HEALTHFUL RECIPES: Homemade Granola Yumminess & Breakfast Parfaits!

I know I know... I should be working on the continuation of finding the perfect granola bar recipe. But instead I'm moving onto granola. I left feeling frustrated that my attempt did not turn out perfect, because I'm a perfectionist, so I am allowing myself to get distracted with making yummy granola. I will get back to the granola bar search in due time.....

In any regard, my intention with my family, is to make breakfasts both nutritious AND fun! And I'm thinking that "Breakfast Parfaits" sound like a awful lot of fun and deliciousness in one meal. Sounds like dessert, but it's healthy and a great way to start your day.

We get so stuck in food ruts at our house. We have the same breakfast day after day, that my littlest daughter has begun to refuse eating breakfast. I think I'm dropping the ball as a mom. But no more!

This parfait will be composed of homemade granola, plain yogurt, fruit & some sweetener like honey or maple syrup if need be... stacked up in a gorgeous glass parfait cup. What kid, or adult, could resist?

Today's granola recipe is adjusted from this one here. I added shredded coconut & ground flax seeds, and I used honey & maple syrup for my sweeteners, along with coconut oil for the fat.

What I have been learning is that once you realize that granola is a formula (actually many versions of the formula), you can add almost anything you want. Here are two I found: Formula 1 & Formula 2.

Because I never like to follow directions entirely, I took all the ideas from many different formulas to make my own. It's a whole lot like... throw in some of this, some of that, etc. My kind of cooking.

I started with 4 cups of oats (because that seemed like a reasonable amount), added 1 cup shredded coconut, and 1/2 cup ground flax seeds.

In a separate bowl I added 1/3 cup warmed coconut oil, 1/3 cup honey & 1/3 cup of maple syrup. I also added a large splash of vanilla extract.

Then I added the liquid to the dry and stirred together till you could see that everything was fully coated. I cooked it at 350 degrees for about 20 or so minutes, checking and stirring every 10 minutes or so.

It really looks and smells delicious! I couldn't help myself as I grabbed handful after handful and crammed it in my mouth. I know, not very lady-like of me. But it was good and I guess I was hungry.

Now onto the parfait part.....

This is the easy part. First I put some granola in the bottom of the parfait glass (Yes I actually have fancy ice cream glasses... I picked them up at the thrift store!). Then I covered that with plain yogurt, sliced bananas, and a drizzle of maple syrup. Rinse repeat, to make up two lovely layers of yummy goodness!

How can you resist!!?

I have to say it was delicious!! Even my picky toddler loved it. I guess breakfasts are a go again.

Don't forget to get creative! There are somewhere around a million different combinations you can make (okay I made that up). You are only limited by your imagination. Try different things in the granola, like sliced almonds, or sunflower seeds. Use a different oil, or different sweeteners. And the same goes for the parfait part.... add different fruits, flavors of yogurt, anything!

Have fun!!


This is linked to Real Food Wednesday by Kelly the Kitchen Kop

HEALTHFUL RECIPES: Breakfast Bar Experiment 1

I am on a quest to make healthy meals / foods for my family. My little girl is in the "super picky" toddler stage, and getting her to eat a healthy balanced meal can be a chore. If instead, I can get a few power packed items in everyone each day, I will be happy. The trick to this, is to make them incredibly tasty, as well as healthy & nourishing. I've been working on my "Super Smoothie Recipe," which I will post soon. But I also wanted to get the rest of the nutritional powerhouses into other foods throughout the day. So began my quest for the perfect, soft granola bar.... a healthy addition to breakfast or lunch. Packed full of nutritional goodness!

This is by no means close to the perfect bar (by my perfection-ish standards)... it is the first try in experimentation. However, I thought it might be interesting to keep track of my process. So here goes....

BREAKFAST BAR EXPERIMENT 1

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups oats
1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1/4 cup chopped pistachios
1/2 cup oat flour
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cardamom

Wet Ingredients:

1/4 - 1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 diced banana
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup yogurt
1 tbsp vanilla
Melted chocolate

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. In a small (microwave-safe) bowl add honey, peanut butter, and coconut oil and heat on high for 1 minute. Then mix well. In a medium bowl add all wet ingredients plus your peanut butter / honey mixture, and mix well. Then add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Grease an 8 x 8 glass pan (I used coconut oil). Pour in mixture and spread and flatten. Bake about 30 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Cool and cut into squares. I melted chocolate and drizzled it over the top, but you don't have to do that.

