Granola bars are such a great breakfast or snack.  I usually snack on almonds throughout the day but this week I decided granola bars would be a nice change for me so I made Giada's Chewy Granola Bars from her cookbook "Giada's Feel Good Food".  I actually followed the recipe and only made minor changes to it, and the granola bars turned out perfect!



The recipe called for 1/3 cup of raisins, 1/3 cup of dried cranberries and 6 dried apricots.  I'm not a huge fan of raisins so I added extra dried cranberries and I doubled the amount of dried apricots because I love apricots.  The recipe also calls for chopped almonds but I used sliced almonds instead.

3/4 cup honey
1/3 cup grapeseed oil
3 egg whites
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup flaxseed meal
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
12 dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.  Then place tin foil or parchment paper into the baking dish and spray the tin foil or parchment paper with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk the honey, grapeseed oil, egg whites and vanilla extract until blended.  In a separate bowl, whisk the oats, flaxseed meal, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together.  Then pour into the honey mixture.  Stir until combined.  Then add the almonds, walnuts, dried apricots and cranberries into the mixture and stir until combined.  Pour the mixture into your baking dish and spread the mixture with a spatula. 

Bake for about 35 minutes. 

Cool for about 30 minutes before removing the tin foil or parchment paper from the baking dish.  Then cut into squares.

This makes about 15 - 20 granola bars.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!  We survived another week!  Earlier this week, Luke and I made homemade ice cream with our Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker.  I can't even begin to tell you how great it is!  We absolutely love it!  It's so easy to use and the ice cream is so much better than any ice cream you buy in the store. 

This week we made chocolate caramel ice cream and then we made strawberry ice cream.  Both were so yummy!  We used the recipe that came with the ice cream maker because we haven't mastered the ice cream recipes yet.  Last night, we decided to make a milkshake using the strawberry ice cream. 


Strawberry Milkshake for one:

1 Pint of strawberry ice cream
1/4 cup of milk (for thinner shake add more milk)
1/4 cup of strawberry's diced small (add a tablespoon of sugar)
1/4 cup of cool whip (thawed)

First, put your diced strawberries into a bowl.  Sprinkle about a tablespoon of sugar over the strawberries and let it sit for a few minutes.  Next, spoon the pint of ice cream and cool whip into a blender along with the milk and diced strawberries.  Blend until combined. 

By the way, I mentioned last week that Izzy seemed to be feeling deprived of my attention so I spent a lot of time with her last weekend.  I threw tennis balls for her to fetch in the backyard, we went for a walk and I gave her a new toy.  As you can see, she was a happy girl!



I think she was very ready for me to go back to work on Monday though.  She was totally exhausted.  I don't think she could have handled a third day with me. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Yesterday morning, it occurred to me that today was St. Patrick's Day.  The day just snuck up on me, but I had to do something to recognize St. Patrick's Day.  While I was trying to figure what I was going to make, I starting thinking back to a weekend we spent in Savannah, Georgia a long time ago.

When I was about eight or nine years old, I was in the Girl Scouts.  My Girl Scout troop spent a weekend in Savannah so we could learn more about this history of the Girl Scouts and tour the house of the Girl Scouts founder, Juliette Gordon Low.  It was St. Patrick's Day weekend.

I had never seen St. Patrick's Day the way I saw it in Savannah.  All of the lines in the street were painted green, the water in all of the fountains were green and the adults walking around downtown Savannah were drinking green beer.  It was fascinating to all of us!

One of my lifelong friends decided to walk around and balance on the edge of one of the fountains.  I also need to add she was wearing all white (white wind suit, white socks and white tennis shoes).  Several of the chaperones told her she needed to get down but she wasn't having it so she continued.  The next thing we knew, there was a green splash.  She'd fallen in and when she climbed out, her entire white outfit was a pale green.  She had to walk through the street of Savannah back to the hotel in her wet, newly green clothes.  I laugh every time I think about that.  My friend is such a great person and a great sport so I know if she's reading this, she's laughing as hard as I am typing this.  ;)

For St. Patrick's Day, I decided to make St. Patty's Day Cake Pops.  The cake pop recipe is actually my mom's recipe.  She started making red velvet cake pops and brownie pops years before it became popular.  My mom is such creative cook!!

