Homemade Granola Bars

OK, my kids don't love these, but I do! And maybe yours will like them. We eat so many "snackie" foods around here, that I thought these would be perfect. Plus, you can use leftover cereal, and throw together all variety of ingredients. Beware: If your peanut butter has any sugar in it, or if your cereal has any sweet pieces of fruit, these could come out rather on the sweet side with the amount of suggested honey. Adjust accordingly! I have to keep mine in the fridge or they crumble too easily.

Peanut Butter Granola Bars

1/2 cup of honey

2/3 cup of peanut butter

1 cup of oats

2 cups of rice krispy cereal

raisins (however many you desire)

( I finely chopped a 1/2 cup of trail mix... yum! the nuts and hint of chocolate you can't go wrong with!)

Put the honey in a medium size pot and put it on low heat. Stir constantly. You want it to thin out and be melty but not to boil. When it gets to that point you can add in the peanut butter. Stir this until it gets really smooth. At that point turn of the heat and stir in your oats and rice cereal. Add the raisins or whatever dried fruit you would like. After everything is stirred together, lay out some parchment paper, dump everything out and form into a square. Let them harden up a little bit, cut them, put them in a storage container and put them in the refrigerator.

"Fruit on a stick"

I feel a bit lame posting this, since it's probably the most obvious, non-cooking recipe ever invented. But it satisfies my kids' culinary and creative needs, so perhaps it could be useful to share.

If the name doesn't give the game away, it's, well, fruit on a skewer, or as my daughter prefers to call it, 'fwoot on a stick'. My kids don't have any problem eating fruit, so I must have been in one of those desiring-extra-work-for-myself moods when I came up with this one, because it's a pretty constant demand now on the snack list. Thankfully, getting it onto the skewer only takes about a minute, so no biggie.





As for ingredients, you need a bamboo skewer and, well, whatever fruit you think you can get onto the skewer. I've used apples, oranges, mandarins, grapes, various berries (strawberries are especially great for their bright colour), pineapple, banana, kiwi fruit, pear... I did manage to get lychee on there once but only by peeling it really carefully so as to minimise tears in the flesh. Basically anything solid enough and able to be easily cut into rough cube shapes will work. I sometimes add a few cubes of cheese as well.




I haven't branched out beyond fruit, but have a feeling certain vegetables could be successful - perhaps some blanched carrot, fresh peas, cooked pumpkin cubes, leafy greens, steamed zucchini, cooked potato... As I see it, the biggest draw-back to using veggies is the fact you'd have to cook a lot of them in order for them to be edible and/or soft enough to get onto the stick, which brings them from the realm of quick snack and into the proper meal category. But for a creative twist on left-overs, might just be a hit. Will let you know...

Fruit Popsicles

When your strawberries haven't gone bad, but are a bit too shriveled to eat by themselves, make popsicles!!!

Shout Out

A "Shout Out" for Jenny's post on Sausage & Veggie rolls. They are sooooo easy and you can literally use anything you have on hand. Great for a potluck or playdate. I just made a mixture in the food processor, and they turned out super yummy!

Cooked potatoes
1/4 of a bag of defrosted sweet potato fries
1/2 of a bag of defrosted turkey meatballs from TJ's
a few scoops of spaghetti sauce
1 egg
1 pkg. Puff Pastry

Sausage & Veggie Rolls

Ok, so this one is a bit Australian, but works really well with kids who are fussy on veggies. We usually serve sausage rolls as party food for kids' parties, but there's no reason to save them for special occasions. The sausage part is freezeable, so you can over-cater and enjoy a cooking-free evening sometime in the future (shucks!).

I don't believe I've seen these in the U.S., but who knows, they might be lurking somewhere, so apologies if this is the most obvious recipe ever. I enjoy making my own - basically so I know what's gone into them (the word sausage does not inspire confidence) but also because I can load them with veggies, something my three and a half year old is happy to eat when she can pretend they're not there.

The other great thing about them is that they require left over veggies that were tomorrow's trash candidates, making them pretty economical too. So here goes. (and sorry, the picture's not mine, I just thought it might clarify my rather lame description below).



Ingredients:

• About a pound of ground meat (beef, chicken, turkey, lamb)



• About 2 cups of whatever veggies you have in the fridge that can be grated/minced - sweet potato, garlic, zucchini (not too much or the rolls get soggy), butternut squash, carrot, potato, mushrooms...



• 1 onion



• 2 Tbsp tomato paste (ketchup also works in a pinch)



• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs



• about teaspoon or so of dried herbs - I usually use thyme, but oregano, rosemary, sage, whatever would work to give a little flavor.



• 1 egg



• a couple (3 usually works for me) of sheets of puff pastry, defrosted

Method:

1. Grate all the veggies as finely as possible; and grate or dice the onion as finely as possible. A food processor is a huge time (and knuckle) saver here.



2. Mix the veggies well with the meat, breadcrumbs, tomato paste and dried herbs.



3. Cut your puff pastry into half (it comes in squares here approx. 10x10 inches - I have no idea what size you get in the US, but you need a rectangle.



4. Roll the sausage mixture into logs the length of the long side of your rectangle. Place the log into the middle of the rectangle and wrap the pastry to enclose the sausage, then brush with lightly beaten egg. Cut sausage rolls into desired lengths.



5. Cook at about 400F (200C) on a tray lined with baking paper until golden brown, approx. 20-30 minutes. Serve while hot with tomato ketchup for dipping.

Freezing:
You can freeze these at the 'sausage' stage. I like to roll the sausages into logs so they're ready to defrost and pop into the pastry, but you could also freeze it as a big chunk and roll on defrosting. Seal in snaplock bags and store for up to 2 months in the freezer.


Variations:
I'm guessing you could also substitute starchy veggies for the meat for a vegetarian version, though I haven't tried it yet. You just need something to hold it all together.


You can also omit the pastry and just make little sausages, which is good for really little eaters, though it's a bit trickier to keep it all together while cooking.


If you're making these for guests or a party, sprinkle some sesame seeds, cumin seeds, or poppy seeds on top after brushing with egg and before baking.

Breakfast Playdate

I made these for a breakfast playdate this morning, as I was trying to accommodate a friend who is gluten-intolerant. I made a few substitutions (see comments below) because I didn't have soy milk or agave nectar. They were yummy and hearty, but they took a lot longer to bake than the recipe suggested!

Vegan Agave Cornbread Muffins

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour[PS1]

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup soy milk[PS2]

1/4 cup agave nectar[PS3]

2 tablespoons canola oil

Added: dried cranberries

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease a muffin pan.
2.	Combine the cornmeal, flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; stir in the applesauce, soy milk, and agave nectar. Slowly add the oil while stirring. Pour the mixture into the muffin pan.
3.	Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick or small knife inserted in the crown of a muffin comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes.

---

[PS1]1 c. cornmeal instead of mixture of both

[PS2]Almond milk

[PS3]Maple syrup

Snack Attack

In my "spare" time, I occasionally read this blog. Here is a good post on healthy snack options for the little tykes (and us). Most interesting, however, are the other ideas that readers posted. Banana Dogs? I might have piqued your curiosity!

http://mycharmingkids.net/2011/01/snack-attack/#comments