Granola, with normal ingredients
I’ve never made granola before. Or granola bars. They always call for bran or wheat germ and those are 2 ingredients that keep me flipping thro’ the cookbook and thinking, “Well, I guess I won’t make granola this time”. (*whisper* I’ve never even seen bran and wheat germ or know what they are.) So, I buy my granola at the bulk foods store (only on rare occassions because it’s pricey) and buy my granola bars at the grocery store.
Then, just lately a few of my friends started raving about this granola and when I looked at the recipe, I was glad to see that it took ‘normal’ ingredients! So, I made some. It is SO good! Like one of my friends said, it’s good at any stage of the making process… you can’t help but sampling it here and there while mixing, baking, and stirring it.
Eat it with milk in it, put it on top of yogurt, eat it plain as a snack, or sprinkle it on top of a dessert.
Granola
10 cups quick oats
3 cups graham cracker pieces (this was 1 1/2 packs of Honey Maid)
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups coconut
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped pecans
3 sticks of butter (1 1/2 cups)
1 cup peanut butter chips (I tried some with chocolate chips… it was better 
)
Melt the butter and mix with dry ingredients.
Divide between 2 large baking sheets. I did it on 3 baking sheets… the vertical one is chocolate chips and peanut butter chips mixed, the horizontal one in the back is peanut butter chips and the one in front is chocolate chips.
Bake at 300 for 40 min or until golden brown. Stir every 15 min the 1st 30 min, then every 5 min. Add peanut butter chips in the last few minutes of baking time.
I sampled all 3 varieties and liked the one with just chocolate chips the best. I thought the next best was the one with chocolate and peanut butter chips mixed. The one with peanut butter chips was good too, but I will from now on just use chocolate chips and maybe put some peanut butter chips in too if I have some on hand.
And this is how I like to eat it the best: with milk and a spoon…
Petite Pizza Puffs
Once again, I’ve attacked my pile of loose recipes, which grew since the last time I got it out back when I did this post. I went thro’ and categorized them all and am planning to be cooking alot from them the next while and will either paste them into my ‘blank’ cookbook or pitch them. In order to keep them, they’ve gotta be ‘would definitely make again’ quality. If it tastes good, is easy to make, and looks good, then it’s a keeper. If only two of those three qualities are true, then I make a decision of whether those two outweigh the other one and still keep it.
So, here’s the recipe I chose out first and I’ll tell you at the end if I kept the recipe or threw it away. Yeah, I chose a recipe that starts with the word ‘petite’!!!???!! When I think of ‘petite’, I think of things like little dainty delicate teacups with little BREAKABLE saucers under them. And I usually shy away from anything like that because I get all thumbs when I’m around those types of things.
Petite Pizza Puffs …recipe comes from a card that came with my Pampered Chef Cut-N-Seal.
12 slices pepperoni
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 Tbsp. chopped mushrooms
2 Tbsp. pizza sauce
1 pkg. (10 oz) refrigerated pizza crust
Preheat oven to 375. In Small Batter Bowl, combine pepperoni, cheese, mushrooms, and pizza sauce. Roll out pizza dough to 11″x15″ rectangle, using Dough and Pizza Roller. Cut 12 circles in dough using Cut-N-Seal.
Using Medium Scoop, place 1 scoop (2 Tbsp.) pepperoni mixture in center of 6 circles, spreading slightly.
Place second dough circle on top. Lightly seal edges with fingers; seal with Cut-N-Seal.
Place on flat Baking Stone. Bake 15-17 min or until light golden brown.
Serve with additional warm pizza sauce, if desired. Yield: 6 pizza puffs
I put a little more cheese on top and put them back in the oven for a couple minutes. Not sure why, I guess I just thought the tops looked a little plain or something. And more cheese is a good thing.
And there you go. Petite Pizza Puffs. Simple as that.
Or not!
