Smoked Salmon Quiche - In pictures!

I don't feel like typing out the recipe & changes right now, but I wanted to post so you get a recipe in pictures! Sorry for the semi-sloppy handwriting.

BTW - this would be perfect for Pi day! Enjoy!

 

I made a couple of alterations to the recipe:

My changes to the above recipe were to use 4 oz smoked salmon, 1 can ff evaporated milk, 4 eggs + 2 whites, a little onion powder instead of minced, 2 cups chopped fresh spinach and 1 oz freshly shredded asiago cheese. Baked in a frozen pie crust. 

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips

I came up with this recipe after looking at several different recipes for Pumpkin Bread and Zucchini Bread but wasn't able to find just what I was looking for.

This is a delicious bread to have with your morning latte. I like mine lightly toasted. Using applesauce in place of the oil cuts down on the fat and the pumpkin & zucchini are just plain good for you! And of course you can't go wrong with the addition of the mini chocolate chips!

Did anyone else over-stock on canned pumpkin when there was talk of a shortage last year? I still have at least 4 cans to use. We'll be making this bread often!

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips
Serves: 32 | WW PointsPlus 3 per slice
2 regular sized loaves* or 4 mini loaves

Ingredients:
1 egg
2 egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour two loaf pans. (I use PAM for baking)

Shred zucchini and squeeze in paper towel to removed excess moisture.

Mix together egg, egg whites, and sugar. Add vanilla, pumpkin, and applesauce. Mix well.

Stir together dry ingredients and slowly incorporate into wet ingredients. Mix well.

Stir in zucchini and mini chocolate chips. Divide evenly between loaf pans. Bake 50 minutes or until done. Cool 10 minutes in pans then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

*once cooled I like to cut each large loaf in 1/2 and keep individually wrapped in the freezer so we don't eat it all at once!
The mini loaves are the perfect size for gifting to friends & neighbors.

Basic Biscotti

I love biscotti. It travels well and makes a great snack or light sweet anytime. I like to make mine smaller and a little softer, not as crunchy. This last batch I based on a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com. I love that they have reviews of all their recipes and you can pretty much tell which ones will turn out good and which ones won't.

I do apologize for the not so great photo. I was going to line them up and take a nicer picture, but then I ended up sending several of them with my hubby on his business trip and by the time I realized I hadn't gotten a picture of the batch this was the last one!

Basic Biscotti
adapted from Biscotti Tosconi at Allrecipes.com

Servings: about 30
WW PointsPlus: 2

1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 tsp Fiori di Sicilia
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, KAF white wheat flour is great in this recipe!
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions: Preheat the oven to 325°. Grease and flour a large baking sheet, or use a seasoned stone.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and fiori di sicilia extract. Combine flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Divide dough into two pieces. Form into long flat loaves about 1/2 inch tall and 12 inches long. Place the loaves 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until a light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.   

With a serrated knife, cut diagonally into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Separate slices on stone and bake for another 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

These are tasty plain, or you can melt some chocolate or white chocolate coating and drizzle over the top. Store biscotti at room temperature in an airtight container.

Angels & Apples Cake

 Two simple ingredients = one simple and tasty cake! I saw this idea on Pinterest a while back where someone had made lemon bars using a box of Angel Food Cake and a can of Lemon Pie Filling. What a great idea!  I knew I had some apple pie filling and since my hubby's favorite pie is apple I thought I'd try to make an Apple-angel cake. When I put the can of pie filling in the mixer bowl with the dry cake mix I thought "man, this is never going to work. It's just cake dust. It will never mix together." Well, I just turned the mixer on low and let it go for a few minutes and it got all whipped up and fluffy just like angel food cake but with bits of apples and apple pie spices all throughout. It smells so good baking.

I don't know why but when I bake angel food cakes lately (like the last 2-3 yrs) they always fall. Maybe because I don't flip them over? This time I tried to flip it over and the whole cake fell out onto the cooling rack. Then when I flipped it back over into the cake pan it pulled away from the sides by probably and inch all around. Looks funny sitting there but still tastes just as good and won't be around long. My hubby ate 2 pieces shortly after it came out of the oven!

