Healthy and Easy Granola Bar Recipe

 The current political climate is really stressing me out. Two things that help me with stress relief are working out and baking. The thought of a Donald Trump presidency has recently given me visible arm muscles, increased my running speed, and has brought you this granola bar recipe.

Some mornings it feels really impossible to get all of the kids ready, out the door, and arrive at Pearl's pre-school on time. Granola bars are perfect for a quick on-the-go breakfast to help speed up the morning process. I have had a difficult time finding store bought ones though that are both healthy and don't cost a fortune. I set out one week to find a recipe that would fit this criteria to make our mornings less stressful. I couldn't find a single recipe that involved an amount of sugar that I was comfortable with so I decided to make my own. The first batch turned out decently, but with a few more rounds and modifications under my belt, I have finally come up with a healthy recipe that my kids like. It's also super easy!

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup sliced almonds (or other nuts)

1/2 cup flaxseed meal

1 ripe banana (mashed)

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

Directions:

Put rolled oats, almonds, and flaxseed meal in a large bowl and set aside. Line an 8x8 square baking dish with parchment paper and set aside.

Bring mashed banana and honey to a boil in a sauce pan over med-high heat. Let it boil for just one minute. Quickly remove from the heat, add peanut butter and vanilla, then stir until combined.

Pour the contents of the sauce pan into the large bowl of oats and other ingredients. Mix until well combined. Add your chocolate chips if using and mix them in as well. Pour this mixture into the lined 8x8 dish. Press it all down firmly and evenly into your dish. Sprinkle the sea salt over the top and press down once more. Put the dish in the freezer for a couple of hours, then cut to your preferred size and enjoy!

This granola bar recipe is gluten free and can be easily modified to work for our vegan friends. You just need to substitute maple syrup for the honey. If you don't have sliced almonds or other nuts, just increase your oats to 4 cups and they will still turn out great. I have used both natural organic peanut butter as well as Skippy and both worked just fine. I'm sure most nut butters would work here if you need to replace peanut butter for something else. I store mine in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Here's to stress free mornings and stress reducing hobbies as well :)

-Kira

Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

We love chocolate chip cookies.  That's kind of a funny thing to point out though because really, who doesn't?  I have tried quite a few recipes online.  In fact, I've never made the same recipe twice.  Everybody seems to claim that their cookies are "the best."  I'm not crazy or super confident though.  I'm sure there are better cookies out there than these, but they are the best I have ever made so I thought I would share.
I saw this ingredient chart going around Pinterest so it gave me the idea to come up with my own recipe based on the kind of cookies we prefer.  I am no baking expert so I checked a few recipes for ideas on proportions/temperature/baking time to make sure I didn't completely mess anything up.  It was mostly an experiment and at the end I just wanted to have decently edible cookies.  These blew away those expectations.  This is probably my biggest baking success to date.

These cookies are chewy, but not too thick or cakey.  They are also a little bit crisp around the edges.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup salted butter

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup chocolate chips (this is just a guide, I just dump them in until I'm happy. 
So, probably more than 1 cup then.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly grease your cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, mix your softened butter, brown sugar, salt, and baking soda together.  Then add the egg and vanilla.  Add both kinds of flour next.  Then just go crazy with those chocolate chips.  Make sure it's all mixed well.

Scoop the dough out onto your cookie sheet into ping pong sized balls.  Then pop those babies into the oven for 10-12 minutes.  This should make around 18 cookies.

If you want to continue following my directions, you then eat 12 of those 18 cookies over the course of the next two days.  Save six for your family.

I'm kind of on a roll this week.  I made these cookies, our go to "healthy" muffins, and purchased the ingredients today to make homemade Larabars.  Go me!

-Kira

Healthy Banana Muffins - Perfect for Toddlers!

Those of you who know me well are thinking...

Kira is posting a recipe?!

Yes I am.

There is a first time for everything.

I'm generally pretty pathetic in the kitchen, but since Pearl started eating solids, I have tried to improve for her sake.  We always have bananas in the house and none of us like to eat them once they start to go brown.  I sometimes add them to smoothies for me and Pearl, but we always end up with ripe bananas that don't get used.  I have been making these banana muffins over the last few months with our extra ripe bananas.  Pearl loves them, Jeremy takes them in his lunches for work, and I have found them to be a suitable treat to replace the unhealthy stuff I generally go for.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup flaxseed meal

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 eggs

Semi-sweet chocolate chips...I just dump them in until I'm satisfied with the amount. (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly grease your muffin pan.

2. Combine dry ingredients in one large bowl.  Mix bananas, honey, applesauce, and eggs in a second bowl.  Then stir your wet ingredients into the dry.

3. Fill your muffin cups 3/4 full.  I generally do half without chocolate chips for Pearl and then mix the chocolate in for the remaining muffins.

4. Bake for 18-22 minutes.  This should make about 18 muffins.

The muffin recipe has been adapted from this banana bread recipe.

-Kira