So, the question: Will I keep this recipe? Yes, and decide for sure after I make them again. I saw afterwards how I should’ve done it to make it easier. How I did it was quite time-consuming and what a mess! I tried to assemble them on the stone and you cannot pick up a circle of thin sticky pizza dough and keep it from shrinking or ripping or losing its round shape. I should’ve assembled them right where I cut out the circles (which is how I think the recipe means that it should be done), then the whole puff may have been easier to move onto the stone. I should’ve also used some flour underneath the dough before rolling it out.
The taste was all there (I mean, really, how can you go wrong with those ingredients?). And the finished look was great.
So, here is the recipe. They really are perfect for something snacky or a lunch. Go ahead and try it and let me know some tips if you have any. If you don’t have a Cut-N-Seal, a round cookie cutter and a fork or your fingers oughta work fine.
Ants on a Log - Cooks in Training #4
Well, our little cooks are back! Actually, they never went anywhere and have been quite busy in the kitchen, it’s just that they haven’t been making recipes on their own lately. One reason I know they’ve been in the kitchen is because I’m often tripping over their little chairs that they stand on.
It seems like a hassle, the way they have to move their little chairs around while working in the kitchen… put them in front of the sink, climb up and wash their hands, get down, move the chair over to the cupboard, climb back up, etc. I do wonder how it would be to be working in the kitchen and the counter is at eye level though, so I guess it’s worth all the moving around.
The food I’m featuring here barely merits calling it a recipe. But, we got it out of a cookbook and it was in recipe form, complete with amounts. We got a kid’s cookbook (a Betty Crocker cookbook named Kids Cook!) for Lexi for Christmas. She loves it. She often gets it off of the cookbook shelf and sits around looking at it and saying, “Mom, we should try this!” So, one time I told her she could pick something to make sometime soon because we’re going shopping and we should see first if we need any ingredients. And THIS is the recipe she picked. It is called:
Ants on a Log (Gag! Who ever named them that?!)
Celery
Peanut butter
Raisins
I’ll spare you the recipe details and let the pictures and video show you how it’s done. Or how it WAS done anyway, maybe not how it oughta be done (there was a bit of licking fingers by the 2-yr-old). One nice thing about the mini cooks making this is that it didn’t involve the oven or stovetop or mixer. It did, however, involve a sharp knife for a little bit, but that was closely supervised, and when we were done with that step, everyone still had all fingers intact.
And here it is in action:
Baked Mozzarella Sticks
Ok, so I get an F on making mozzarella sticks! About half of them had melted cheese running out. The taste, though, gets an A+!
I’ve had an eye on this recipe for awhile and I’d buy string cheese and before I got them made, the string cheese got eaten, so I’d buy another pack of string cheese, and it would get eaten again, and so on. String cheese is a great snack, especially if you need a snack on the run… the pieces are individually wrapped, so you don’t have to waste time putting it in a snack bag or anything.
Just to clear the air a bit, in case you’re wondering why I’m posting non-diet things, I did figure out how many calories these little things have… it’s 80. 80 calories each and they’re only about 2″ long! And you can eat one in 2 bites. 
But it is a really yummy 2 bites!
Baked Mozzarella Sticks
2 packages (5 oz each) string cheese
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 large egg whites
2 Tbsp. water
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs (I used cracker crumbs)
1 tsp. dried oregano (I think next time I might try Italian seasoning instead)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. melted butter
Marinara sauce
This is the cheese I used…
Remove cheese from packages; cut each cheese stick in half crosswise.
Combine flour and cornstarch in a shallow dish. Beat egg whites and water in another shallow dish until well mixed. Combine bread crumbs, oregano, and salt in a third shallow dish. Coat cheese with flour mixture. Dip into egg white mixture, being sure to coat thoroughly, including ends. Coat with bread crumb mixture.
Dip into egg whites and bread crumbs a second time, being sure ends are coated. I ran out of the egg white mixture AND the crumb mixture and had to make more. The flour mixture looked like it barely had a dent in it! Place on ungreased baking sheet.
