Homemade Granola "Bites"

Greetings, all! Hope everyone is doing well. I'm back from sunny CA where temperatures were in the 60's during the day....this bitter cold weather in Boston is a shock to the system, I tell ya! We had a great time running the Surf City half marathon (below is a picture of my sister and me after the race :)) and seeing some of the sites on the west coast. And now it's back to reality! And you know what that means...another yummy Barbershop treat for you!

I made homemade granola bars (or "bites" - you'll see why I call them bites later on) to bring along on our trip because I actually forgot to buy some granola bars at the store to bring! Luckily I had all the necessary ingredients on hand, so I whipped up a batch before we left. I decided to use the Food Network's Barefoot Contessa's recipe for homemade granola bars since it received such high ratings online. I would have to agree with the ratings too, as these were quite the delicious snack!

To start, in the oven, you toast oatmeal, almonds, coconut. Meanwhile, on the stove, cook the butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt (note: I did not have quite enough honey so I used molasses to make up the difference).

Once the toasted mixture of dry ingredients come out of the oven, you combine them with the liquid mixture just cooked on the stove...I also added flaxseeds (maybe 1/8 to 1/4 cup). You can see them in the bottom of the dish below!

And the rest of the dry ingredients...

Once that mixture is well coated with the liquid mixture, add your other ingredients. The recipe I followed calls for dried cranberries, chopped dates, and chopped apricots... I added some craisins that I had on hand (but it was probably only 1/3 cup or so) and some chopped dates. I did not have apricots though. As a substitute for the items I didn't have, I added sunflower seeds and chocolate chips. :-D I figured chocolate would be a great addition. Wouldn't you agree? Oh, I also forgot to mention that I did not add wheat germ since I didn't have it on hand.

Once all the ingredients are well-combined, everything gets baked in a 13 x 9 pan at 300 degrees. The recipe says to bake it for 25 to 30 minutes, but mine was a nice golden brown after just 20 minutes so check yours early!

Pre-baking...

Post-baking!

The mixture needs to cool for at least 2 or 3 hours, so feel free to spend that time doing something else fun or productive while you wait. ;-)

I read some of the online reviews of this recipe that it was difficult to cut them into bars. I tried to at first but also found it challenging to cut them evenly... So instead, I just broke them into pieces of various sizes with my hands. I think I'll call them granola "bites" as a result. They're a bit more fun sounding that way too, don't you think?! No matter the shape, they're super tasty - I promise!

These granola bites are definitely on the crunchy side, so if you're expecting a chewy texture you'll be surprised! I looooved the flavor combo of the different ingredients added...craisins, coconut, almonds, chocolate, etc. Delicious! Unfortunately, the recipe online did not provide nutritional stats, so I can't tell you how many calories, grams of fat, etc. are in these. However, most of the add-in ingredients have great nutritional value on their own (e.g., dates, oatmeal, almonds) so I think these can certainly be a guilt-free snack. ;-) We definitely enjoyed them on our trip! They helped us run FAST in our race, I'm convinced of it!!!

See you again soon!

Butternut Squash Dip

Greetings and happy February! I have a fun recipe for you here that doesn't involve baking! In fact, it doesn't even involve the stove or oven at all!! All you need is your handy dandy microwave. ;-) This is a recipe for a deeeelicious dip made with butternut squash. I made this for the first time for our New Year's Eve gathering and have been meaning to share it with you ever since then! I fell in love with this dip immediately. Why? Well, there are a few reasons...  First of all, it's YUMMY. It's so yummy that it's addicting. Seriously. Secondly, it's EASY. So easy. Thirdly, it's fairly healthy! Well, it's healthy in the sense that it contains the nutrient-laden veggie of butternut squash. Two of the other ingredients, parmesan cheese and sour cream, may not be so healthy themselves...but if you enjoy this in moderation, you're still going to gain the benefits of the squash but not too many calories!

As I said, this recipe is simple. It involves:

Microwaving frozen butternut squash.

Mixing that with sour cream, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.

EATING.

That's it!

Oh, and here's the actual recipe I followed so you know the measurements when you're making this yourself. :) I know you're going to!!

Here are a couple pics of the dip and several other goodies we had for NYE (over a month ago now!).

I have had this dip cold, at room temp, and warm. It's delicious any way, I promise you! I still can't decide which is my favorite. I've served this with crackers and veggies so far. I haven't served it with bread yet, so I'll have to do that next time (maybe a sliced, toasted baguette would be yummy?!). As I said above, it's addicting. Watch out!!

Mmmmmmm.

