My journey of cooking, gardening, preserving and more
Need an easy chocolate dessert recipe? Chocolate bark is a delicious yet still decadent treat that you can make with any number of nuts, seeds or other inclusions. Don’t believe that it’s easy? Here’s the general idea: You melt some chocolate jussssst to where it’s almost …
Quinoa is one of those foods that became super trendy, for a while. Super trendy until a lot of people actually tried it and decided they didn’t like it. The first way I ever made it was as a savory side dish, with mushrooms, veggie stock, …
Well, the tomatoes and peppers for my summer garden are on their way. I started my seeds about 2 weeks ago and just thinned them down to 2 plants per pot. I like to start mine in 3 to 4-inch pots because, in my personal experience, transplanting the seedlings only stunts their growth.
I start them in pots with a base of potting soil, topped off with a good 2 inches of seed starter mix. Seed Starter is a lighter soil mix that’s perfect for starting seeds. I have a little 4-level greenhouse with a zipper cover that I place the trays of pots in and place them by one of our huge sets of sunny windows.
Once the seeds have sprouted and reached about 2 inches in height, I thin them down to 2-3 plants per pot. Once they’ve really reached a size and strength I’m comfortable with, then I thin them down to 1. I also then unzip the cover and let them get regular air, as this helps strengthen the plants.
I admit I tend to do a mix of heirloom plants and hybrid plants since we live in a pretty wooded area and sometimes my plants need a little more stability than just the heirloom varieties provide. As much as I’d love to do all heirloom plants, I’ve discovered through many years of gardening, a mix usually provides me with the best results. I do, however, try and make sure that the seeds I purchase are non-GMO. I try not to support Monsanto whenever possible.
When the springtime finally arrives and, believe me, I can’t wait, I take the entire greenhouse outside and, leaving the cover on, but unzipped, let it sit for another week or two. Then, I remover the cover and let it sit another 2 weeks before finally transplanting into the ground. This process is called “hardening off” and helps make your plants more resilient to real elements they’re going to encounter outside.
Just a side note – make sure you always put a marker with the plant name in your pots so, if one or more of them doesn’t sprout, you know what you need to re-plant. Also, I do recycle a lot of my old pots, but only after washing them really well and then letting them soak, fully immersed, in a solution of bleach and water. You have to be really careful when reusing pots, as you can transfer diseases to your newly-sprouted plants.
Is anyone else starting their garden seeds? I also have some peppers, eggplants, and herbs going. This time of year always gets me excited for my summer gardens.
Have I mentioned how much I love digging in the dirt?
If you’ve been with me on this journey for a while, then you’ve seen my no-mayo coleslaw recipe, made with cider vinegar and Dijon mustard. In that post, I mention another no-mayo coleslaw recipe that I make and this, finally, is that recipe. If you’ve …
There is a beautiful simplicity about homemade pasta. It’s silky, smooth, and delicious. Sometimes I like it with a light sauce and sometimes I crave a heavier bolognese, but no matter what, I love it. And, since I love it so much, I thought it …
I am on a serious mission to create the perfect homemade chewy granola bar. This mission was brought on mostly by the fact that my local grocery store stopped carrying my favorite organic Cascadian Farms Harvest Berry ones. They were seriously one of the very few packaged foods I buy, and now I can’t find them without driving to another store, 30 minutes away.
See, I don’t want a lot of junk in my breakfast bars, I just want simple and delicious ingredients. I just want some whole food, real food breakfast bars that are chewy and dreamy. I just one some chewy breakfast bars that are full of stuff that’s pretty good for me.
So, after many recipes (my own and others) and much trial-and-error, I’m finally getting this chewy breakfast bar thing down. I admit I have a passion for wanting to overdo it on the nut and berry “add-in’s”, but every time I do this, I end up with crumblier bars, which makes delicious granola but not such great granola bars. When I actually follow this recipe exactly, they come out pretty darned good, so this is one of the few recipes I’ve created and make that I actually MEASURE every single time. Consider yourself warned. Maybe once I’ve made this a hundred times, I’ll have a better feel for it, but for now, I measure.
Preheat oven to 350° (if toasting your oats)
Loosely line a cookie sheet with a generous piece of aluminum foil and spread the rolled oats and chopped almonds on top. (I lift the foil edges up somewhat, creating more of a “bowl” than a flat layer) Place in preheated oven and toast for 5 minutes. Stir and toast for another 4 minutes, stirring 1/2 way through. Remove from oven. (I like to toast these before I melt the butter mixture, so I can put it all together while the butter mixture is nice and runny). Can you make these without the toasting process? Sure! I make them both ways but the toasting adds a great flavor, trust me.
In a large microwaveable glass dish, add butter, coconut oil, honey, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and salt. Microwave on high for 45-60 seconds, until oil has mostly melted. Stir well, until sugar and salt have dissolved.
Add toasted oats and almonds to butter mixture and stir well, coating all of the oats. Add sunflower seeds, coconut and berries and mix well again.
Using the foil that you baked the oats and nuts on, use it to line an 8 x 8 baking dish or pan. Grease the foil lightly with a touch of coconut oil.
Drop the oat mixture into the prepared baking dish and press the mixture in very, very firmly. When you think you’ve pressed it firmly enough, all the way around, including at the edges, press it again, all the way around, for another minute or two. This is part of the key to making these things hold together. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Don’t skimp on this time unless you really want granola.
Lift foil out of baking dish and slide granola mixture onto a large cutting board. Cut the mixture into bars. Store in covered container.
These keep at least a week for me which, so far, is as long as they’ve lasted. 🙂
A lot of recipes for breakfast bars call for a lot of butter and sugar, so I’ve created this recipe with not nearly so much. I have tried to make this without the butter, using just coconut oil and, sadly, they were just too crumbly. The butter firms up better than the coconut oil, once it’s chilled and set. If these soften too much at room temperature for you, then try storing them in the fridge.
Feel free to change up the type of nuts and add-in’s – think cashew nuts, chia seeds, pepitas -you can definitely personalize these to your own taste. (please play with your food!) Dark chocolate chips would be a good antioxidant add-in and would act as an additional “glue”, to hold these together. I’ve not done this yet, but I will.
I enjoy one of these each morning, alongside a banana and boiled egg. Sometimes, when I’m really hungry, I also have some Greek Yogurt with flax seed and whole berries. I hope you try these and love them – my husband and I sure do, because these rarely last a week for us.
Lentils have made a serious comeback in the last year or so. Okay, maybe not a kale-style comeback, but a comeback, nonetheless. I don’t want to turn you off from lentils by telling you this, but lentils are pretty darned good for you. Lentils health …