Freeze at least 1 hour. Preheat oven to 400. Drizzle cheesesticks with melted butter. Bake until crumbs just begin to brown, 5-7 minutes.
Oh, no!!! Cheese all over the place!
Here is what happened: I totally forgot the ‘drizzle melted butter over them’ part and took them out of the freezer and put them in the oven. When they were in for about 5 min, I suddenly remembered the butter! So, I got them out and drizzled butter over them. At that point, no cheese was showing. I put them back in for another 5 min so they could brown and this is what they looked like when I got them out again. I thought of waiting and making them again before featuring them, but decided you might as well know that I make plenty of mistakes (some of which I can hide though ).
Serve warm with marinara sauce.
This recipe came from an Easy to Bake Easy to Make recipe card. A tip on there is: “Since these must be frozen before baking anyway, keep several batches in the freezer and bake them whenever you need a quick snack.” Sounds like a great idea for spur-of-the-moment company! Or if you need a quick side dish to go with a meal. Last night, I served them with Hearty Hamburger Soup (to be featured later) and biscuits.
Chex Party Mix
I love party mix! For me, it is another ‘must’ for the holiday season! As much as I like it, I oughta make it year-round. It freezes well, so I could make a big batch and get a small bag out of the freezer as needed. Do any of you do that? Or is it more of just a holiday snack for you, too?
One thing about party mix is that is so variation-friendly. You can replace some of the Chex for other unsweetened cereal, you can use mixed nuts or peanuts, you can use different shapes of pretzels, and then the cracker part can be any kind of small cracker, cheesy crackers, bagel chips, or whatever. I don’t think I’ve ever made it the same twice.
I do use a recipe to get the total amount of cups about right for the amount of sauce, then follow the sauce recipe exactly. And where this recipe comes from is… the back of the Chex cereal box, but I bake it instead of microwave it.
The Original Chex Party Mix
3 cups Corn Chex cereal
3 cups Rice Chex cereal
3 cups Wheat Chex cereal
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup bite-sized pretzels
1 cup garlic-flavor bite-sized bagel chips or regular-size bagel chips, broken into 1″ pieces (I used Cheezits)
Or about 12 cups of any combo of the type of things listed above
6 Tbsp. butter or margarine
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
In a large bowl, mix cereals, nuts, pretzels, and bagel chips; set aside. In small microwavable bowl, microwave butter uncovered on High about 40 seconds or until melted. Stir in seasonings.
Pour over cereal mixture; stir until evenly coated.
Microwave uncovered on High 5 - 6 min, thoroughly stirring every 2 minutes OR spread mixture out onto baking sheets and bake at 250 for 1 hour, stirring every 10-15 minutes.
Spread on paper towels to cool.
Store in airtight container.
So… what all do you put in your party mix? My sister, Jan, is looking for new ideas too. We just talked about it a couple days ago. And neither of us gave each other any good inspirations.
About Me
Hi! Welcome to my kitchen! My name is Kay. I'm from central Ohio. I love cooking and baking. Especially baking. It's thereapeudic for me. I'm not a professional or gourmet cook by any means. I'm a Christian homemaker who happens to take pictures of some of the food I make. I have 2 little 'helpers'... Lexi (7) and Tiffany (3), who are young cooks in training. I don't do anything on the grill... that's where my husband Shannon comes in! He grills quite a bit, especially in the summer. So, sit back and enjoy browsing thro' the recipes. If you try some of them, I'd love to hear feedback on how you liked them! If you want to contact me, my email address is kaylouann@gmail.com
Blogroll
- Cookie Madness - Great recipes and pictures of cookies that leave you with a helpless craving.
- Mama’s Southern Cooking - Comfy site with good cookin’ and lots of tips.
- The Pioneer Woman Cooks! - Home-cooking, lots of pictures and fun reading
Her Blog Directory