Recipes

Easy Eats

November 8, 2012 by Marci 1 Comment

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I have gotten a few comments that I don’t post like I used to about recipes and trials in the kitchen. I am sure you can understand that I don’t have the same kind of free time, and that cooking is often done in a hurry and eaten just as fast. I rarely get out the big camera to take 50 pictures of a plate of food and move it around our living room to try different backgrounds and angles of light.

However, since it sounds like you all used to like those posts, I’m going to try to post some recipes or at least links to recipes if I don’t create them myself. A lot of things I already posted about a year or two years ago, so I’ll just link back to those posts.

To start, over the weekend I made a pumpkin ginger loaf. I made the same one last year and the year before, but this time I didn’t add the pumpkin butter layer in the middle and on top. I just didn’t buy it this year to not have one more spread to use. I really like this recipe because of all the gingerbread-like spices and think it is pretty healthy. It is always popular around my house.

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Next up is acorn squash. I try to make a squash once or twice each Fall/Winter season because I find them so seasonal and tasty and filling. However, they are very tough to cut! I make sure to only do it when someone is home to cut it for me. Ever tried a butternut squash? That is even more dangerous.

For this year’s acorn squash, I did the following:

Cut squash in half, spoon out seeds and strings
Cut a little off the stumps so it will sit in a pan with cut side up
Add a spoonful or so of butter/margarine, brown sugar and salt
Lay in a baking dish with a shallow layer of water and bake at 400* until fork tender, about 35-45 minutes
Add additional salt and brown sugar or maple syrup and enjoy!

If I planned a little better, you could stuff your squash with a grain like rice, quinoa, cranberries, nuts, etc. It was just me eating this, so I just had it as a side vegetable with an Amy’s frozen burrito and lettuce. Exciting when you eat alone!

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On Monday night, I had an ambitious dinner planned for a weekday. I made a sausage stuffing that we liked last year. It took a while to chop veggies, which I did earlier in the afternoon, and then it took a while to saute them and cook the whole thing together. We probably didn’t bake it long enough because the bread wasn’t crispy, but we were hungry! Do this on a Sunday.

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I served our stuffing (which is a heavy dish of sausage, veggies and sourdough bread) with cranberry sauce and lettuce. Lettuce because I didn’t have time for another dish but still wanted something green! And the stuffing had a lot of veggies.

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Filed Under: Recipes · Tagged With: Recipes

Strawberry Blood Orange Bread

February 15, 2012 by Marci Leave a Comment

One thing that hasn’t slowed at the end of pregnancy is my urge to bake. I guess why not while I can, right? Last week, Chobani Greek yogurt sent me 12 of their three new flavors to sample and tell you about. They came out with Apple Cinnamon, Blood Orange, and Passion Fruit. I have been raving about Chobani for a few years now, and am glad they are expanding their flavors and becoming so popular.

I actually like the Vanilla flavor best and rarely buy the other flavors. But since they sent me some…I’ll try them. With 12 yogurts to eat, I used one of them to bake something.

I reviewed their site and Pinterest, my new favorite place to find recipes, and decided to adapt one of their recipes to use the new flavor (Blood Orange) and a more seasonal fruit (strawberries in place of cranberries).

This is quality control from the back end of the loaf. No one will know…

I loved so many things about this bread. Let me tell you:

It was so easy to cook–just two bowls and a spatula and measuring tools. No fancy mixers.
I had all the ingredients in the house already (Thanks Cho).
It was so soft on the inside, thanks to the yogurt.
No butter or oils.
Has a great gooeyness from the strawberries and yogurt and a nice bite from the nuts.

Now obviously, you can trade out the Blood Orange for the Plain or Vanilla yogurt flavor, but since I had it, I wanted to bake with it.