Angels & Apples Cake
15 servings = 2 WW PointsPlus (confirmed with recipe builder)

1 box (dry) Angel Food Cake mix
1 can (20 oz) no sugar added Apple Pie filling

Mix together and pour into a 9x13baking dish. Bake approximately 40 minutes at 350°.


We've also had near record snow amounts this year which brings the moose down from the hills and mountains looking for food. We've had more moose in our yard and on our street in the last 2 months than in the whole 7 1/2 yrs we've been in this house. Last week we had one just outside our home office window eating the tender branches from my crab apple tree and lilacs. And last night when we got home from dinner there was one standing on top of the neighbors 4 1/2 ft tall snow pile.

He or she looks deceptively small with snow nearly up to the knees. It's as big as or bigger than our car!

Nothin' but crumbs

Wow! Was this ever good! And quick! 90 Seconds to gooey, melty, chocolatey, nutella-y goodness. Not bad on the Weight Watchers Points Plus either. Sorry, all you get to see is an empty mug. It was so good I forgot to get a picture before I ate inhaled it. If you want more pictures, Cassie has them with her original recipe post. I'll definitely be making this again and again. And if you're really desperate and have the points left over go ahead and eat both servings.


90 Second Nutella Cake
reviewed from Back to Her Roots
WW PPV 3 per serving
Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon Nutella
1 egg, beaten
1 heaping tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Instructions:
Whisk together all ingredients in a bowl until well combined.
Pour the batter into two greased ramekins or one large grease microwavable bowl or mug.
Microwave on 70% power for 30 seconds. At the end of the time, check for doneness. If not cooked through, add 15 seconds at a time.

Peppermint Fudge

With just a few ingredients and a few minutes you can make this delicious Peppermint Fudge! I came across the original recipe in one of those holiday baking booklets you find near the checkout at the grocery store and doctored it up to be even better.

Peppermint Fudge

1 bag (12 oz) white chocolate baking chips
1 container vanilla frosting
1/2 cup crushed candy canes
8-10 drops red food coloring
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract

Line a medium baking dish with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray (medium baking dish = 7"x11" or 8"x8"). Begin melting white chips over a double boiler. Stir occasionally until all are melted and mixed smooth. While the chocolate is melting get out some of your frustration by crushing candy canes to equal a half cup. You can do this by pounding a rolling pin over a baggie of candy canes, or with a hand food chopper (like the one by Pampered Chef). I don't recommend doing this while the rest of the house is sleeping, or in a mini food processor (1. the fam wakes up and wants to know what all the pounding is. 2. it makes a terrible racket and will dull the blades of the food processor).
Once the white chocolate chips are melted remove the double boiler from the heat and stir in the container of frosting. Add food coloring and extract and stir very well. Fold in crushed candy canes. Spread in prepared baking dish and place in refrigerator to chill. Once chilled remove from baking dish by lifting the foil. Cut into very small squares. Eat any squares that are mis-shapen or have crumbs falling off.

Blueberry Bars, Booties, and a Baby Shower

This weekend was a flurry of activity - and we had more than a few flurries of snow! We started the weekend with a fundraiser on Friday for Big Brothers Big Sisters in our community, and then on Saturday we hung out with our "little." He and I made baby booties for his soon-to-arrive new baby sister. He's 12 and had never used a sewing machine before and just loved it. Later on Saturday I made an additional pair of pink booties, and a batch of blueberry bars for my niece's baby shower that was on Sunday.

Blueberry Bars & Booties

aren't these the cutest booties you've ever seen?!

Lacy and a Pittsburgh Steelers onesie she got from a friend.

Blueberry Oat Bars
adapted from allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup cold butter
pinch of salt
3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice

In a bowl, combine flour, oats, 1 cup sugar and baking soda. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 2 cups for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan; set aside.
In a saucepan, combine blueberries, cornstarch, lemon juice and remaining sugar. Bring to a boil; boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Spread evenly over the crust. Sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool before cutting.