I'm off to sunny California first thing tomorrow morning to run a half marathon this weekend! It'll probably be a week or so until I can blog again, but I look forward to bringing you another tasty Barbershop treat soon. As usual, I have several waiting on deck!

Oh, one more thing...  I'd love your opinion on my new blog layout and design! I thought I'd change it up a bit. It's still not definite that I'll keep this, but I'd love your thoughts to help me make my decision. Thanks!! :)

Layered Oatmeal Date Bars

I have a confession to make. I have become obsessed with dates. Noooo, not the romantic kind (although that kind of date is obviously nice too! haha). I am obsessed with dates, the fruit! For the last couple months they have been a staple in my kitchen. In fact, I've been buying them in bulk at BJ's because I have been eating them so much! Did you know that dates are packed with all sorts of good nutritional value? Some highlights include that they're high in fiber, low in fat, high in potassium, easily digested, and are a great source antioxidants...and due to all these great qualities, they may help fight cancer, lower blood pressure, and lower the risk of digestive disorders. However, they are slightly high in calories (not too bad though), so be sure to enjoy them in moderation! You can read more about the nutritional benefits of dates here and here. Of note, I just noticed that the first of those two sites says that dates are low in calories, but the second one says they're high in calories. One date is about 25 calories or so...for a low-calorie, energy boosting snack, you can definitely enjoy four or five dates. Just don't eat 15 or 20 at a time, I guess!!

Phew! I didn't mean for that to be a science or nutrition lesson. :-P

Back to business...the bottom line is that I am lovin' dates these days! Lately, I've mainly been eating them as a snack at work or for a burst of energy before heading out for a run. However, I recently thought to myself, I really should bake some sort of delicious treat with dates! So I did. ;-)

I don't remember how I came across this recipe for date bars (I actually wasn't on the hunt for a date-related baking recipe at the time), but I'm glad I found it! You can check out this "keeper" of a recipe here on a blog called "Miss Anthropist's Kitchen."

All in all, this was a pretty simple recipe. The most time consuming part was chopping the dates. If you look at the recipe, you'll notice that it calls for 3/4 pound of pitted dates. What does that mean in terms of typical baking measurements?! Well, I do not own a kitchen scale, so I just took a guess! I made this recipe with two cups of chopped dates, and it seemed to work out perfectly. The huge bag of dates from BJ's that I have is 40 ounces, which is 2.5 pounds, so I chopped up what I estimated to be about 1/3 of the bag....or slightly more than 3/4 pound. And that ended up being the equivalent of two cups after I chopped them. Maybe not the most scientific method, but it worked!

It's time for the part when you can take a break from reading my rambling and look at some pictures. :)

DATES! How I love thee.

Roughly two cups of chopped dates are in that bowl...

Time to cook them on the stove! This was what they looked like when they began cooking.

And here they are, ready to go in the baking dish....much "mushier" than when they began cooking.

Layer of dry/crumbly ingredients on the bottom...

Next comes the layer of the date mixture!

Evenly spread. :)

And finally, one more layer of the dry/crumbly mixture.

In the oven! My photo wasn't exactly centered. Whenever I open the oven to take a picture, I make it quick and clearly don't pay close attention to whether my item is centered!

The finished product, golden brown on top.

Check out those layers!

Here's a nice close-up view of the layers!

A few thoughts on these layered oatmeal date bars. 1) They're delicious and nutritious! Sure, there are a few ingredients in them that aren't the best for you, but I think they're much more of a guilt-free dessert than many other bars out there!  2) The date layer is the middle is SO tasty...and the top and bottom layers are darn good too! At first, I was afraid that the crumbly mixture was going to be too dry and crumbly. As it turns out, it wasn't. However, next time I make these, I think I'll try experimenting with putting less flour in the recipe (maybe just 1 cup instead of 1.5 cups?). I think I'd keep the quantity of oats the same though.  3) I did not use any applesauce in place of some of the butter, like "Miss Anthropist" did. Maybe next time! I did use half all-purpose and half whole wheat flour though. Also, I added about two tablespoons of brown sugar early on when the dates were cooking on the stove. Then, when they only had a couple more minutes to go, I added a couple tablespoons of flour to thicken the mixture. 4) I greased my baking pan. The recipe doesn't explicitly say to do that, but I decided to...not sure that the bars would have stuck if I did not grease the pan, but they definitely didn't stick after I greased it, so I say go ahead and grease the pan - just lightly is fine.  5) I have had at least one of these bars every day since I made them... And I think I'll be continuing my love affair with dates into the future. ;-)

So long for now from the Barbershop!

