Thoughts for today

Some people say it so well!

I read a couple other blog posts this morning that I just had to post the links too because they were wonderful reminders to me and I hope you enjoy them as well.

Savor the Season by Rick Boyer

The Learning Parent

Choosing to Love

from At the Well

Soaked Granola bars

Well, better late then never..... right? Sorry I forgot to post this earlier, but here's this great recipe from Katie's new Heathy Snacks to Go e-book.

Soaked Granola Bars

4 1/2 cups soaked and dried oats (Directions for soaking and drying HERE)

1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 or 3/4 cup butter*

2/3 or 1 cup honey*

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup add-ins (mini chocolate chips, dried fruit, sunflower seeds, coconut, etc)

In a small saucepan, melt butter, honey and vanilla over low heat. Once butter is melted and bubbly, cook and stir for 5 minutes. (DO this! Don't cheat and just get the butter melted, it does actually need to COOK- not that I figured this out from experience or anything....!)

In a separate bowl stir together the dry ingredients. Mix the liquid with the oats. Incorporate add-ins at this point (mini chocolate chips melt, so you may want to cool first!)

* The difference in the quanities are in whether you want to make baked or unbaked granola bars......

For Unbaked- (Use the 2/3 cup honey and 3/4 cup butter)

Line a container of any kind with waxed paper. Press bar mixture in, well, with waxed paper. Allow to harden up (the refrigerator speeds it up but isn't necessary) and then cut into bars.

For Baked- (Use the 1 cup honey and 1/2 cup butter AND ADD 1 tsp baking soda to your dry ingredients and mix in throughly)

Press mixture into a greased 9x13 pan; use wax paper on your fingers to apply pressure. Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow to sit in pan until completely cool and then cute into bars.

Taste difference? Believe it or not, the 10 minutes in the oven does something considerable. The baked bars have a mouthfeel related to a cookie, but not quite and are less sweet. Unbaked bars are more like a sticky Quaker chewy bar but with 1 cup honey are much too sweet and more expensive anyway. You could make a half a batch of both and see what you prefer!

Makes about 20 bars.

My note..... I "think" I like the baked best. Not sure, both are good and are really pretty different. Your add-ins make a difference too. My unbaked ones tend to be really sticky, so they aren't great for the little kids when we are out and sometimes my baked ones turn out a little crumbly. BUT, I find if I refrigerate the baked ones they old together better when we are out!

I am going to play with a little more honey in mine next time- I am wondering if altitude makes a difference in them?

Healthy Snacks E-book GIVEAWAY!

And the WINNER IS....

Doodlebug's Mommy!!!

Thanks to everyone, and don't forget to check out Katie's site and get your own copy

A couple months ago, Katie at Kitchen Stewardship, introduced her E-book "Heathy Snacks to Go". I read a couple early versions and throughly enjoyed the recipes and snack ideas. Katie has offered to giveaway a free copy to someone this week!

This is a great book for finding some snack recipes beyond Cheerios and Goldfish! Yes, some of them are a little time consuming BUT once they are made, you have easy snacks on hand to grab for the park, car or late afternoon pick-me-up.

I made the wheat crackers a while back and shared that recipe with you there. And since the book came out we have enjoyed numerous versions of the granola bars. Soaked, unsoaked, baked and unbaked...... my favorites are the ones I have added mini dark chocolate chips to! The peanut butter kisses are one of our favorites too, and it's a really easy recipe to mix up quickly.

This book would be a great addition to any kitchen, but especially for those of you starting to think about school lunches or who pack lunches for their husbands, the $6.95 for this e-book is a great value.

You can take a peek at the table of contents HERE.

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post sharing YOUR favorite snack to make.

And don't forget to leave me a good email address to contact you at if you win!

For additional entries you can do any of the following, please leave a separate comment for each one!

Go over to Kitchen Stewardship and tell me which recipe listed you would like to try

Subscribe to Kitchen Stewardship emails or on a RSS feed

Subscribe to A Heavenly Perspective on RSS feed

The giveaway will be open till Friday and I will post a winner soon thereafter!

And if you don't want to wait to win a copy...... you can buy your own copy HERE!

Now.... I have oats soaking for granola and granola bars, so I must run! I will share the granola bar recipe later this week for you try on your own!

Wild Olive giveaway

Wild Olive has a giveaway going on!

I love their tee-shirts. I don't own one yet.

They don't make one in maternity!

BUT I would love to have a couple.

These are my favorites

GO HERE to enter and try and win your own!

Dutch Baby

This is the Dutch Baby recipe my mom made for us growing up, I love it still.

Here's a soaked option as well

Dutch Baby

1/4 cup butter

Place in a pie plate or 8" baking dish and put in oven to melt while preheating oven to 350 degrees.

In a blender mix:

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup flour (wheat works, but unbleached white is nicer!)

Blend well and pour into heated dish with melted butter.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes till puffed and lightly browned.

Serve immediately, it will "puff down" quickly, so this is one to get right on the table :-)

Serves 4

For a little variation, you can add 1/2 cup cooked apples and a tsp of cinnamon to the baking dish before pouring egg mixture on top. Very yummy!

Granola

I have several recipes for granola floating around. Depending on what else is going on I might choose one over the other. I really like Katie's recipes, soaked and unsoaked in her new book Healthy Snacks to Go. I think her granola recipe that is posted is slightly different from the one in the book......... so if you want a really good recipe, get her book :-)

Below is my recipe, it's not a soaked version, but makes a nice granola for gift giving, need a more traditional version or when you are ready to make granola and forgot about soaking...... no, I've never done THAT!

Here's a step by step on soaking and dehydrating oats as well.

We enjoy granola with a little milk or almond milk on it........ Or sprinkled liberally over yogurt....... Or a handful tossed onto the baby's tray to nibble on while I am making dinner...........

Granola

Mix together:

6 c. oats

2 c. bran cereal

¾ c. slivered almonds

¾ c. sunflower seeds

1 c. flaxseed meal

Heat in saucepan till blended:

1 c. honey

½ c. maple syrup

1/3 c. coconut oil

Pour over dry mixture and blend thoroughly

Pour into a shallow baking pan and cook at 250 for 2? hours, stirring every 30-40 minutes - (I forgot to time how long I actually cooked it!)

Cool completely

Add:

1 c. assorted nuts, chopped

1 c. coconut flakes

½ c. raisins

1 c. dried fruit

½ c. dark chocolate chips (if you like chocolate in your granola, my husband didn’t care for the chocolate, but liked the rest!)

Store in an airtight container. Serve with milk or over yogurt.

Waffles

This is a basic waffle recipe and my classic standby. It's from allrecipes.com, I just modify it all little bit. To make a soaked version, mix the flour and milk and add a teaspoon of vinegar the night before and add everything else in the morning. You can leave on the counter if you use raw milk, if you use regular milk I would refrigerate.

Waffles

2 cups flour (any mix will work, I usually use 1/2 unbleached white and 1/2 wheat or all wheat)

2 tsp baking powder

2 TB sweetener (depends on the moment, any version of sugar or honey works)

1 tsp salt

2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 TB oil (I use coconut or olive)

Mix well and cook on hot waffle iron.

Serves 4-6