My notes: These bars are awesome! Every time I make them someone requests the recipe. They come together quickly too. I've upped the blueberries to 3 cups. You just can't have too many blueberries! I've made them with butter and sugar, and also made them with butter sub & Splenda and both ways are okay. Although they are a little more crumbly on top when you use Splenda.

Vacation Baking!

I am on vacation in Washington visiting my friend that just moved down here. (In my mind Washington is "down" because my brain in based in Alaska.) :-) Can't find time to post much at home, but on vacation - why not?! 

When you're at someone else's house  and you want to bake or cook sometimes you have to improvise. No mixing bowl, hmmm . . . search around . . . what to mix in . . . can't use a plastic bowl to whip egg whites . . . I know! Someone just bought a new crockpot - let's see if we can use the crock insert as a mixing bowl. Success!! No food processor? Relax your brain and finely chop the walnuts. I so enjoyed this extra step. At home I just whirl them up in the food processor. Chopping them by hand was so relaxing working my way through the nuts section by section. I think I'll switch to hand chopping all the time.

This recipe was passed down from my mother-in-law and it's one of our favorites. I usually make them during the holidays. They are really easy to make and go together quickly but the cookies are a little fussy and delicate so they doesn't freeze well, and if you take them somewhere to share be careful during transport. And then be prepared to be asked repeatedly for the recipe!

I should also add that name comes from the fact that the recipe was provided by First Lady Nancy Reagan in the 80's as President Ronald Reagan's favorite cookie. At least that is the story. I did some internet sleuthing and found the original name of the cookie is Vienna Chocolate bars, but we always call them President Cookies. Hope you enjoy!

President Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1/4 tsp. salt
2 large egg yolks
2 1/2 cups flour
10 oz. seedless red raspberry or red currant preserves
1 cup chocolate chips
4 large egg whites
2 cups finely chopped walnuts or almonds

In large bowl, combine butter or margarine and 1/2 cup of sugar. Work mixture together until creamy. Beat in salt and egg yolks. Add flour gradually; when mixture becomes too stiff, knead with fingers to make a smooth dough. Pat dough evenly in jelly roll pan. Bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees until lightly browned. Cool slightly and spread evenly with preserves then sprinkle chocolate chips evenly; set aside.

In deep bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Using rubber spatula, fold in nuts and remaining cup of sugar. Gently spread mixture on top of preserves, spreading to the edge of the pan. Return pan to oven and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until evenly browned. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack 15 minutes. While still warm, cut into bars or sqaures.  Cut into squares or triangles (they're very rich - triangles are my favorite).

Menu Plan Monday #28

So I'm just back from a quick weekend trip to Seattle to help a friend move. Throwing together a menu plan so I can dash to the store and get on with my day. This week is my hubby's birthday, so planning a birthday dinner at home, and a dinner out as well.

Monday: Taco Soup (not meatless - back to that next week) with cornbread and possibly crispy parmesan zucchini spears. nope, got in a rush and forgot the zucchini.

Tuesday: Dave's birthday! Pork Tenderloin with balsamic glaze, mashed potatoes, and broccoli with cheese. Also making some really yummy low-fat vanilla cupcakes from the cookbook Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World - but didn't have the soy yogurt on hand, so they're not vegan, but still amazing!

Wednesday: Homemade pizza with roasted veggies. Using this pizza dough recipe that I've found works great and is quick!

Thursday: dinner out in Anchorage - birthday boy's choice

Friday: Salmon Sweet Potato Cakes

Saturday: Baked Chimichanga

Sunday: leftovers or laughing cow chicken

Check out tons of other great menu plans at OrgJunkie.

Patience? Not so much.

Did you see the adorable commercial this year for the Rice Krispie treats shaped as eggs with M&M's inside? It seemed like a fantastic idea and how hard could it be really?! Hard? No. A test in patience? Yes. Very much so.

