry kids, this is the best I can do for a recipe… at least you didn’t have to read about how I’m a busy (cat) mom on the go who is always trying new recipes. Apologies for constantly switching tense between past and present whatever. Hopefully Dana won’t read this.

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Pizza Dough

This is a recipe for pizza dough. Sorry, no story.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups water, warmed to 110° F
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • Every seasoning you have

Directions

  1. Combine water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl… Let sit for 5 minutes
  2. In a large bowl put the flour, salt, and every seasoning you have in the cabinet that makes sense to add to a pizza
  3. Stir in the water/year/sugar mix… I use a KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook, though you can knead by hand if that’s your style
  4. Mix that shit for a while, like maybe 10 minutes? When done, knead by hand a bit in the bowl… add a little bit of flour if it’s too sticky
  5. Take dough out of bowl, put olive oil in bowl, coat the sides, drop your dough in the bowl, coat the dough with olive oil
  6. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then with a wet kitchen towel
  7. Put in the proving drawer for about 75 minutes (No proving drawer? Put it in a warm place I guess, you can prove in the oven if needed)
  8. Dough should double in size after 75 minutes or so… you can then shape it by hand on a pan and make a pizza, or you can parbake it for around 5 minutes at 475 F and freeze it for later

Oh yeah, this makes two crusts, or one giant crust. You can obviously make the crust as thick or thin as you want… but I make two medium thickness crusts with this recipe.

Enjoy, Champions!

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Roasted Garlic Asiago Dip

Roasted Garlic Asiago Dip

Ingredients

  • 1 head garlic
  • 16 ounces cream cheese
  • 2 cups shredded asiago cheese
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Cut the garlic head in half along the “equator” (with root and stem ends representing the poles).
  3. Place the garlic, cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet and roast uncovered 40 to 45 minutes or until tender. (This is the hardest part!)
  4. To remove the garlic, turn heads upside down and gently squeeze the garlic out of the skins.
  5. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
  6. With a food processor or electric mixer, blend cream cheese, Asiago cheese, heavy cream, and sour cream until well-blended, add garlic and blend again.
  7. Place mixture into a casserole or baking dish and top with shredded mozzarella.
  8. Bake about 20 minutes until golden brown on top.
  9. Serve with firm crusty bread, crackers, pita bread, or whatever.

I’m expected to make this every Thanksgiving, and now the family wants it on Christmas as well. I’m pretty sure it’s the only reason I get invited… Anyway, here’s the recipe, so now you can make it yourself and I don’t even have to show up!

But seriously folks, after it shows up, this stuff is gone in like 10 minutes, and people who miss out on it are sad and have even been known to cry. So don’t ruin the day, make your own Roasted Garlic Asiago Dip and be the Hero of the Holidays!

(Sorry I couldn’t get a photo of the final product, but I needed to get this published to fulfill some promises… Enjoy!)

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Still got some pumpkin? Already made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies? Well, I’ve got another recipe for you… Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup plain canned pumpkin
  • 1/2 cup melted butter
  • 6 ounces chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin papers.
  3. Thoroughly mix flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
  4. Break eggs into another bowl.
  5. Add pumpkin and butter to eggs and whisk until well-blended.
  6. Stir in chocolate chips.
  7. Pour over dry ingredients and fold in just until moistened.
  8. Scoop into tins and bake 20-25 minutes.

I use silicone muffin pans and canola spray, and I tend to add the dry ingredients to the moist stuff, which is backwards, but still seems to work fine. I also tend to freeze most of them, which works well when you’re running out the door and need something for lunch (or a mid-morning snack) as they defrost over the course of a few hours and are ready to eat.

It should go without saying that you should use raw sugar (not processed!) and unbleached flour (not “enriched” or bleached!) and any other more natural/organic materials you can find. But it doesn’t. So I’m saying it.

Enjoy!