1 box yellow cake mix
1 8oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1 lb. vanilla flavored almond bark, melted
Green food coloring
Cake Pop sticks

Follow the instructions on the cake mix box and bake accordingly.  Allow the cake to cool.  Cut off the edges of the cake because the edges are too crisp to use.  Then remove the center of the cake from the pan and put into a bowl.  You want the cake to still be warm when you add the cream cheese.  Mix the cake and cream cheese together with your hands.  Pinch off bite size pieces and roll into balls.  Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.


Place in the freezer for about an hour.  Melt the vanilla flavored almond bark.  Once melted, pour in a few drops of green food coloring and stir.  Dip on end of the cake pop stick into the melted almond bark and press the end of the stick into the center of the cake pops.  ***Don't push the sticks all the way through the cake pops.***


Place the cake pops back into the freezer for a couple more minutes to make sure they're still cold and holding together.  Then dips the balls into the almond bark and set to dry.  I cut holes into an empty egg carton and put the ends of the cake pops into the holes so they would stand upright and dry smoothly.

Okay, so first I have to get this off my chest...why in the world did the producers choose Juan Pablo to be The Bachelor in the first place!?!??!!  I never understood how or why he was chosen.  I remember all of this talk about how he was "the sexiest bachelor ever" and the previews kept referring to how women loved his accent.  Maybe I'm crazy but I never saw the appeal and his accent never did anything for me.

After watching this season of the show, I was blown away by how insensitive, rude and arrogant he was.  I feel so sorry for the girls who were on this season.  What a waste of their time and what a disappointment.

So now that I've gotten that off my chest, on to a sweeter, more pleasant subject.  :)  This week I've been in the mood for something chocolatey with a hint of caramel so I told Luke I wanted to create a turtle cupcake or a turtle cookie.  Luke with blunt-self said he'd rather have cookies, but then he had to add "aren't there tons of recipes for turtle cookies already".  I told him I was sure there were but I was going to make my own version. :)

This is what I came up with...



1 stick (1/2 cup) and 2 tbsp of butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven, to 350 degrees.  Cream the butter/margarine and sugar together.  Then add the egg and vanilla extract.



In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  To make sure there aren't any clumps, whisk the all purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda and salt together.



Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. 

Once combined, stir the chocolate chips and chopped pecans into the batter.



Using a small ice cream scoop, drop about 2 tbsp. per cookie onto a greased cookie sheet.  As I mentioned before, I hate cleaning dishes so I always place tin foil on the cookie sheet before I cook on it to avoid having to clean a sticky mess.



Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.  This makes about 26 cookies.



For the caramel drizzle, there are 2 recipes to choose from depending on how much you like caramel.  The first recipe is a thinner, milder caramel flavor but the second recipe is thicker and richer in flavor.

The Milder Caramel Drizzle:

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 1/2 tbsp. butter or margarine

In a saucepan, stir the brown sugar and water together over medium low heat.  Once combined, increase the heat and bring to a boil and continue stirring.  Boil for about 5 minutes (until it's a light caramel color).  Remove from heat and let cool.

OR

The Richer Caramel Drizzle:

2 sticks (1 cup) of butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar, packed

In a saucepan, melt the butter.  Once melted, add the brown sugar.  Bring to a boil and continue to stir until it turns a light caramel color.  Remove from heat and let cool.



Once the caramel sauce you choose to make has cooled, drizzle the caramel sauce over the cooled cookies and enjoy! :)


 

I love chocolate and peanut butter...who doesn't?  The other day, I was in the mood to bake but I didn't have the time or the energy to bake something from scratch so I got out the Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies box mix.  The baked box mix brownies would have been delicious on their own but I always have to make recipes my own so of course I couldn't just bake the brownies and call it a day. 



I thought about adding peanut butter and chocolate chips but then I remembered the package of Reese's peanut butter chips I had found in the grocery store earlier that week.  After following the box mix instructions for fudgy brownies (if your prefer cake-like brownies, there are instructions on the box), I added the entire package of Reese's peanut butter chips and a cup of Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips.   