As you can see, I made a total of 6 of the eggs and then to save my sanity spread the rest of the Rice Krispie mixture in a rectangular pan. The recipe said it would make 12 of the eggs. I must have had small plastic eggs because I could have easily (no, not really easily) made a total of at least 20 eggs with the amount of sweet marshmallowy goodness I had left over. Getting the krispie mixture into the plastic eggs was kind of like when you open something that is wrapped in shrink-wrapped plastic and it gets all staticy and won't come off your fingers. Making the little cavity inside the eggs was even harder - even using cooking spray on my fingers.

They tasted delicious, like fresh Rice Krispie treats do. A couple of them even rattled when you shook them. They were really cute, but...

Hidden Surprise Easter Egg Treats
original recipe RiceKrispies.com 

3 tablespoons   butter or margarine 
1 package (10 oz., about 40)  regular marshmallows
- OR -
4 cups miniature marshmallows 
6 cups   Kellogg's® Rice Krispies® cereal 
1/2 cup   M&M's® Easter colored chocolate candies 
Canned frosting or decorating gel (optional) 
12 plastic snap-apart 3 x 2-in Easter eggs 

1. Clean, then coat inside of plastic eggs with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In large saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
3. Add Kellogg's® Rice Krispies® cereal. Stir until well coated.
4. Using greased hands, firmly press 1/4 cup of Rice Krispies® mixture into both halves of each plastic egg. Use fingers to make hollow center in each half. Remove from molds. Place on wax paper. Cool slightly.
5. Place about 6 M&M'S® Brand Chocolate Candies in one half of each egg. Gently press two halves of each egg together until they stick. Cool completely.
6. Decorate with frosting and additional M&M'S® Brand Chocolate Candies (if desired). Best if served the same day. Serving size is 1 egg.

MICROWAVE DIRECTIONS: Follow step 1 above. In microwave-safe bowl heat butter and marshmallows on HIGH for 3 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Follow steps 3 through 6 above. Microwave cooking times may vary.

Notes:
For best results, use fresh marshmallows.

1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow crème can be substituted for marshmallows.


Cal: 180
Fat: 4.5
Carb: 33
Fiber: 0
Protein: 2

Kumquat Bread

In my farm-to-table box last week I selected kumquats so I could try something new-to-me and expand my palate a bit. I looked around for recipes that didn't sound too difficult since I've been short on time lately. I came up with the following recipe, altering the original to make it more Weight Watchers friendly, and left out the pecans in hopes that my hubby would like the bread too. It came together very quickly, with the exception of getting the little seeds out of the kumquats.

Kumquat Bread
adapted from Kumquat Pecan Bread

2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. unsweetened applesauce
2/3 cup sugar substitute
2 cups white wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup pureed kumquats (sliced and seeds removed before pureeing)

Mix together first four ingredients. Add in sugar substitute, then baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix in flour and then stir in kumquats.

Bake in 350° oven for 50-60 minutes.

The verdicts:
Raw: I did taste a couple of raw kumquats before I chopped and seeded the rest. Interesting. The outer skin is sweet, while the inside fruit has a bit of a bite to it. Not sure I would want to just sit around eating them raw, but they would add a little zip to fruit salad, fruit salsa, or in a sauce. Gave a bite to each of our dogs as well. They love tasting stuff and both gobbled it up just like any other fruit I've given them. Next time I have the opportunity to get kumquats I'd like to see them in a sauce over chicken, maybe with some caramelized onions.
The bread: The bread came out great. Not really sweet and that hit of citrus tang from the kumquats is very nice. See the next post for the lemon curd - it's amazing if I do say so myself!

Kashi-Oat Cookies

Looking for a tasty, moist, chewy cookie? One made from pretty simple ingredients you already have (with the exception of the Kashi)? This is the one! Next time I will make the cookies twice the size and use them for breakfast cookies on-the-go. They go great with a cup of coffee, or an anytime snack you can feel pretty good about considering they have whole grain cereal & oats.

