Health Bites

Why hello.

Hello.

Hi.

My all-too-quick- to- speak mouth can't hold itself back right now by conceding that the thought to shut down the ol' blog here has really been dancing around my mind lately. I'm feeling too busy to blog these days. Are you too? But there are two reasons why I hesitate to close up shop:

-writing

-cooking

And the two together form near perfect unwinding-ness in my world of diapers and tot discipline. After a beautiful, but sometimes more lengthy day of submerging myself into cute little toddler world, which I absolutely love and pray they never grow out of, a little writing, a little baking/cooking, goes a LONG way for my soul. It forces me to keep my culinary erudition somewhat sharp and it forces me to use words like, "erudition". See?

Thus, I continue to blog.

This fabulous recipe, kudos to pinterest, is really quite great. Ever had no-bake cookies? Homemade granola bars? These health bites cross both territories and combine them into one. They are yummy. Addicting. Reasonably healthy and so snappy to whip up it's like easier than kool-aid but the output is far better.

Next time I'm adding in some chopped dried fruit and dark chocolate chips. I know what I'm dreaming about tonight!

Health Bites

1 cup (dry) oatmeal (old-fashioned oats work best!)

1 cup toasted coconut flakes

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter (or any almond, cashew, etc butter)

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

1/3 cup honey

1 tsp. vanilla

Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour. Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like. (Mine were about 1/1/2-2″ in diameter.) Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

(Kate note: I also added in a little pure maple syrup as well as a tad bit of maple extract and it was spectacular!)

Makes about 20-25 balls.

RoadTrippin' Granola Bars

We were gone...

...all last week-driving 2 small children in a packed up mini van across to California- through Utah, through Nevada, and onto the beach in Orange County. It's been a few years since I've made that drive and let me tell you- rain drops never fall in southern Nevada- true fact. And so, entering California and seeing ocean as far as the eye could see was like tasting ice cream for the first time: so good you never wanted it to end. Oh how I could inhale that salty oceany smell for the rest of my life and never tire of it. It was so wonderful. I loved watching my children squeal with perfect innocence while they strenously played and galloped on the shore.

And over all, road trips are fun. Err... revision. Road trips with youngens are a lot of fun work. Yes that it's it. It is FUN, but boy, it is a lot of WORK dragging these two cuties along with us though I wouldn't have it any other way. But today I can simply and fully appreciate and understand the highly- used cliche of , "we need a vacation from our last vacation". Perhaps you can imagine well the majority of our car being piled roof high with snacks and treats and goodies and electronics. And between all the i-pad playing, the smarties, the infinite amount of highly processed chicken nuggets from Mcadeez and Wendys, I think my children need some major detoxifying this week- a library and carrot/celery diet if you will.

These granola bars are perfect road trip food material- if you're kids will eat it- I think these were a bit too, what's the word.... chunky/nutty/fibery for my toddlers' to stomach. My man and I, on the other hand, la-la-la LOVED gnashing on these babies. The honey imparts such a subtle but not overbearing sweetness and the texture derived from a multiplicity of good things, like dates, craisins, nuts, coconut... is just hard to beat, and they are filling and healthy.

That Ina Garten. She sure knows how to make a good granola bar.

Homemade Granola Bars

{Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics}

2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup shredded coconut, loosely packed

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ (Kate note: I used flaxseed instead)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup honey

1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup chopped pitted dates (Kate note: I used the Dole brand of pitted dates)

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8 by 12-inch (I used a 9 x 13 sized and it worked fine!) baking dish and line it with parchment paper.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ.

Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

Place the butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for a minute, then pour over the toasted oatmeal mixture. Add the dates, apricots, and cranberries and stir well.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Wet your fingers and lightly press the mixture evenly into the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool for at least 2 to 3 hours before cutting into squares (another test of patience!! Indeed- follow this instruction- they must cool!!!! So very hard to wait but worth the painstaking delay!). Serve at room temperature.

Kale Berry Smoothie

One of the major boons of summer time is the way in which I convince myself that we can eat three smoothies a day with no lingering feelings of guilt.

