Granola bars

Homemade granola bars

1 cup honey

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup coconut oil

8 cups oats (I used whole but you can use quick oats)

4 cups Rice Krispies 

6 tsp vanilla

Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. 

In a large bowl mix the oats and Rice Krispies.  Set aside. 

In a pan heat honey, sugar, peanut butter, butter, oil, cook until melted and sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add vanilla. 

Pour the hot ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix together. Press into the jelly roll pan. Press it in very tightly so they will stay together. I always refrigerate them for a bit before slicing. 

As a note I also added a handful of mini marshmallows, a half bag of coconut, a handful of white chocolate chips, and a handful of ground almonds to the dry mixture. This made the marshmallows and white chocolate melt and gave them an awesome sweetness!  My original recipe called for all butter but I like the coconutty flavor better. I've also made these with only coconut oil and omitted the butter.  You can really add anything you'd like. Dried fruit, nuts, I've don't chocolate, different kind of nut butter. Really the possibilities are endless!  Enjoy. 

 

Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes, with the juice
• 1 cup finely diced carrots
• 1 cup finely diced onions
• 1 cup finely diced celery
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste 
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp dried oregano or Tbsp fresh oregano
• ¼ cup fresh basil (or 1 Tbsp dry basil)
• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup flour
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1½ cups half and half
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper

Add diced tomatoes, carrots, onions, celery, tomato paste, chicken broth, oregano, and basil to your slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours until flavors are blended and vegetables are soft.

About 30 minutes before the soup is ready, prepare a roux. Melt the butter over medium low heat in a skillet and add the flour. Whisk together constantly for about 10 minutes or until the roux is a nice golden brown color. Slowly add 1 cup of the soup from the slow cooker to the roux–it will start to form a thick paste.  Slowly add another 3 cups of warm soup to the roux. Whisk together until smooth. Add the roux mixture to the slow cooker.
Stir in the Parmesan cheese, half and half, and salt and pepper. Add additional oregano and basil if needed, to tastes. Stir well. Cover and cook on low for another 30 minutes.
Pour soup into blender (you may need to do this in batches, depending on how big your blender is)
Purée until smooth. Try it served in a yummy homemade bread bowl!

Syndy's Commentary:

I did this recipe almost exactly.  I did not use celery since I really don't like celery.  I also omitted the parm since I am nursing a baby right now that has a milk allergy.  Other than that all the same and SOOOOO tasty!  Did this on a stove top and it was a quick and yummy lunch!

Granola (modified from a friends Grandmother's recipe)

 2 cups oats (I used quick oats and they worked great)
 1/2 cup flaked coconut
 1/2 cup coarsely chopped slivered or sliced almonds or chopped peanuts
  1/2 cup honey 
 1/3 cup Coconut oil melted (could also use cooking oil)



 Combine all ingredients.  Put on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.   Bake in a 300 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes or till lightly browned, stirring after 20 minutes. Remove from oven; immediately turn out onto a large piece of foil. Cool; break into clumps. Cover tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. You can also store in freezer.

You could really put anything in this.  All kinds of nuts, seeds, dried fruit (added after cooking).  I added flax seed just about 2 tablespoons.  

Chicken Garbage Bread

1 whole shredded rotisserie chicken ( I used 3 large chicken breasts that I grilled and shredded myself)

8oz mozzarella cheese
1/4  cup buffalo wing sauce ( I used sweet baby rays)
1/3 cup ranch or bleu cheese dressing ( I used bleu cheese)

1 recipe or package of pizza dough

I make my own pizza dough so I just made one recipe of this and it was good for the filling amount.  Mix together chicken, cheese, sauce, and dressing.  Roll out pizza dough into a large triangle maybe 9x13.  Put chicken mixture in the middle of the dough and roll it up jelly roll style.  I rolled mine out on parchment paper since it gets thin and is hard to transfer, this way I could transfer to the pan and I could bake it right on the paper.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 20-30 minutes.

Let sit for a couple minutes before cutting as it's juicy!

Commentary:

My kids LOVE this and they have no idea there is bleu cheese in it!  Also I smeared some of the wing sauce on the outside before baking and sprinkled it with Parmesan cheese!  YUM

Tortellini salad

20 oz Cooked cheese tortellini
1 cup cubed motzarella
1 cup chopped pepperoni
1 cup cherry tomatoes cut in half
1/3 cup fresh basil chopped
2/3 cup Cesar Dressing

Cook tortellini according to package directions rinse and drain.  Add all other ingredients and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Commentary:

I tried to use the mushroom tortellini from Aldi with this and while it was good it wasn't great like the cheese tortellini was!  USE THE CHEESE!  Also I refrigerated this and then added a bit more dressing right before serving as the pasta sucks the dressing in.  My family loved this and so did our friends!

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Ok, this recipe I found online and I really just winged it from what I read on the link.  Basically what I did was make pancakes out of the good ol' fashioned just-add-water mix.  While the pancakes were cooking I added a mixture of melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon that I just added stuff until I liked it!  I put the mixture in a squeeze bottle and swirled it in the unbaked side of the pancake and then flipped it.  I'll admit that my cinnamon mixture needed to be thicker as it didn't look like a swirl  when I was done, but it tasted great!  Here's the link to the actual recipe..Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Recipe for Cream Cheese drizzle:

2 oz cream cheese softened
1/4 cup butter melted
3/4 cup powdered sugar 1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter add cream cheese and powdered sugar and vanilla to pan whisk until smooth.

Garlic Noodles

My friend introduced us to these garlic noodles and they instantly became a family favorite.  We make them all the time.  Sometimes they are a main dish, sometimes they are a side dish.  My kids like them cold or hot.  (I prefer hot)

Garlic Noodles:

8oz cooked pasta (I use spaghetti noodles but you can really use any)
4 cloves minced or sliced garlic
1/2 bunch green onions chopped small
4  tbl spns butter
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tbl spns brown sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbl spns oyster sauce.

While pasta is cooking, melt butter in a skillet and saute onions and garlic.  Mix all other ingredients together in a small bowl.  Once pasta is done, drain and return to pot.  Mix pasta with all other ingredients including sauteed onions and garlic.  Serve immediately.  Seriously YUMMY!