"Granola" Bars!!

Today I made some grain-free granola bars! They turned out really yummy! I adapted my recipe from this recipe. This is the second time I have made them, the first time they fell apart, therefore they were just granola, not bars...

This time, I added some mashed banana and I put them in the fridge to harden. It seemed to work better, but some of the bars are still crumbly! I doubled the recipe, so I used a regular cake pan.

1 ¼ cup blanched almond flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 cup sucanat
1 T cinnomon
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 ripe banana, mashed 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup crushed walnuts
1/4 cup crushed pecans
1/4 cup dried blueberries
1/4 cup dried apples
1/4 cup dried cherries

In a small bowl, combine almond flour, salt and baking soda, cinnomon and sucanat
In a large bowl, combine coconut oil, vanilla, almond extract and banana
Stir dry ingredients into wet
Mix in coconut, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, pecans and dried fruit
Grease an 8x8 baking dish with coconut oil
Press the dough into the baking dish, wetting your hands with water to help pat the dough down evenly
Bake at 350° for 20 minutes
Serve

If your bar ends up falling apart like mine did, it is pretty tasty with some yogurt!!

Cooking Fun!

My friend Erin, asked that we share some of our cooking secrets (or not so secrets...). Play along on your own blog! The more the merrier!


1.) What is your favorite, go-to, never fail, use it all the time cookbook (or magazine)?

I really don't use one book or magazine all the time. I browse the internet and my books often for new ideas.

2.) Why?

I like to cook really easy, fast recipes. With Bobby, I don't have a lot of time to cook anymore. If I want something homemade, it needs to be quick and easy!



3.) Where do you keep your cookbooks/recipes?

I keep most of my books above my fridge, and all my recipes I use over and over again I keep in a recipe box on the counter.



4.) Do you menu plan? If so, what gets made every week?

I actually started to menu plan right before Erin posted about it. I am 2 weeks in, and so far I really like it! It has made me think more about adding new recipes to our list of favorites.
I don't know about every week, but we have a few recipes we like to eat often. That is one thing we definitely lack: variety. Some of our favorites are: Chili (it doesn't have to be winter for us!), fish and sweet potato fries, meatloaf...we are pretty simple. I hope to try 1 new recipe per week.

I Heart Sewing!!

Last weekend, I had a little sewing get together. I made some homemade blueberry muffins and coffee cake muffins, which turned out very yummy! My measuring spoons are in the shape of hearts, they say cute things like: a heap of laughter and a pinch of kindness. When I measured the brown sugar, it stayed in that shape when I dumped it in the bowl. Naturally, I took a picture! It was so cute, I thought it was perfect for Valentine's day!

I made the Frenchy bag, by Amy Buttler, for my friend, Karen. Thank goodness Julie was there, because the pattern was tricky at times!

Happy Valentine's Day!
Yummy treats!


Karen's surprise!

YUM-O!!

Being a semi-stay at home mommy, I get to catch myself up on all the daytime talk shows. For all you Houstonians out there, tomorrow on the Rachel Ray show, it is titled: The Brides of Harris County. She plans a HUGE wedding for brides who were not able to get married because of Hurricane Ike. The ceremony takes place at our very own Minute Maid Park!! How cool is that?

She also had a very yummy looking recipe on her show today: Pumpkin pudding. It looked soo good! Perfect for Thanksgiving!

Homemade Soup!!

Who needs a recipe? Not me! I was at Whole Foods the other day, and I ate some of their Tomato Basil Soup. It was very tasty. When I looked at the ingredients it said: tomato, tomato sauce, water, onion, garlic, olive oil, basil....that's it? 'I can do that' ! So last night I attempted to make the yummy soup. It came out pretty good. I might add more basil next time. Don't ask what measurements I used, because I don't know! I just started adding everything and tasting.

MMM...Can't wait to eat the leftovers!

Surprise! Tasty 'healthier' cupcakes !

I say 'healthier' cupcakes, because, can a cupcake really be healthy? Probably not. But we did find a really yummy recipe from this awesome food blog that has all kinds of recipes that are gluten free, and grain free. We couldn't decide which recipe to make, there were so many! We went with the one that we had the most ingredients for. Vanilla cupcakes with coconut cream frosting. The cupcakes have no flour in them, instead we used coconut flour (but they don't taste like coconut). The icing has coconut milk and agave nectar, which is a great way to sweeten things with out using sugar or artificial sweeteners. While they were delicious, the frosting was a little too sweet for us, so we probably will tweek it next time, or try her chocolate icing recipe instead. MMMM......

So we made a yummy dessert, and rented Penelope, which is a super cute movie, with my favorite actor of the moment, James Mc Avoy. What a great way to spend the evening!

Summer Time Popsickle!

MMMM---MMMM Good!!