So after trying this Experiment #1, I definitely feel they need more sweetness, and I'd nix the cardamom next time. But that's just me. I'm generally iffy on cardamom, and this was no exception. I just thought I'd try it because it sounded exotic. If you like cardamom, you might really enjoy the flavor it adds to this. I think I would also add coconut flakes (maybe sweetened). Oh and it was a bit overly chewy / gummy. So I would use a bigger pan and spread them out more. I might even try a tad more peanut butter, or less yogurt and add some applesauce instead. My mind is pondering it all.....

These ones are fairly edible to my standards. My daughter ate one fairly happily, only looking questioningly at me once or twice and shoving it all in her mouth at once. I take that as a good sign. However, she didn't want another piece. So I think she got wise to me. Ergo more sweetness. I think the coconut flakes would bring in more sweetness too, and a better mouth-feel.

So I will try that next...... :)

If you're wanting to experiment yourself, try adding different nuts or dried fruit, or other sweeteners. Really, you're only limited by your imagination!

Not so HEALTHFUL RECIPES: Honey Coconut Vanilla Cupcakes

Okay, so I have to admit I eat junk too. And this is one such recipe that fills that niche. I needed to make a quick recipe for cupcakes and here it is....

I used this RECIPE and modified it to my liking and came up with this:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 cup coconut milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and then line your muffin pan with muffin papers.

In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar, honey & coconut oil. Mix with hand mixer or electric mixer. I find it's fluffier if I use one of these than if I whisk by hand.

Then beat in eggs, one at a time.

Combine flour and baking powder, and then add to mixture and blend.

Then lastly, mix in coconut milk until creamy.....

Fill 12 muffin cups just over half way. You should be able to use up all the batter into these tins. And cook for 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on them so that they do not overcook. You will know they are done when they are golden and your tester comes out clean when inserting into the middle of the cupcake.

These are oh so yummy!! The honey-vanilla-coconut flavor makes a delicious slightly complicated flavor that makes you go back over and over for more!!

We eat these plain because they are delicious just as they are. But you can also add a yummy glaze on top.

Honey-Vanilla-Coconut Glaze

Powdered sugar
Honey
Vanilla
A touch of coconut milk

You mostly want the powdered sugar with very little of the other ingredients to moisturize it and make it syrup-y. Don't make it too runny or it will run right off your cupcakes! You want it to be just runny enough to apply but still stays in one place.

If you want a healthier version of the cupcake recipe.... here is one I attempted that turned out delicious!!

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I freshly ground mine)
1/4 cup of ground flax seeds
1 3/4 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 cup coconut milk (plus a dash more water to compensate for the oats)
1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats

You will end up filling more than the 12 muffin cups. I ended up filling 3 more.

I think you can really use the top recipe as a starting point and make any changes you want!! Maybe add cinnamon, or other spice... or dried fruit... the sky is the limit!! I think next time I'll add some shredded coconut. :)

Note: all the pictures are of the "healthier" version of this recipe, with the oats and other goodness...

HEALTHFUL RECIPES: An Improvement on my Sourdough Recipe

I have been wanting to perfect a sourdough bread recipe so that I could make it quickly and easily and not think too much about it. A recipe I could call my own. I've been scouring the web for all sorts of recipes, reading all sorts of pointers. Now I had to find a recipe that would take into consideration I have a 2 year old and don't want to dedicate my day to baking bread. And something that wouldn't be too fussy, because then I'd just end up messing it up! A recipe that had easy measurements... not something I had to weigh and measure too stringently. Something I could basically throw together and it would generally work every time. Something I could remember without checking my recipe book every minute......

My favorite recipe is this one here. Funny enough, it's for "Basic Sourdough Bread." I tweaked it a bit and this is what I came up with:

2 cups starter (100% hydration)
1 cup freshly ground whole wheat
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of salt
4 teaspoons of sugar

....and mix! And knead! And let rise.... (anywhere from 1-3 hours)

Then form into loaves.... and rise again!

And then bake....

They say to bake it at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, but I really like the effects of baking it at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. They also have you do a bunch of other steps, which I just completely eliminated (I'm lazy and busy you know!). I did however, leave a tray of water underneath as I was baking.....

Don't forget to slice the top to allow for more rising before you bake it!!!

One time I also added 2 tablespoons of Italian Seasoning. Yummy!! What a great savory bread!

You can also use this bread for making French Toast, however, do not use the savory version!! The French Toast turned out delicious. :) But that will be another recipe....... ENJOY!!

This blog is linked to Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday blog carnivale.

My First Harvest.... Broccoli!!!

It's amazing how much you learn about gardening while you're doing it! There's a learning curve for sure. I had no idea how big some of these plants actually get and how much space they really need to grow. So as you can see, my garden bed was packed!!!