Strawberry Blood Orange Bread

Ingredients

2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t each baking soda and salt
3/4 C (6 oz) Chobani Greek Yogurt Blood Orange flavor
1 C sugar
1 egg
3/4 C orange juice
1 T grated orange zest
1 1/2 C fresh strawberries, sliced
1/2 C pecans, chopped coarsely

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.
In medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together Chobani Greek Yogurt and sugar. Add egg and combine. Stir in orange juice.
Add dry mixture to wet mixture and stir with spatula.
Fold in orange zest, strawberries, and pecans.
Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully invert pan to remove, and finish cooling on rack.

Strawberry Blood Orange Bread

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 60 mins

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

Ingredients

Strawberry Blood Orange Bread
2 C all-purpose flour
1½ t baking powder
½ t each baking soda and salt
¾ C (6 oz) Chobani Greek Yogurt Blood Orange flavor
1 C sugar
1 egg
¾ C orange juice
1 T grated orange zest
1½ C fresh strawberries, sliced
½ C pecans, chopped coarsely

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.
In medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together Chobani Greek Yogurt and sugar. Add egg and combine. Stir in orange juice.
Add dry mixture to wet mixture and stir with spatula.
Fold in orange zest, strawberries, and pecans.
Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully invert pan to remove, and finish cooling on rack.

Filed Under: Breakfast · Tagged With: Baked goods, Breakfast, Recipes, Snacks

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

February 6, 2012 by Marci 3 Comments

Many recipes I see on Pinterest don’t seem user friendly or look a little too outrageous to actually try at home. Do you find that? I created a new pinning board called “recipes I might actually try,” and this was one. It’s a banana bread with very few ingredients, and it has a cinnamon sugar layer in the middle and on top. Delish, right? I thought so.

Easy to make with few dishes and no mixer required, I whipped this up last Friday morning. The bananas made it extra moist without needing oils or too much butter (1/3 C won’t hurt), and it was crisp outside and soft inside. Even Jeffrey ate a little and he doesn’t like banana!

We had family in town for the weekend, and the loaf slowly got nibbled away. Guess you know when it’s good!

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas, smashed up
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1 1/2 cups flour

For the swirl:

1/3 cup sugar
1 T cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray cooking spray on a 9×5 loaf pan. and four a loaf pan.
Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together.
In a separate bowl, mix baking soda and salt with flour.
In a small dish, mix together the 1/3 cup sugar and 1 Tbs cinnamon and set aside.
Combine flour with wet mixture and stir to combine.
Add 1/2 of the batter to the loaf pan and then sprinkle half, or a little more than half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture all over the batter in the pan. Add the rest of the batter, and then sprinkle the leftover cinnamon-sugar on top.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, checking after 45 for done-ness.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Recipes, Snacks · Tagged With: Baked goods, Breakfast, Recipes

Homemade Veggie Burgers

January 25, 2012 by Marci Leave a Comment

Trying to make a veggie burger from scratch has been on my to-cook list for months. I pulled a recipe at least six months ago and have been telling myself I need to make it probably since then. The problem is that it’s a food processor recipe, and sometimes, cleaning that thing takes the fun out of using it!

I finally wrote down what I needed to buy, made hummus so the food processor was already dirty, and got to work on the burgers last Sunday.

The recipe made 9 small-ish burgers, and I plan to eat some this week and freeze them to take for lunches.

I really liked the texture and spices, and am very glad I finally tried them! No need to buy the frozen version when homemade is so much better, and you can freeze them to use one at a time. Really, these made my lunches so much better!

While this may look like a long ingredient list, it’s actually a lot of pantry items and spices that you might already have as a kitchen staple.

I also had one for dinner with sauteed veggies and some rice.

Homemade Veggie Burgers

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic
1/2 white onion
1 egg
1 C old-fashioned oats, processed into flour
1.5 C bread crumbs
1 C carrots
1 C black beans, rinsed and mashed
1/4 C parsley
1/3 C cashews (or any nut like almonds, pecans, etc)
1/3 C sunflower seeds
1 T EVOO
1 T soy sauce
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions:

