overflowing

We had a busy week, followed by houseguests all weekend and I made a TON of food. Good food! I tried a few new recipes and they were all soooo good! I also made a few old regulars that we love and I realized that for some reason or not, they are not on this blog. I want to finally get them on here so I have access to them when I'm not at home. That's one of my favorite perks of this blog... I can get to all my favorite recipes wherever I am! That, and I don't have to email or write down recipes for people anymore... I can just direct them over here!

So. I have lots of recipes to get up on here and get caught up.
First I have to get these granola bars out of the way:
I've made these up quite a few times this winter, twice in the past week actually! The kids (usually) like them and since we no longer buy granola bars from the store (the peanut allergy) they've been happy to have granola bars again! These are a great filling snack or breakfast and you can doctor them up however you like. Thanks to Kim for the recipe!

Homemade Granola Bars
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I usually use a bit less)
1/2 cup wheat germ
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup raisins (optional)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350*. Generously grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well using your hands (this is why Sawyer LOVES to make this recipe!).
Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges.

Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be too hard to cut.

I always use a smaller pan... 7x11 or even 7x9x2... it makes for softer, chewier bars.
You can add whatever you like... I was out of raisins earlier this week so I just made them plain. I've also done plain with chocolate chips for a treat. This past weekend I did raisins and dried apples. Yum!

These were tried by four different people in and out of our house this past week and all gave rave reviews... they really are about the yummiest granola bars I ever expect to have!

Mmmm... fried food

I made an awesome impromptu dinner last night, if I do say so myself. We were off on our "menu plan" and I had nothing prepared or in mind. We did however, have an old(er) single piece of steak in the freezer and a ton of giant onions sitting in the pantry. Onions that are just begging to be made into onion rings. So I searched the internet for some good ideas and a great onion ring recipe. Boy did I luck out and find a great one!

First I thawed the steak, cubed it up and coated them to make steak "bites".
Here's how:
I mixed up 1 egg and a quarter cup of milk in a small bowl and let the steak bites soak for a mintue while I combined 1 cup of flour, 1 tsp of steak seasoning, some extra garlic powder and a little bit of cayenne in a gallon ziplock bag. I took the steak from the egg dip and put the pieces in the bag, sealed it up and shook to coat them all. Ryan fried them in the deep fryer. You can of course, just fry these in oil on the stove. The FryDaddy is sooo easy though! I think they fried for about 5 minutes in two batches.

Meanwhile, I went to work on the onion rings. I used this recipe and here's my low fuss process...
Put the 1 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt into a ziplock bag. I made nice big thick slices from our giant onion and threw them in the bag to coat. Then you fished them out and put them aside on a plate while you add 1 egg and 1 cup of milk to the ziplock bag. Seal it up and mash it all around good, mixing the milk/egg and flour mixture till it's a smooth batter. Then put the onions back in and work around with your hands to coat. Remove the onion rings and place on a rack over the sink or a baking pan and let the excess batter drip off of the rings. Put about a cup of breadcrumbs (I only had italian seasoned breadcrumbs handy) in a shallow dish and when the onion rings have stopped dripping, place them one at a time in the bread crumbs to coat. Then fry 'em up, just about a minute and a half on each side.

These are sooo good. Very simple flavor, but they are really so good! I might play around with it a bit next time because I have a Garlic Parmesan seasoning I thought may be really good with these, but honestly they are perfectly good on their own. I'm excited for this summer, because I'm predicting these will be a huge hit at our barbeques this summer.
I'm thinking I can make up a good batch somewhat ahead of time, have them battered and coated and ready to just have Ryan man the fryer when we're ready to eat!

Anyway, we enjoyed these steak bites, fabulous onion rings and a great big salad last night for dinner. Sawyer scarfed down the onion rings; I think he probably had close to a dozen rings! He loved 'em! I did too. I had to make myself stop. Luckily I only made one onion. Mind you, it was a HUGE onion, but at least the pile didn't go on and on like it could have, had I sliced up another. Try them!

Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips

This is also an old recipe I used to run to all the time... it's great for bbq's, parties, showers, etc or just to have on hand for a snack at home! It's an easy to make tasty fruit salsa with even easier homemade cinnamon tortilla chips.
I don't remember where I first got this recipe, online somewhere I'm sure. I use whatever fruits and preserves I have on hand, it's one of those that's great to throw together a different combination every time. Here are my typical ingredients:

2 kiwis, peeled and diced
1 golden delicious apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 (8 oz) package of raspberries
1/2-1lb strawberries, diced
1 nectarine, pitted, peeled and diced
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
3-4 tbsp fruit preserves, any flavor (I usually mix both apricot and strawberry)

Simply mix the fruits, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.
This amount fills (heaping) my 1 quart pyrex bowl, which is plenty for a get together of about a dozen people.

For the cinnamon chips all you need is
10 (10inch) flour tortillas
butter flavored cooking spray
2 cups cinnamon sugar

Coat one side of each flour tortilla with butter flavored cooking spray. Cut into wedges ( use a pizza cutter) and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle wedges with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Spray again with cooking spray.
Bake in preheated 350* oven for 8-10 minutes.
Allow to cool about 15 minutes.
Serve with chilled fruit mixture.

I've made this twice in the past week to make up for my years of neglecting this great party appetizer... once for a bbq with our church and once for our game night last weekend. It was devoured at both.
Also, we made pancakes for brunch following our game night and Ryan came up with the great idea of using the fruit mixture as a compote over the pancakes... YUM!!

Homemade Applesauce

*Edited to Add* Sawyer loved it! He ate a whole big bowl at dinner and asked for more.

I love homemade applesauce. I love anything baked with apples, but that's beside the point!

Here's my favorite Crockpot Applesauce recipe:
8-10 apples, peeled, quartered, cored, and sliced through food processor
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Put water and apples in slow cooker on low for 6-8 hours.
Add brown sugar and cinnamon and cook for 30 minutes longer.
Simple as that.
Yummy.

Here's also another version I have sitting in my cookbook along side this one. I have never tried it because I love the basic version so much, but doesn't this sound good??...
Caramel Applesauce
31/2 lbs of Granny Smith Apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 jar of caramel topping sauce
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Cook at on low for 8 hours.

Carrot Cake Recipe

Since Sawyer is so anti-vegetable, I'm trying to sneak it in other places. We had carrot cake at my sister's house for her birthday and Sawyer devoured it. I'm going to try out a few recipes of healthier versions so I can use it more as a snack cake than a dessert for the kids. Here's my first attempt. I put in a ton of carrot and a ton of apple. And no walnuts. I hate nuts.

Carrot Cake Recipe

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups grated carrots
1 1/2 cups grated peeled apples
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts

Mix together the sugar, oil and eggs until the mixture is slightly thickened. Sift the flours together with the soda, salt and cinnamon.

Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture. Add the carrots, apples, raisins and walnuts. Stir until evenly mixed.

Bake in a greased and floured pan, 9"x13"x2" or a bundt type pan or two round cake pans. Bake at 350ºF for 35-40 minutes if using the 13" long pan. 30-35 minutes for round and 40-45 for bundt.

Always check for doneness by piercing the center of the cake with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it's done.

Let the cake cool and ice with the cream cheese icing below.

I, however didn't ice it... I made the bundt cake and just slice and hand it out. So far so good. It really is moist and yummy! I don't think this one will be around for long!

Variation:

• Replace the grated apple with an equal amount of crushed pineapple that has been well drained. It adds a wonderful bit of tropical flavor to the cake and blends well with the carrots and raisins.

Cream Cheese Icing

4 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar

Blend all together and spread over cooled cake.

If you are making a layered carrot cake in the round pans and want to put some icing between the layers, double this recipe to make sure you have enough.


Variation:

• If you want to drizzle the icing on a bundt style cake you will need to make it thinner. Do this by adding warm water to the icing a few drops at a time until it is the right consistency. Don't add too much water at one time. It's easier to add a bit more than try to fix runny icing.