But I think that's also part of the pleasure, is the surprise at what happens each day. I think I might have harvested my broccoli slightly early, but I was afraid to wait too long and have it bolt on me. The days have been really hot, and it was a surprise to me that my broccoli would still be growing so happily in the middle of summer. I'll be interested to see it grow in other parts of the year.

The only bane to my broccoli was aphids I think. At least that's what my husband called them. Though I thought aphids looked different. These looked like powdery scaley little bugs. And they were on all the undersides of my front broccoli. I sprayed them off with a hose every day. But what I didn't realize is that they'd gotten into the head of one of my broccoli, and I didn't find out until it was cooked! YUCK! I did my best to remove them but I'm sure we ate some. Luckily they only infested one head, not all. Next time I will do things differently.

Has anyone dealt with these guys? What did you do? I would love some input!!!

Here's some more pictures of my garden.......

My Beautiful Raised Garden Bed!

I have been wanting a raised garden bed for a while now. Our soil is SO dense and clay-like that it's almost impossible to dig into, and takes so much to amend. We tried growing last year, but it just wasn't successful for many reasons, some of which were laziness. For me, trying to go out to the backyard while watching a toddler, and gardening, watering, etc is just so tricky. Willow, my kiddo is easier to watch now that she's 2, so it's certainly more feasible to have the garden so far in the backyard. But this year, somehow I managed to coerce my husband into making me a raised garden bed!

We realized that actually, the best sun comes into the front yard, so this was going to be the location for our garden bed. Luckily we have a high fence so the recent issue of vegetable gardening in the front yard has not affected us in the least. And what I love so much about having it in the front yard is the easy access to it from the kitchen!!! I wish I'd thought about this years ago. Okay, well, just sooner anyway. :) So now I can go out and gather fresh herbs for cooking and it only takes me a minute to do so. Yay! I'm converted. Now I want to grow everything edible in the front yard. If only the yard has more sun.....

Here are some other pictures of the front yard garden area....

And just to give you some perspective.... here are a few pictures of what the bed looked like just over a month ago.....

Isn't it amazing how fast your garden grows!!!! I'm so excited for this year's harvest, next year and the years to come.....

Oh and trust me, I will be doing a lot more to the front yard in the next several months/years. :( The beautification project has only begun. I'm hooked!!! :) Get hooked too.... It's so easy to have a raised garden and grow your own organic veggies & herbs! Get out there and garden! :)

HEALTHFUL RECIPES: Honey Whole Wheat Bread

 This is my favorite bread! It's my go-to bread for everything! It's great toasted with eggs for breakfast. It's great with butter when you're on the go. It makes a nice sandwich! You really can't go wrong with this bread. And it makes 2 loaves, which means you have enough for a family of 4 for the week. :) You will LOVE this bread!

HONEY WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

Ingredients

    * 1 (.25 ounce) package rapid rise yeast (1.5 tsp)
    * 1 teaspoon white sugar
    * 1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
    * 1 13.5oz can of high fat coconut milk
    * 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
    * 1/4 cup honey
    * 2 teaspoons salt
    * 3 cups whole wheat flour
    * 2 cups all purpose flour
    * 2 tablespoons coconut oil (for greasing pan)
    * an egg (for glazing)

Directions

   1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup warm water.
   2. Combine coconut milk, coconut oil, honey, salt and wheat flour in bowl. Mix in yeast mixture, and let rest 15 minutes. Add all-purpose flour, and process with dough hook (or by hand) until dough forms a ball. You may need to add more flour to get it to form a proper ball. Knead dough by processing an additional 80 seconds, or mix and knead by hand 10 minutes. Place the dough in a bowl. I usually rub some coconut oil over the top and then cover with a clean towel. Let dough rise for 45 minutes, or until doubled. I often let it rise while I'm napping with my toddler, so oftentimes I let it rise up to 3 hours!
   3. Remove risen dough from bowl, and divide dough in half. Fold and shape each half. I usually roll it over itself into a nice little roll (like how you roll up your sleeping bag), which also helps to squeeze out some of the bubbles and make for a nice loaf. Form into loaves, and place in oiled 9x5 inch bread pans. Oil the tops of the dough again, and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm area until doubled; second rise should take about 30 minutes.
   4. Place a small pan of water on the bottom shelf of the oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (Though what I often do is to put the loaves in before turning on the heat).
   5. Whisk egg and glaze the tops of the loaves. Then cut slits with a sharp knife down the top of the loaves (to allow for better rising while cooking).
   6. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes (sometimes up to 40), or until tops are dark golden brown. Slice when cool.

I hope you enjoy this bread as much as my family and I do! This bread is so yummy you can eat it all by itself with nothing on it!

Linked to Kelly The Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesdays