I'm on a roll with rolled oats!

Boom baby!  I made some tasty coconut oatmeal cookies.  The granola bar extravaganza from my last post inspired me to try dabbling adventurously in the kitchen to come up with my own recipes.  I took the basis for the granola bars and added a few more cookie-like ingredients.  Let me say, the coconut makes the cookie.  At least in my opinion it does and since it's my blog, I can put my opinion where I want!  And it's going here...and can be found again below.

And let me go on record as saying, it is a GORGEOUS day outside and the breeze is blowing through the windows.  It is weather like this that I bask in (or in which I bask for you crazy English grammar people).  It reminds me of what summer leading into fall feels like, which gets me excited because fall is my favorite time of year.  

Random note for the day: I was thinking I would try to find a way to give you an option to print the recipe, but figured you could just select and print selection.  Plus, Blogger doesn't have an easy little gadget for me to add to make that happen.  So, please let me know if the selection/print isn't working for you and I'll see what I can do.

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies 

Yields: 16 large cookies

 

Ingredients:

• 2 c. oats (I used quick dry oats)
• 1/2 bag (or 3.5 oz) of dried fruit
• 1/2 c. of unsweetened shredded coconut/coconut flakes (or coconut flakes).  If you can't find unsweetened, try eliminating the brown sugar.
• 1/4 c. brown sugar (optional)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 very ripe bananas

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix all of the ingredients together.
3. Put heaping spoonfuls onto your baking sheet.
4. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden.  (You can also use the toothpick test.)

Note: These do not rise/spread out like traditional flour cookies.
Note: You can always put smaller spoonfuls on the baking sheet if you want to get more out of the mixture without doubling the ingredients.

My apartment's a disaster. But, I made yummy food!

In my last post, I mentioned how I was a maniac cooking up all sorts of dishes.  Well, experimenting with 2-3 new dishes makes me a maniac in my book.

I saw on Pinterest (yes, Pinterest) about adding fruits to regular water to break up the monotony of drinking plain water upon plain water upon plain water.  Well, this was freakin' delighful! I made raspberry and lime water (left) and strawberry water (right).  I let the fruit sit in overnight and then strained out the water so the fruit didn't fall apart and get gross in the water.  I also put strawberries in my ice cubes for a little somethin' somethin'.

 

Another Pinterest adventure was this cauliflower pizza crust, which you can find here for the recipe.  My friend Nikki suggested it and I really enjoyed it.  I made my own sauce courtesy of my Vitamix blender (which I am obsessed with now) earlier in the week and just froze it.  So, all I did was nuke it so I could spread it on the crust.  Then I topped it with mushrooms and peppers with half having turkey pepperoni.  Because the crust is cauliflower, I definitely think a meatier texture from the pepperoni or mushrooms was needed.  I might try making a taco pizza with this crust and see what it's like.

And lastly, I made my own granola bars.   I kept looking for recipes and wasn't finding one that struck my fancy.  So, I got gutsy and made my own.  I figured I would keep adding ingredients until it was the right texture and hope for the best.  And since I didn't use eggs, I could taste as I was making it so see if it needed more spices.

 

Note: These aren't very sweet, which was my goal.

Here's my granola bar recipe if you want.  My next attempts will include ones with nuts and I think for a nice fall bar I'll experiment with adding pumpkin, different seeds like sunflower seeds, and more cinnamon.

Nut-Free Granola Bars:

Ingredients:

• 3 c. rolled oats (I only had quick oats so that's what I used)
• 1/2 c. flax seed
• 1 1/2 c. dried fruit (I used 1/2 c. dried cherries, 1/2 c. dried cranberries, 1/2 c. Sun-Maid "Fruit Bits")
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 - 1/2 c. brown sugar (optional, but I added 1/4 c. b/c I didn't want it too sweet)
• 2-3 tbsp. pure maple syrup
• Several sprinkles of cinnamon (I just added enough sprinkles to cover the top of the mixture in my bowl)

Steps:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix ingredients together starting with the dry and adding wet ingredients.
3. Spread out mixture onto parchment-lined baking sheet. (I wanted thin bars so I used a bigger baking sheet, but if you want fewer, thicker bars, use a smaller sheet or pan.)
4. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until top is fairly dry. (You can always do the toothpick test too.)
5. Flip the granola over.  (You'll noticed what was the bottom is a bit wet)
6. Bake for an additional 15 minutes or until top dried out some.
7. Let cool and cut into bars.  I cut mine into 12 bars.