Thursday, July 23, 2009

Homemade Granola Bars


I'm looking for cheap and easy ways to snack (healthy too!) This recipe is great, especially with the substitutions. I just need to buy some mini chocolate chips for next time so they stretch farther. I used chocolate chips and crasins.

Easy Granola Bars
Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup all-purpose flour (or ground whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup butter, softened — or substitute applesauce
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips or raisins, crasins, nuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Lightly grease one 9×13 inch pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, butter or margarine, honey and brown sugar. Stir in the 2 cups assorted chocolate chips, raisins, nuts etc.
3. Lightly press mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes then cut into bars. Let bars cool completely in pan before removing or serving.
I think the recipe would be even better with 1/4 cup Karo Syrup too. They are a little dry, but still good.
This recipe came from this site. Food Storage Made Easy.net

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Chicken Enchilada Casserole
Ingredients:
2 Chicken Breasts
12-18 Corn Tortillas
1 can Red Enchilada Sauce
2 cups Frozen Corn (a drained can of corn would work fine too), Optional
1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese for top

Instructions:
Boil chicken with garlic, red pepper, parsley-or however you like to flavor your chicken. That is the mixture I like. Boil for 20 minutes or until no longer pink. Let soak in the boiled water with lid on for 15 minutes or so. Place chicken breasts on cutting board to cut up into little pieces.
Spray casserole pan or 9X13 pan.
Tear up corn tortillas into dish. Put cut up chicken on top of tortillas. Mix. Add can of enchilada sauce. Mix. Add corn. Mix. Spread cheese on top and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or so.
I made mine at lunchtime and then put it in the fridge until 45 minutes before Andy gets home, so it will have time to cook and time to set up with the lid on while we get ready for dinner. Serve by itself or with Spanish rice.

Microwave Fruit Cake

This ends up kind of like a cobbler, but doesn't take as long.

Ingredients:
Yellow Cake Mix
Peach Pie or Apple Pie Filling or what ever flavor you desire
1 1/2 sticks of butter (or margarine)

Instructions:
Place Cake mix in bottom of baker, layer with Pie Filling, 1 1/2 sticks of butter pats. Put lid on and cook in the microwave for 10 minutes. Then stir up and cook 3 more minutes. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.
Don't use butter recipe. Use Yellow cake mix, or Devils food with Cherries
Butter recipe is too buttery and takes longer to cook in microwave
You can try different cake mixes and pie fillings.

It's always nice to have a fast and easy cake recipe.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

My sister, Janessa, made these earlier this week and I just had to try them out! They are SO good! Moist, chewy, and delicious (except for a few that got a little too browned-Elizabeth liked those ones though.)
She got the recipe from this site:
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
6 Tablespoons Butter (softened)
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 Large Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 cup Regular Oatmeal (not quick oats)
2 cups Chocolate Chips
2 Bananas, cut into 1/4 to 1/3 inch pieces (or mush them up like I do in ziplock baggies and freeze. Defrost in microwave when you need them)

Instructions:
Mix flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together. Set aside. (I never do this. I just add it in one at a time after the butters and sugars and eggs are mixed-FYI.)
Mix the butter (I bought REAL butter for the first time!) with the sugars until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla until well mixed. Add flour mixture. Add oatmeal, chocolate chips, and bananas. Mix well. I use a KitchenAid, so I added the chocolate chips last. The mixer doesn't like them much, but I do.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-13 minutes on a GREASED cookie sheet.
The recipe says it makes 60 cookies, but it's more like 36 cookies.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Crepes!

Alright, so I didn't make crepes for a long time because I had a really bad time making them when Andy and I were first married. I checked out a kid book ("Crepes By Suzette" by Monica Wellington) at the library that had a crepe recipe in the back of the book (the girl in the book lived in France and made crepes to different people with different fillings). This recipe is great! I made some on Sunday night and used the rest of the batter on Monday mid-morning as a snack and just made another batch this afternoon. YUM!
Here's the recipe for 8 crepes.

Ingredients:
2 Eggs
1 cup Milk
1 cup Flour
1 Tablespoon Melted Butter (I used margarine, like always-and it worked)
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
and desired toppings

Utensils needed:
Large bowl (not giant bowl though, 2 quart bowl should work)
Whisk
Ladle
Spatula
Large Frying Pan

Instructions:
In the bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Beat in the milk. Then add the flour and mix until very smooth. Add the melted butter, sugar, and salt to the batter and blend well. It should be the consistency of heavy cream. Add slightly more milk if necessary (I had the perfect ratio.) The batter can be used immediately, but even better, cover and chill for one hour or overnight.

Heat the pan and brush lightly with melted butter (I used spray PAM). Pour in a ladleful of batter (about 3 Tablespoons-I'd go with 1/3 cup). Quickly swirl the pan around so the batter spreads out thin. Cook over medium-high heat until the crepe is set and the edges are lightly browned and lift up easily, about 2 minutes. Flip it, spread it with your favorite filling, and cook for another minute. Fold it in half, dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Filling ideas:
Strawberry Jam (or other flavors) with chocolate syrup, if desired
Peanut butter with chocolate chips
Cinnamon/sugar with Carmel Syrup
Any pie filling
Banana
Honey