This is one of our favorites and I promise, you can't really taste the kale: maybe feel the kale in tiny bits, but certainly not taste. And ladies and gems, you will for sure want to check your teeth after drinking this to ensure those pearly whites are free of any nasty kale or berry bits hanging around. It can get bad, so use caution when using this smoothie in any social situations.

We use the frozen mixed berries that you can find at Costco for this, but I'm sure using straight strawberries or straight blueberries instead of the motley would be acceptable. I simply love the taste of the mixture and the color it produces. Pretty, eh? And super duper nutritious. I feel like a mighty woman after consuming a glass: it's full of antioxidants, vitamins, potassium, and definitely a plethora of other medical jargon terms that I'm not familiar with. Love love this- you can also use spinach in place of the kale. Arugula might be too "peppery" so I'd steer clear from that.

Kale Berry Smoothie

1 1/2 heaping cups of frozen mixed berries (i'm sure you can get by on less though)

1/2 cup Greek yogurt, plain.. or any other natural plain yogurt

1-2 ripe bananas (love using a ripe banana that has been in the freezer!)

1 cup soy milk (perhaps a bit more)

1 heaping TBSP of orange juice concentrate

1 large handful of kale leaves (inner stem removed)

In a blender that can handle this, puree all the ingredients until completely smooth. Add more milk if it's too thick. Serve, drink, and floss. This should serve about 3-4 people.

Strawberry Greeeeeeeenn Smoothie

Smoothies.

We do them a lot around here.

Frequently in fact.

I like to stuff them with kale or spinach and blend the life out of it so that a certain 2 year old won't be able to totally pick apart what's in it. It's a great way to start your morning OR the afternoon as a snack.. and it's tasty...really-even with the green leaves in it.

Freshly grated ginger and carrot juice are also nice additions if you're up to it, otherwise, this is our everyday concoction with some occasions calling for other additions that I just mentioned. Carrot juice and ginger are good when you minus the strawberries and UP the orange flavoring.

I think I need one right now. Ciao!

Strawberry Green-mean Smoothie

1 cup frozen strawberries (whole)

1 heaping spoonful frozen orange concentrate

1 large handful spinach or kale (if using kale- remove the tough inner stems)

1 cup milk

1 cup Greek plain yogurt

1 ripe banana

Blend everything together and drink asapers.

Carrot and Ginger Fruit Smoothie

Unlike any other cold season that I can recall, this has been the worst for me personally.

Since the middle of December, I am on my third round of congestion, horrid cough, sneezing, etc etc. You know it's bad when you've chaffed your nostrils raw from so much blowing and your bed room is covered in what I so gracefully call 'snot rags', AND all the humidifiers pumping steam.

I finally walked myself into an insta-care this afternoon and gently demanded some form of antibiotics to crack this cold in half. Hopefully, it proves successful! The doctor informed me that he's seen more patients this year with colds than any other year he can remember. My conjecture is that the culprit is Utah's terrible inversions, which cause red-alert air days (in other words, don't be outside for any extended period)..... maybe not.

Anyway, in the meantime, this is a smoothie I whipped out today in hopes of jump-starting my immune system with some good vitamins. Although dairy products aren't the best thing while you're congested and hacking up a lung, the yogurt in this gives ya some protein and calcium at least. Right? Right.

Even my year old loved it. Safe to say that it's everyone-proof.

Carrot, Ginger, and Fruit Smoothie

1 cup Greek yogurt

1/2 cup carrot juice (store bought or freshly squeezed- lucky you)

1 ripe banana

1 1-inch piece of ginger, chopped

1-2 oranges, juiced

1 big handful of ice

Mix all the ingredients together in a blender. Whala! You have your smoothie. Just don't go spilling it on your pretty white carpet.

Easy Does It

Today's recipes are simple as gravy and your toddler could probably make them as easily as you could, but I'm starting a new label today (horray!) called, "toddler likes" to keep track of things Henry likes and enjoys (as it's been explained in previous posts, I'm just trying to broaden and expand Hejo's eats). I justify allowing him to eat these Cherrio gooey treats bc in my mind, it's sure a heck lot better than feeding him mass manufactured treats with 10 different foreign ingredients in 'em.