Kashi-Oat Cookies
adapted from Grape Nuts Cookies
1 cookie 2PP
2 cookies 3PP - you might as well have two, it's a better value!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Stick Margarine
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar substitute(Splenda)
3 Tbsp honey
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp table salt
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup White Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup Kashi Cereal 7 Whole Grain Nuggets (can sub Grape Nuts)

 Instructions:

Cream together ICBINB stick with brown sugar and splenda. Add honey, egg, vanilla and mix. Mix in soda and salt. Add rest of dry ingredients and mix until it comes together.
Bake 350° for 10 minutes.

I altered the original Grape Nuts cookies recipe to make it more Weight Watchers friendly and lower the PointsPlus a little.

Meringue Cookies

A sweet bite-sized chocolate cloud, the taste of toasted marshmallow, a little kick of espresso...mmmm. These are tasty little cookies. I started with a recipe from Weight Watchers and only deviated slightly. The original recipe suggests you make the meringue batter and then split into two halves. Flavor one with cocoa powder and leave the other vanilla. I started by dividing the batter into three. The first part combined vanilla-almond flavor (which gives the toasted marshmallow flavor to the "plain" ones), used unsweetened cocoa powder as suggested in the second, and in the third added instant espresso. They are yummy, but the vanilla-almond are my favorites.

Meringue Cookies
adapted from Weight Watchers
Serves: 22 | 2 cookies each **see yield note after recipe

4 large egg whites
½ tsp white vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
approx. 1 Tbsp. instant espresso powder

Preheat oven to 200ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until frothy. Add vinegar; beat until
soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add sugar; beat until glossy stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla and almond.

Remove 1/3 of meringue to another bowl; stir in cocoa until blended.
Remove additional 1/3 meringue and add espresso powder.

Spoon each flavor into zip top baggie and pipe onto baking sheets about 1 inch apart. Batter can be piped individually, or pipe half a tablespoon or so of 2 flavors and swirl together with a toothpick.

Bake until meringues feel dry and crisp all the way through, about 3 hours. Turn off oven;
leave meringues in oven for 1 hour. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks to cool completely.
Peel meringues off parchment and store in an airtight container at room temperature.
**Yields about 2 cookies per serving

**The recipe said @ 1 Tbsp each there would be about 44 cookies. I must have been extremely sparing on my Tbsp thinking because I ended up with 100 cookies. I do prefer them this way as they came out to be about 2 small bites worth each. Delicious and will definitely make them again. 

Recipe Review: Cranberry Bars

Want one?! Yeah, you do. These are so yummy! You can taste the spices in the crust, along with the sweetness of the crust, and then a little tartness. Overall they're sweet, but not excessively so. Next time I think I'll use a slightly larger pan because I'd prefer the crust a little thinner. Maybe will try it on a jelly roll sized pan or my Pampered Chef bar pan. They go together pretty quickly - the only part that takes too long is waiting for them to cool enough to get one out of the pan without it crumbling apart and then burning your mouth because you threw it in there while it was crumbling. Who can wait 40 minutes for them to cool?!






Cranberry Bars
original recipe allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 (12 ounce) package whole cranberries
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup water
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon *I used Pampered Chef Cinnamon Plus spice blend in place of these 2 spices

Directions:  In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the cranberries, white sugar, and water. Cook, stirring occasionally until all of the cranberries have popped, and the mixture is thick, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, melted butter, and eggs. Stir in the oats, brown sugar, ginger and cinnamon. Set aside about 1 1/2 cups of the mixture, and spread the rest into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish**. Pack down to form a solid crust, getting it as even as possible. Spread the cooled cranberry mixture over the crust. Pinch off pieces of the remaining mixture and place evenly over the cranberry layer.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is lightly browned. Cool in the pan for about 40 minutes before slicing into bars.

	**I found that spraying the baking dish with cooking spray made the bars come out really easily. The cranberry mixture didn't get hard and stuck to the sides of the dish around the edges.

