Chocolate Hazelnut Granola

Now that I'm a mom, breastfeeding takes a lot out of me. As in I'm hungry ALL THE TIME! I love granola because you can pack a lot of energy and nutrition into a small snack. Plus, oats are great for improving your milk supply if you're breastfeeding. For a while I was just having my husband buy me granola cereal at the grocery store. Then on our last shopping trip, as I looked glumly at the comparatively large price tags and small box sizes of the granola-y cereals I decided my money would be much better spend on some oats and nuts to make my own granola. I was also motivated by the ingredient lists on many of the mixed grain cereals available. Sure the Post Great Grains cereal I'd been eating before was delicious and healthier than say Coco Puffs, but sugar was still listed higher on the label than oats were.
So on to the granola making! Yesterday morning after I let the dog out, I whipped up a batch of granola, popped it in the oven, and by the time I'd finished my pre-breakfast morning chores, the granola was ready. Awesome!
Making your own granola is seriously easy and not a huge money investment for a kitchen stocked with some basics. Rolled oats can be bought in a large can for about the same price as those expensive store bought granolas; you'll get enough to make serveral batches of granola, or change it up and make oatmeal, cookies, bread... yum! Nuts are a little pricier depending on what kind you get but worth the investment I think and you only need about a cup for every 3 cups of oats. I have lots of walnuts and almonds on hand anyway because I use them in my baking all the time.
I found a great mix and match granola recipe here and came up with a chocolate hazelnut recipe.

Dry:

• 3 cups of rolled oats
• 1 cup of choppped hazelnuts
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Wet::

• 2/3 cup honey
• 2 tbsp canola oil

Instructions:

Easy peasy! Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a 13x9 in cake pan with foil. Use a spatula to mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the wet and mix that in too. Dump the oat mixture into your baking pan and bake for 50 minutes, stirring once about half way through. For optimum crunchy goodness, let cool and store in an airtight container.
Enjoy!

A Good Granola Bar is Hard to Find

Last night I made my first ever batch of homemade granola bars and they turned out pretty good!
I love all the potential health benefits of a good granola bar but it's hard to find everything I'm hoping for in one granola bar. Bars I've bought in stores seem to range from glorified rice crispy treats (Special K bar anyone?) to teeth-breaking sawdust bricks. Well I want a lot in the perfect granola bar; it's a balancing act of chewy and crunch, sweet but not toothache sweet, and of course ingredients that pack a healthy punch and taste great.
So I decided to make my own granola bars. How hard could it be right? I did a quick internet search of granola bar recipes and found that the basic ingredients and process are mostly the same so I decided to make up my own recipe with what I had available. What I ended up with wasn't exactly what I planned (I was aiming for chocolate chip but I added the chips too soon and they melted) but they are no doubt yummy, solid granola bars!

Chocolaty Granola Bars: Makes ~16

2 1/2 cups oat fashioned oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 tbs vanilla
1/3 c honey
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c butter
1 c chocolate chips

Toss together oats, nuts, and vanilla on a rimmed cookie sheet. Toast in the oven at 350 F for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile measure out honey, sugar, and butter into a small sauce pan. Melt over low-medium heat, stirring to combine. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Press the combined mixture into a greased glass baking dish. I used 2 8x8 dishes and got 16 bars. Chill in the refrigerator before cutting.

I'll definitely continue experimenting with more granola recipes. They make a great, fast, healthy snack on the go making them perfect for this breastfeeding new mama!

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe time! Mr. & I finally have a weekend to ourselves and we are preparing in case we need to bunker down for the upcoming "Frankenstorm" (the weather folks are saying that a cold front from the west is going to collide with hurricane Sandy from the east to bring us snow all next week). So of course cookies are a must. Hey, oatmeal and dried fruit are healthy right???
Here's the recipe based on Food Network Magazine's Mix & Match chocolate chip cookies.

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients: 1/2 c softened butter or margarine
1/3 c white sugar
1/3 c light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (I was going to try 1/2 vanilla and 1/2 almond extract but didn't have the almond on hand)
1 c flour
1 c oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix ins: 3/4 c chocolate chips
1/3 c chopped dried cherries

Directions 
Beat butter and sugars until fluffy, beat in egg and vanilla.
In a separate bowl stir together remaining ingredients up to mix ins then beat this dry mixture into the wet.
Stir in mix ins until combined.
Refrigerate batter for about 30 minutes until it's cold and a little more firm.
Scoop onto cookie sheets and bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes.

Sweet Tooth

The weather is finally warming up and this key lime pie was perfect and easy!

NUTritious Chocolate

I made these little chocolates today as a treat.
Microwave a handful of chocolate chips until melted (go for dark, pleanty of antioxidents!) About 1 min stirring at 30s should be good.
Meanwhile chop dried fruit and nuts into small pieces, you want lots! 2-3 good handfuls per handful of chocolate. There should be just enough chocolate to coat and hold the ingredients together, not to be the main body of the mixture.
Now mix it all together and plop in spoonfuls onto foil then chill. Done and delicious!
 I made walnut-apricot and cranberry-almond but you can really use any combination you like. I just used what I had on hand but I imagine apple-pecan would be great too and lots more... I won't go on forever, just raid your pantry and be creative.

Making these reminded me of a favorite snack I thought I'd share. Try blending a banana with a generous splash of milk and a spoonful of nutella. Because the banana thickens the mixture, it's almost like you're drinking a chocolate milkshake.