Check out my yummy popsickle recipe! A healthier alternative to sugar filled treats!!

To Taste:
Pineapple
Strawberries
Coconut Milk
Ice

Blend together until smooth, place into popsickle tray, and freeze!!
Enjoy!

Sorry about all the controversy over a hair cut!! :) The final decision(if anyone wants to know) is that I will grow my hair out and then cut it, so I can donate it.

I made some little pin cushions for my friends!! They turned out really cute. I brought them to a sewing party I went to. You can read more about it on Mel's blog or Casey's blog. Everyone really like them, and we had a great time!!

Rob and I went to a Super Bowl party yesterday at our friend Ernie's house. It was a lot of fun! I made my first cheese roll/log and I shaped it into a football!! YUM-O!

Christmas 2007

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Rob and I went to Laredo to visit his family. It was my first Christmas away from home, and I really missed my family, especially on Christmas morning, but I still had a really good time. We got to stay for 5 days, which is longer than we can normally stay. All of Rob's siblings were in town, so it was a full house! We watched movies, went Christmas shopping, ate lots of good food, wrapped gifts, baked, and ate some more! Becky, an aspiring pastry chef, and I baked some yummy Christmas goodies. I made a Christmas tree chocolate chip cookie cake, and Becky made a white cake with a tree on top and made it look pretty it with her cake decorating skills!

Christmas cookie cake-- yum!

Rebecca and Abby all dressed up!

Cookies and Holiday parties!

I am cookied out!! Casey and I went to a holiday cookie swap at our friend Rebecca's home to hang out with some friends from high school. Good times! I spent the night at Casey's house and we stayed up way to late to make our cookies, but it was still fun. I made some Ginger cookies and packaged them in cute green bags. They were really good! I got the recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I always am looking for new recipes online, and I constantly forget how many cookbooks I have, so I figured it was time to give one of those recipes a try. Good call on my part, because they sure were yummy!


I also needed to make cookies for our Christmas party in our Bible Study Methods class that Rob and I are taking at CBS (College of Biblical Studies). I found this recipe in the Family Circle magazine that we get at work. It was super easy. I made Pecan Dippers, which basically are sugar cookies with pecans dipped in chocolate, then sprinkled with more pecans. mmmm...

This weekend, I have 5, yes 5 Christmas parties that I was invited to. I can only make it to 4, though, there is just not enough time in the weekend!! I also have 2 more to go to next week. Then I think that is enough partying for me! I am already tired just thinking about it. After tomorrow, I will only have one more gift to get, then I just need to finish some of my handmade gifts (i can't show them yet!!) and then I am DONE!! Phew!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

YUM-O!!

I love broccoli cheese soup, and have been trying recipes to find the perfect homemade recipe, with no success...until today! My friend, Crystal, at work gave me her dad's recipe, and I gotta say, folks, it is pretty darn good! In the words of Rachel Ray, YUM-O!! I added cauliflower also, just to see what it tastes like. Enjoy!




Recipe:
3 Tbl. Butter (I used extra virgin olive oil)
1/4 c onion chopped
Saute

Add:
1 can cream of celery (15 oz)
1 can chicken broth (15 oz)
1 c milk
1 lb velveeta
1 lb broccoli steamed (make sure you remember to steam, i forgot, and it was a little crunchy)

Cook on LOW until cheese is melted. If it is too high, the cheese will start to separate.

Lean, mean, cook'n machine!

If you think I have been cooking a lot lately, wait until you hear what Rob has been cooking! He has really started to cook a lot. Some of the things he has tried, are: homemade salsa (spicy!), homemade wheat free blueberry muffins and huevos a la mexicana, just to name a few. Next on the list? Homemade apple sauce! He is turning into a really great cook! But, while I like to find new recipes, he makes most of his creations up as he goes.


Blueberry muffins!

Slow Cookin'

I registered for a crock pot when we got married, but I have never used it!! So yesterday I cooked our very first meal with the crock pot! whoo hoo! It was really good and super easy! I got the recipe from my Kraft Food & Family magazine, it is called Slow-Cooker Tex Mex Chicken. MMMM!

MMMMM!!!

I have been baking a lot lately!! I baked this really yummy cake for my community group, and it was a hit! I found it in my Kraft Foods magazine that I get in the mail. It is called Banana-Sour Cream Cake. My grandma makes a similar one, so I thought I would try it. It doesn't taste quite like my grandma's but it is pretty close! Click on Kraft Foods to get the recipe!!
Tomorrow I am going to a brunch at my friend Casi's house, so I made some Pumpkin muffins!! MM, MM, good! I love pumpkin bread, but since it is a brunch, I made them into muffins, I had enough batter to make 18 muffins, 1 mini loaf, and 1 large loaf. Normally I save this recipe for the fall, but, hey, fall is almost here, right? I got the recipe from All Recipes website.