3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Hi friends! I hope those of you who live in the northern latitudes are staying warm. BRRRR. It sure is cold out there this weekend!! You know, you can always warm up by making the split pea, carrot, and cannellini bean soup I posted about a few days ago. ;-) And then, for a dessert option, how about these quick 3-ingredient peanut butter cookies? I tell ya - these are the easiest cookies EVER!! 

Can you guess which three ingredients go into these tasty treats? I bet you guessed peanut butter...I mean, that's pretty obvious. The other two? Egg and sugar! That's all. I promise. This link will show you the recipe that I followed. If you're like me, you always have pb, eggs, and sugar on hand, so you can make these in a flash at anytime! 

Another nice quality of these cookies is that they're flourless, so they're friendly to anyone who eats gluten-free. Also, a quick note...although the recipe calls for 1 cup of regular white sugar, you could split that to be 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar. I did not do that for my first time making these, but I plan to try it next time!

As you can see, I did the whole criss cross with a fork thing with some sugar sprinkled on top for a classic peanut butter cookie feel. :)

Do you know what I'm holding up here? It's a bowl scraper, and it's an amazing little tool you should have in your kitchen if you don't already have one! My sister gave me this little guy from King Arthur Flour.

Look at how clean that bowl is!

Now, I decided to not just make the traditional peanut butter cookie. I made about one-third of the batch into regular cookies, and then I added two different toppings to the other two-thirds. On some, I pressed down on top of the cookies with my thumb to make room for some Heath toffee bits.

And on the others, I put dark chocolate Hershey kisses, so the cookies were like peanut blossoms! If you haven't made peanut blossoms before, simply have the unwrapped kisses ready to go when the cookies come out of the oven, and then gently press a chocolate kiss onto each cookie!

Here are my final products. :)  I got about 2 dozen cookies out of one batch, but they were pretty small cookies. I think they're fun to eat that way though - they're practically bite size! These were super simple and super yummy...what's not to love about that? ;-)

Linking up with Sweet as Sugar Cookies! Check it out!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Split Pea, Carrot, and Cannellini Bean Soup

Hi! I am back...just one day after my last post! :)  And I'm back with a soup recipe that I made last night for the first time and just loved! As I've said, I have all sorts of recipes on deck to share with you, but a few people have asked me already about this soup, so I wanted to get it out to you sooner than later. All the other recipes will have to wait a little longer still...

The inspiration for this split pea, carrot, and cannellini bean soup came from both a food blog and a couple of my own cookbooks that I was browsing. The initial recipe that I followed, generally speaking, can be found here. As you can see, this recipe is for a vegetarian soup - no ham bone required as is the case in many traditional split pea soup recipes. I did not make it fully vegetarian, however, since I used chicken broth in mine. But you could easily use vegetable broth if you wanted! I decided to also add the carrots and beans after looking at a few other soup recipes that contained various veggies and other ingredients.

To begin, you cook a couple sliced onions in olive oil on the stove. I decided to add carrots too; I used approximately four large carrots, peeled and chopped. As you can see here, I cooked the carrots with the onions in the beginning.

After cooking the onion and carrots for just a few minutes, I added about five cups of chicken broth (low sodium) and about two and a half cups of rinsed split peas (the recipe calls for just two cups). 

This mixture is brought to a boil and then left to simmer for about 20 or 25 minutes. With about five to 10 minutes left to simmer, I added a drained/washed can of cannellini beans for an extra punch of protein and fiber! The original recipe didn't call for the beans...

When the soup is done simmering, you then puree it in a blender in batches (just like the technique I used in my homemade tomato soup). At this point, I did add a bit more water because it was a little too thick to blend well on its own. To each half of the soup, I probably added 1/2 to 2/3 cup of water when blending.

And then...voila! You have delicious, pureed split pea soup!

This made a lot too, friends! I'd guess it made about 8 to 10 servings.

A few of my own thoughts on the soup... I am glad I decided to add broth instead of just water. Although it still may have been yummy with just the water, I do think a lot of the great flavor I tasted in the soup came from the addition of the broth. The carrots and beans were fun additions as well. You can probably add other veggies too....spinach? broccoli? It's up to you - have fun experimenting! I really enjoyed the thicker consistency of this soup, but if you wanted it thinner, you could simply add more water when you're blending it. Oh, and I also added some garlic powder and thyme during the simmer (I didn't have fresh garlic, sadly). My final version also had some small bits of carrot in it, which added a nice texture. The bowl of soup I had for dinner kept me full all evening too....gotta love a filling, healthy meal!

Serve it up with your favorite crackers or bread, and enjoy!! :)