January 9, 2012: Honey Nut Cereal Bars Recipe

Here’s a recipe I devised use several others as a base. I wanted something somewhat nutritious to serve to my women’s Bible study group as well as have a bit left over that I could contribute to the kids in the Good News Club (an after school program to teach kids about the Bible and Christianity), for which my pastor and his wife are teachers. I used what I had on hand to come up with this yummy recipe.

Honey Nut Cereal Bars fresh out of the oven and waiting to be cut.

Honey Nut Cereal Bars

¼ cup peanut butter

1/3 cup honey

2 T. vegetable oil

2 T. vanilla extract

2 T. plain Greek yogurt

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup sweetened coconut

¼ cup roasted sunflower seeds

½ cup pomegranate flavored craisins (or any flavor of your choice)

½ cup blueberry flavored craisins (or any flavor of your choice)

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups honey nut Cheerios

In a large mixing bowl, combine peanut butter, honey, and vegetable oil. Microwave on high for 30 seconds, or until the peanut butter is softened enough to easily blend with the other ingredients. Add vanilla and yogurt and mix well. Add remaining ingredients and stir together just until combined. Press into bottom of greased 13 x 9 inch baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool completely and stand for several hours before cutting into bars and serving.

Makes 32 bars with about 100 calories in each bar, 3.3 grams total fat and 29.6 mg sodium (as calculated on SparkRecipes.com).

December 13, 2011: Oatmeal Blueberry White Chocolate Cookies Recipe

Here’s one more cookie recipe to get you all set for Christmas. This is one I got off the back of a package of blueberry flavored Craisins and modified a bit. These cookies combine all my favorite flavors in a very yummy cookie that would hold up nicely to shipping, if necessary.

Oatmeal Blueberry White Chocolate Cookies

2/3 cup butter flavored shortening

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 ½ cups old fashioned oats (not quick cooking)

1 ½ cups flour

1 t. baking soda

½ t. salt

1 6-ounce package blueberry flavored Craisins

1 3.5-ounce bar white chocolate with blueberries

Cream together shortening and brown sugar. Beat in eggs. Mix together dry ingredients and blend into egg mixture. Break the chocolate bar into small pieces. Mix Craisins and white chocolate pieces into cookie dough.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from cookie sheet.

Makes 4 dozen cookies

August 20, 2011: Short Ribs in Molé Sauce Recipe

Okay, I have to admit it – I watch the Food Network and shows about food (absolutely anything with Gordon Ramsey) in order to get new ideas for dishes I make. Sure I’m pretty good at putting ingredients together but sometimes even I need a little something to stir my creative juices.

Such is the case with the following recipe. I watched the finale of Master Chef Tuesday night and Adrien made a similar dish. It sounded really good so I pulled out my The Spicy Food Lover’s Bible cookbook to get a general idea of how to make the molé sauce and went from there. I made some pretty big changes but I think it came out really tasty. Try it and tell me what you think!

Pork Short Ribs in Molé Sauce

2 pounds pork short ribs

1 T. vegetable oil

Heat a slow cooker to high. Add the oil and the ribs. Brown on both sides (or use a saucepan on the stove if your slow cooker doesn’t have a high enough temperature).

My mortar and pestle (it has a puppy face on the front!) made out of volcanic rock from Mexico.

Molé Sauce

1 T. Especias Mixtas (this is a Mexican spice blend that contains mustard seed, cumin seed, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, cloves, allspice, bay leaves and dried red chiles)

1 T. sesame seeds

2 T. roasted pumpkin seeds

½ t. cinnamon

2 cloves garlic

½ medium-sized white or yellow onion

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate

2 T. craisins

¼ cup hot red chile powder

2 canned chiles in adobo sauce + 1 t. adobo sauce

1 (14.5 ouce) tomatoes with green chiles

1/3 cup chicken stock

1 bay leaf

Combine the Especias Mixtas, sesame seeds, and pumpkins seeds in a mortar or spice grinder; crush into a coarse powder. Add this to the bowl of a food processor and process by itself, if necessary, to break up any remaining large chunks. Add the cinnamon, garlic, onion, and chocolate and process until crumbled. Add the chile powder, adobo chiles, adobo sauce, tomatoes, and chicken stock. Process until fairly smooth. Pass through a sieve, if desired, for a smoother sauce.

Pour half the sauce over the ribs in the slow cooker and add the bay leaf. Cook on low to medium-low heat for six hours, until pork is tender.

Serves 3 – 4

Tip: Use the leftover molé sauce to make enchiladas, thinning with a bit of chicken stock, if necessary.

May 21, 2011: Banana Split Muffin Recipe

Sometimes the best recipes I come up with are ones that are forced on me – I look around at the fresh ingredients I need to use up and come up with something. That’s the way it happened with this recipe; I had one really ripe banana, a few Ghirardelli chocolates left over from Valentine’s Day, and a handful of craisins. The result is this muffin recipe, which my women’s group sisters just loved! See what you think.

Banana Split Muffins

2 T. butter, melted
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup milk
1 cup flour
1 t. baking powder
1 medium-sized ripe banana, mashed
4 squares chocolate candy, broken into small pieces (1/3 cup)
1/3 cup cherry flavored craisins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 6-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar. Add milk and stir just until combined. Stir together flour and baking powder; mix into butter mixture. Add remaining ingredients, stirring just until combined. Divide the mixture evenly amongst the six muffin cups. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.