Food!

I haven't posted any recipes in ages! So here's what I made today to take camping with the family...

My son, much to my chagrin, has a love affair with anything wrapped and packaged. I love to make things from scratch, and he turns his nose up at most of the food I slave to prepare for him. Frustrating! This is the latest in an ongoing attempt to create a bar that mimics the pre-packaged version he loves. If I was cooking for myself, I'd go with something a little healthier, but if these get him off the store bought stuff, I'm okay with them being a little sweet. :-)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars

1 cup rolled oats

1 ½ cups crispy brown rice cereal

¼ cup lightly salted peanuts, roughly chopped

a pinch of salt

½ cup creamy peanut butter

1/3 cup brown rice syrup

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon coconut oil                 

Line an 8” x 8” baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Pour oats, cereal, peanuts, and salt into a bowl and mix together.

In a small saucepan over very low heat, combine peanut butter and brown rice syrup. Remove from the stove and mix in vanilla.

Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir with a rubber spatula. Press mixture into prepared pan and allow bars to set in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Remove from refrigerator and cut into 12 bars.

Heat chocolate chips and coconut oil in microwave for 30 seconds (stir and add 15 second increments if needed), then drizzle over bars and refrigerate until set again.

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And next, a slightly modified version of a cookie from one of Dreena Burton's cookbooks... 

(I don't care what kind of photo staging/editing expert you may be; I challenge you to make oatmeal cookies look photogenic.)

The Very Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 ½ cups + 2 T. spelt flour

2 t. baking powder

½ t. baking soda

1 cup rolled oats

¼ cup unrefined sugar

½ cup raisins

1 t. cinnamon

a generous pinch of allspice

½ t. salt

½ cup maple syrup

1-2 t. blackstrap molasses

1 T. vanilla

½ cup canola oil (or substitute half applesauce)

Mix dry ingredients; add wet ingredients; bake on parchment lined cookie sheet for 11 minutes at 350 degrees.