The blueberry muffins are a screamin hit. Love love love.

And admittedly, my paws can't keep off them Cheerio things either.

Wild Blueberry Muffins with Brown Sugar Topping

1/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1/4 cup milk

1 cup frozen wild blueberries (they are the small itty bitty ones- found at Trader Joes or Costco)

Prepare muffin tins with liners and preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar until well combined, and add eggs, incorporating until it's all nice and mixed. Add extract. In a seperate bowl, combine flour, powder, and salt. Add into butter mixture, alternating with the milk. Fold in blueberries.

Using an ice cream scoop, place one scoop of batter into each muffin tin, and sprinkle 1/2-1 tsp brown sugar over each top of batter. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

My recipe made 10 muffins.

O'Henry's (so appropriately named)

2/3 cup sugar

1 cup corn syrup

1 cup natural PB, unsalted

4 cups Cheerio's (may use any cereal you like)

Bring the sugar and syrup to a boil. Add PB and cereal and spread out into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Flatten with wet fingers. Cool and cut into squares. Brush teeth well after consumption.

Almond Granola Brittle Bars

These little teeth-rotting, molar sticking treaties are inspired from the cashew version of Martha Stewart's October 2008 magazine (I'm sure you can use any nut you have on hand; I myself, happen to prefer almonds over anything)...Last Autumn, these were coming out of the wood works in my kitchen and this last week I finally brought the recipe again out of mothballs to enjoy each chewy bite. And enjoy we did! I admit, my jaw bone is always well- exercised and spent, especially after eating nearly half a pan, and all my mouth wants to do is slurp down some soft jell-o afterwards...But who cares about a sore jaw. These have a terrifically warm flavor, healthy ingredients (somewhat) and best of all, they seem to deliver Autumn-ness right into my kitchen. Hm!

Almond Granola Brittle Bars

1 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup (about 5 ounces) almonds, chopped
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt


Line a 4 1/2-by-9-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap, leaving a 1-inch overhang on each long side. Toast oats and cashews in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often, until aromatic and just starting to turn golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl.
Add butter, sugar, cinnamon, corn syrup, molasses, and salt in the skillet, and cook over medium heat, stirring, until butter melts and mixture bubbles, 2 to 3 minutes. Pour hot mixture over oats and cashews, and stir to combine.
Transfer mixture to loaf pan. Using a spatula, press mixture into an even layer. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Remove chilled mixture from pan using plastic, discard plastic, and cut into 1-inch thick bars.

The Best I've Got Today

Ham Wrap and Yogurt Break

It was brought to my attention recently that ham doesn't ever make it to my recipe collection. I actually prefer the stuff to turkey or roast beef or slimy bologne and is my choice of sandwich type at any Subway, Potbelly's, Dodo, etc....The above pics you see are absurdly simple throw-togethers and I'm near embarrassed to be posting this at all, but believe it or not, with speedy Gonzalez on the loose (aka, the 11 month old), I'm always scrambling for an easy-to-make, easy-to-clean up lunch. These two things work wonders and happen to include some of the ingredients I am wild about: arugula, goat cheese, blueberries, and almonds. What more could I ask for?

Here's what you need, should you be really interested.

Ham Roll-Up
Flatbread of some sort
Goat cheese
Deli ham
Arugula

Spread the cheese all over the flatbread, with ham and arugula on top. Roll up, eat. See what I mean by simple?

I'll let you figure the yogurt thing on your own.

Ta ta.

Easy & Fast- My Kinda Combo!

Granola with Dried Blueberries
{Everyday Food, May 2009 }

2 cups instant oatmeal
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 sliced almonds
1 cup dried blueberries*
2 Tbsp veggie oil
2 Tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 350 d's. On a greased cookie sheet, mix oatmeal, coconut, and almonds together. Mix oil and honey together. Pour over oatmeal mixture, stir around and stick in oven until golden brown (roughly 20 minutes). Take out of oven, and stir in dried blueberries. Enjoy with milk, yogurt, or ice cream:).


*I made this with dried cranberries, orange flavored version. Yum!