"Make Your Own Monday": Granola Bars

If you have met my oldest child, Samuel, you may be aware that he is one of the worst eaters on the face of earth. I'd buy the kid a fresh lobster if he would only try it. Just one BITE. But No.

"Granola bars" are an entire food group for him. Or maybe the food group is actually the cereal group, but anyway....he eats a lot of granola bars.

I've been making my own fresh granola for quite some time now, so I don't know why it took so long for me to realize that I could, in fact, make granola bars as well.

Especially considering that the type he favors, the chewy kind with chocolate chips and what have you, are LOADED with sugar and artificial ingredients. Once I realized how easy it was to make them, I felt guilty for letting him eat so many garbage ones.

I googled "chewy granola bar recipes" and looked at several recipes to determine the best way to go about making some of my own.

First I melt just a little butter in a large bowl. I then added peanut butter and honey. Add a dash of vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, whatever you like. For the kids' bars, I use oatmeal, rice crispies cereal, and wheat germ. Stir. Spread. Bake. Cool. Cut. Eat. You might want to try some different combos to get your preferred texture and thickness. My husband and I like the crunchy granola bars...so...I spread them thinner and bake them a bit longer when I make them for us. The trick to this is to find what works for you. If you like the chewy granola bars, you will want your mixture to be moist going into the oven, put in a smaller pan, and perhaps baked for a bit less. (Hint: add more goop for moisture and sweetness.) I feel like each time I make these they are different but still good.

YOU control the mix-ins. The boys love chocolate on theirs, so after baking, I sprinkle some semi sweet chips over the top of the hot granola and then spread thinly over the top. I think that cuts down on the actual chocolate but makes them seem very fancy. Christian and I are currently on a coconut kick, so the last batch I made for us were a lot like the crunchy oats and honey variety available in stores, but with some coconut and craisins.

Oh look, here they are:

Left is the "kids" granola bars before chocolate chips (I LOVE them too) and the right is the grown up version. They are both on cookie sheets, but the peanut butter ones are thicker :-)

If they are crumbly, which sometimes happens to me, I bag them up and put the crumbs in Greek yogurt.

Yes, there is still sugar. You may or may not use chocolate or nuts. But it's totally in your control.

My entire family is just crazy for these. And considering the main ingredient is oatmeal, I feel like I'm probably saving money, because you can get 9 pounds of oatmeal for less than 5 dollars if you buy in bulk. More importantly, they are DEFINITELY healthier than the kind I used to buy.

If anyone is interested, I will measure out my next batch and publish a more specific recipe. Or you can be brave and try it! Anyone?

"Make Your Own Monday": Broth/Stock

I go through a LOT of broth when I cook. I make soup once or twice a week, because it's cheap and healthy. I use it for other recipes as well. If you like to cook, you probably use broth or stock often as well.

Although certainly convenient, I find several problems with store bought broth:
It's expensive. If you're lucky, you can get the quart boxes on sale 2/$5
It's high in sodium.
I have yet to figure out what "natural flavors" actually ARE.

I have been making my own broth for a few years now. As a vegetarian (I recently began eating fish, for the record), I use mainly vegetable broth. (There is NO SUCH THING as vegetable STOCK. Stock implies the use of bones.) Here's a snapshot of my last batch:



I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Maybe because I spilled over a quart of it all over my counter/floor. I am still grumbling about that!


Making broth is so cinchy that you won't believe you ever PAID for it. (Well, of course you have to pay for the ingredients. But it's highly likely that you already have all of the ingredients in your cupboards and/or fridge.)

Think of it kind of like making tea. You steep all the flavor out into hot water. The first time I made broth, I did follow a recipe. Since then, I just use what I have. This particular pot includes:
a few onions, halved, skin on
a few cloves of garlic
a few carrots, cut into 3-4 pieces each (ends trimmed)
a few stalks of celery
about a TB of whole peppercorns
salt
some thyme I had hanging out in the fridge

I fill my dutch oven with water, put the stuff in, and let it simmer away for several hours. Then I strain the stuff (basically aromatics), jar up the broth, and use at my leisure. One of the best parts: my house smells SO GOOD while it is simmering...reminds me of Thanksgiving.

Simmering seeps out all the flavors, colors, and nutrients of the vegetables.

Really. Yes, it's that easy. (Spill warning! It could happen.) You can use whatever you want to make this. I sometimes make a spicy Asian version (which I then use to make Asian-inspired soups and sauces for stir fry) into which I put a chili pepper (if I have one), soy sauce, and a chunk of ginger. Put your own twist on it. As one of the Food Network chefs, Claire Robinson, says, "BYOC: Be your own chef!" SO GOOD.

You control the flavor. You control the sodium. No MSG. Good way to use up ingredients that are just sitting in your fridge.

Think about it this way: the most expensive ingredient I put in there was peppercorns, which is something I ALWAYS have. I used about a TB, so it is still inexpensive. Even so, let's round up and say they cost a whole dollar. Carrots are cheap. Celery is cheap. Onions are cheap. You get my drift. You can make a whole gallon of broth with 2-3 carrots, 2-3 stalks of celery, 2-3 onions, etc. Use what you have. If you have herbs in your fridge, use those too. It's a free for all. If you want to break down prices of individual vegetables, you probably make 1 or 1-1/2 gallons of vegetable broth for $3. Store it however you like. I tend to put mine in jars for easy pouring. (Did I mention that I spilled a little over a quart of my last batch? ha.)

Same principles apply to making meat-based stock. If you roast a chicken for dinner one night, don't throw away the carcass. Even if you just make bone-on breasts, keep the bones. You can freeze the bones if you don't have time to make your stock right away. What a great recyclable way to cook. Cover it with water, add your aromatics, and simmer for a long time. Strain the "stuff". Any meat on the bones will cook right off. You will have to skim the top. (FYI, the stuff you skim off is edible, but if you simmer instead of boil and skim it off, your stock will be crisp and clear.) Same for turkey (my husband L-O-V-E-S turkey noodle soup after Thanksgiving!) Beef broth can be very rich if you want to add a splash of red wine or smoky with a few dashes of Worchestire sauce or even A1!!! (I have ever made any kind of seafood or fish stock, so I can't offer advice on making that type of stock.)

Can you tell I get really excited about broth/stock? It's so easy. It's so cheap. It has a wide variety of uses in the kitchen. (Don't let your brain stop with soup. Make your rice using stock instead of water sometime. Yum. Go from there.) It's one of those things that really lets you do what you want to do and allows you to control what you're cooking with and putting back into your body.

Try it. Let me know how you make out!