Homemade Granola Bars

Mmmm....Chewy

The boys both love to snack and they super love to help me make granola bars.  It's great in their lunch, you can sneak nutritious things into it and it is mega easy to make.  Pretty much the only rule is that the oatmeal needs to bind together and there are a number of ways to make that happen.

Granola Bars ala Ashley

pre-heat oven to 350

4 cups of Oats (I prefer slow cooking, has more grain)

3/4 cup of Rye or Whole Wheat flour

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of Honey

1/4 cup of blackstrap molasses (optional, but so healthy)

1 cup of Sourdough Starter OR 1 cup mashed banana OR 1 cup of warmed peanut butter (this will bind it)*

handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips, or more...to your liking**

Combine your dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients and stir it all together.  It should form a loose mass of oat-y goodness.  If it is too dry and you can't incorporate all the ingredients add more honey or more of your binding ingredient.

Grease a 9X13 baking dish and press the granola into the pan.  I use a fork and just press everything into place eliminating any empty space.  Bake for 25 minutes.

*Some granola recipes use an oil to add wetness to the granola.  I am trying to make these granola bars healthy and suitable for packed lunches so I prefer to use the sourdough starter.  In fact, there are many recipes in which you can use sourdough starter in place of a fat such as oil or milk or butter...

**you could add so much awesome stuff to these bars such as nuts, dried fruit, wheat germ, flax seed....

The best sourdough pancakes/waffles ever

I have made this recipe as both pancakes and waffles and they were so so delicious.  You need to have sourdough starter on hand and soon I will work up some instructions starter but the google can also help you there.  And if you are lucky enough to live in the same city as me then I can share some with ya!

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Apple Muffins!

I was cruising the internet today looking for baking inspiration and the internet came up lacking. Since we had a large bag of apples in the fridge I decided we NEEDED to have apple muffins. I couldn't bring myself to make something with a cup of sugar and a whole stick of butter so I improvised.


Whole Wheat Cinnamon Apple Muffins

preheat oven to 350
makes 10 muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour (I didn't use pastry flour and it was okay)
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (I use sea salt)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 medium eggs
1/2 cup honey
1 cup applesauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 medium apples

In a large bowl whisk together all dry ingredients (but not the sugar). Crack two eggs into a medium mixing bowl and lightly beat them with a fork. Add the rest of the wet ingredients to the eggs and mix well. Add the brown sugar into the wet mixture. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients bowl and mix well. Peel and core the apples and chop up into a size that you would like to eat in a muffin. Rule of chopping: if you want to taste more of something, chop it up into large pieces. And of course if you want the taste of the item to be more subtle, chop it into smaller pieces. You could also grate the apple which is what I should have done so that I could have avoided Toddler Rejection.

Prepare a muffin pan. I like to drizzle a bit of olive oil into each muffin compartment and use my fingers to spread the oil around. You can also use muffin liners. Carefully spoon the batter into the pan.

Bake for 18 minutes on 350.