In my opinion, there is nothing like a fudgy gooey chocolate peanut butter brownie!!! :)

For Fudgy Brownies:

1 box of Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies mix
1 egg (for cake-like brownies, use 2 eggs)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 package of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips
1 cup Hershey's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix the brownie mix, egg, water and vegetable oil together.  Once combined, stir in the Reese's Peanut Butter Chips and Hershey's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips.

I made Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies earlier this week.  Luke said they were "amazing".  I have to say I thought they turned out yummy too. :)

Several years ago, I found a recipe for Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cookies on the Food Network website.  Over the years, I've made those cookies several times, and they're delicious!  However, this time I decided to add a few couple of changes to the recipe, and this is what I came up with...

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (I use Hershey's Natural Unsweetened Cocoa)
1 cup dark chocolate chips (I use Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I use JIF)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Stir the flour, salt and baking soda together in a bowl.  Then in a separate bowl, using a mixer, mix the butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla extract, peanut butter and cocoa together.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.  Once combined, stir the chocolate chips into the mixture.  For each cookie, drop about 1 to 2 tablespoons of dough onto a greased baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes.  This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies.



  

I love appetizers/snack foods on New Years Eve.  One of my favorite dips was the melted Kraft Velveeta cheese with rotel tomatoes and hot (spicy) sausage, but since I don't eat sausage anymore, I can't eat my favorite dip anymore.  I was craving that dip last night so I decided I had to recreate it, and I think it turned out pretty good!  ;)

Recreated Queso Dip

1 16 oz. pkg. of Kraft Velveeta cheese
1 can Original Rotel
1 can black beans (rinsed)
1 bag of Tostitos (Crispy Rounds are my favorite)

I cut the Velveeta cheese in cubes and then dropped them into the crockpot.  Then I poured the can of rotel tomatoes and the rinsed black beans into the crockpot.  I put the lid on and turned the crockpot on high.  I stirred the dip every 10 minutes to make sure everything was blended together.  After about 30 minutes, the dip was ready to eat.

Thank you for visiting our blog!  We look forward to sharing our recipes with you!  Our plan is to share a variety of recipes with you.  Luke and I both love to cook and I also love to bake which works out great for Luke and his sweet tooth! ;)

Even though we're both from the South, Luke and I were exposed to very different foods when we were growing up.  He grew up eating traditional Southern foods but I didn't.  One of my grandmothers is British so she didn't cook traditional Southern food and my other grandmother is from the Ohio/Kentucky area so she doesn't cook traditional Southern food either. 

Luke grew up eating country fried steak, cornbread dressing (or dressin') with giblet gravy, and candied yams.  I had never eaten any of those foods before Luke came into my life.  I have to say I hated the country fried steak and the giblet gravy grossed me out a little, but I love, I mean LOVE the candied yams!!!

About a year and a half ago, I decided to change my eating habits.  I decided I no longer wanted to eat meat.  I told Luke I'd eventually eat fish again but I wanted to go without any meat for about a year.  As promised, I started eating fish again a few months ago, but I only eat fish or shellfish once a week (usually on Sundays).  Luke and I cook together every Sunday evening.  We turn on some music, have a drink and enjoy each other's company while we cook.  I look forward to this time every week.  Life gets so busy during the week that we don't have a lot of time to just enjoy each other.  For all you couples out there, I highly recommend you take the time to cook with each other and just have fun!!

For now, I'll leave you with a quick and yummy treat for you to try.  They're called Snowballs.  I wish I could claim this particular recipe but it's one I learned from my mom.  She's been making these for as long as I can remember, and they couldn't be easier to make!

All you need is a 1 lb. package of Almond Bark, creamy peanut butter, Rice Krispies and mini marshmallows.

First you melt the Almond Bark in a microwave safe bowl for about 2 minutes (check on it after a minute and stir).  Once it's melted, stir in 3 tablespoons of peanut butter.  Then pour 3 cups of Rice Krispies and 3 cups of mini marshmallows into the mixture. 


Once it's all incorporated, dollop about 2 tablespoons per snowball onto wax paper.

Once the snowballs are set, they're ready to eat!


I hope you enjoy!!! :)