Baked Donut Balls

A week or two ago I came across a recipe on the Weight Watchers message boards for Baked Donut Balls. They sounded interesting and I happened to have everything I needed to make them.

Pretty simple ingredients. I thought I would help myself by using mini cupcake papers in the mini muffin pan, but that wasn't the best idea. While the donut balls did taste good, I think they would have looked better had I followed the directions and sprayed the pan with cooking spray.

They were hard to remove from the cupcake papers, but they came out light and airy and were delicious! I will be making them again - soon!

I had a little more batter than would fit in my mini muffin pan so I made about 5 little pancakes with the left over batter. Equally delish!







Baked Donut Balls
Adapted from WW community message boards

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp Bisquick reduced-fat baking mix
1/4 cup Splenda granular (sugar substitute)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg (or equivalent in egg substitute)
2/3 cup skim milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp Splenda granular (sugar substitute)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Spray a 12 hole mini muffin pan with butter flavored cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, combine baking mix, 1/4 cup Splenda and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Add egg, skim milk and vanilla extract. Mix well to combine. Drop by spoonfuls into prepared muffin pan. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes. Place muffin pan on a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes.

Remove balls from pan. In a ziploc plastic bag, combine sugar coating ingredients and place warm donut balls in 2 or 3 at a time and shake to coat.

I'm completely Smitten!

After reading the Foodie Footsteps post about granola bars yesterday, I clicked over to Smitten Kitchen for the first time and read through her recipe for Thick, Chewy Granola Bars and then went straight to the kitchen to make a batch of my very own. All I can say is "oh my." I've made a batch or two of granola bars from allrecipes before, with a few alterations, and they were pretty good and got good reviews from D.

BUT the S.K. granola bars (which I'm inclined to call "kitchen sink granola bars" because you can put just about anything in there!) are by far my absolute favorite! They beat the pants off of commercially prepared granola bars as far as taste and texture. Not to mention I know exactly what went into them! My version contained what I could find in my pantry that I thought would work okay: pepitas, sliced almonds, craisins, chopped dates, coconut, and some freeze dried fruit mixture. I also used a little almond extract, replaced the oat flour with whole wheat pastry flour, used agave nectar instead of honey, and added 2-3 Tbsp of Nutella to the wet ingredients. Baked in an 8x8 pan they came out thick and chewy just like the recipe says. I love these granola bars, and as others have mentioned, I had to portion them out and individually wrap them and put half the batch in the freezer for fear of eating the entire container ~ they are THAT good. Thank you Foodie Footsteps & Smitten Kitchen.

More Biscotti!!

Here is another biscotti recipe I've tried recently. After the success of the Gingerbread biscotti I wanted to try another one that wasn't "holiday" flavored. This one was tasty, but not as good as the gingerbread.

Snickerdoodle Biscotti

1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
3 large eggs
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 oz. white baking bar or candy coating.

1. Preheat Oven to 375.
2. Measure flours into a large bowl using the scoop and level method.
3. Add 1C Sugar, Baking powder, and salt & stir together.
4. Mix Oil Vanilla and whole eggs in a small bowl and add to the large
bowl, your dough will be dry and quite crumbly.
5. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead 7 or 8 times.
6. Divide in half. Shape each portion into a roll, and place them six or
so inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment.
7. Flatten each roll to 1 inch thick with wet fingers
8. Combine the 1 tablespoons Sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle rolls with
cinnamon sugar.
9. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.
10. Remove from the sheet and cool for 10 minutes.
11. Cut diagonally into 1/2 inch slices and lay them cut sides down on the
cookie sheet again.
12. Reduce oven temp to 325 and then bake 10 more minutes, turn over and
bake 10 more. They'll be soft in the middle but will harden as they cool.
13. Cool completely on a wire rack.

from Master Cook:
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 76 Calories; 1g Fat (17.6% calories
from fat); 2g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 18mg Cholesterol;
50mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Fat; 1/2 Other
Carbohydrates.