In a food processor, pulse together carrots, garlic, onion. Add about 3/4 C of the black beans and pulse again. You want the consistency to be mashed but not mushed.
In a mixing bowl, add the remaining 1/4 C unblended black beans.
Remove food from processor and add to a mixing bowl.
Add almonds and sunflower seeds and pulse to a fine chop. Add to mixing bowl.
Add oats to the processor and grind to a flour. Add to mixing bowl with bread crumbs.
In mixing bowl, stir to combine, then add egg, EVOO, soy sauce, and all spices.
Stir to combine.
The mixture should hold together in your hand when you try to squeeze it. Before you try to add water, form a burger and see if it holds. I thought mine might need more liquid, but it held together as a burger, so I didn’t add anything.
Form mixture into patties and lay on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or cooking spray.
Bake at 350* for about 22 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Remove when burgers are starting to brown.

Homemade Veggie Burgers

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 22 mins

Total time: 37 mins

Ingredients

Homemade Veggie Burgers
1 clove garlic
½ white onion
1 egg
1 C old-fashioned oats, processed into flour
1.5 C bread crumbs
1 C carrots
1 C black beans, rinsed and mashed
¼ C parsley
⅓ C cashews (or any nut like almonds, pecans, etc)
⅓ C sunflower seeds
1 T EVOO
1 T soy sauce
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
½ tsp pepper
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions

In a food processor, pulse together carrots, garlic, onion. Add about ¾ C of the black beans and pulse again. You want the consistency to be mashed but not mushed.
In a mixing bowl, add the remaining ¼ C unblended black beans.
Remove food from processor and add to a mixing bowl.
Add almonds and sunflower seeds and pulse to a fine chop. Add to mixing bowl.
Add oats to the processor and grind to a flour. Add to mixing bowl with bread crumbs.
In mixing bowl, stir to combine, then add egg, EVOO, soy sauce, and all spices.
Stir to combine.
The mixture should hold together in your hand when you try to squeeze it. Before you try to add water, form a burger and see if it holds. I thought mine might need more liquid, but it held together as a burger, so I didn’t add anything.
Form mixture into patties and lay on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or cooking spray.
Bake at 350* for about 22 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Remove when burgers are starting to brown.

Filed Under: Dinner, Lunch, Recipes, Vegetarian · Tagged With: Dinner, Lunch, Recipes, vegetables, vegetarian

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

December 21, 2011 by Marci Leave a Comment

I was really looking forward to trying this recipe that I saw about a week ago. I love a good banana bread, and how could adding chocolate make it bad? I decided that I don’t really love chocolate and bananas together, but if you do, you’ll probably like this recipe.

It seemed too decadent to eat for breakfast, and I don’t really like banana flavored things for dessert. So I guess it’s a good snack bread. With a stick of butter inside and three kinds of chocolate, it’s not exactly slimming, but it still looks really good. Just warn people that it is banana flavored, or I think they may think it’s a weird chocolate loaf.

If you want a purely chocolate loaf, I think there are better ones. And if you want a great banana bread, I think there are better ones too.

For this recipe, I made it into one foil tin loaf for giving away and one mini loaf. It would probably fit one normal sized loaf pan or a few mini ones. The pictures are the mini loaf size. I am taking the foil one on vacation this weekend. If people like it, I’ll let you know!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

makes one large loaf (or about 3 mini loaves)

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large bananas, mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup milk
4 ounces dark chocolate, melted (I subbed semi-sweet baking squareS)
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a loaf pan liberally with non-stick spray.
In a bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder, then set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk egg and sugar together until smooth.
Whisk in vanilla extract, then add bananas and milk and mix until combined.
Add in dry ingredients slowing, mixing with a spoon until batter comes together.
Add in melted butter and mix until incorporated, then stir in melt chocolate.
Fold chocolate chips into batter. Pour batter into loaf pan. Set pan on a baking sheet, then bake for 55-60 minutes, or until center is set and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cook time may be shorter if you do mini-loaves.
Remove bread from over and sprinkle with additional chocolate chips if desired. Let cool completely (1-2 hours) before cutting.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 55 mins

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

Ingredients

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
makes one large loaf (or about 3 mini loaves)
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
⅔ cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large bananas, mashed (about 1½ cups)
½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
¼ cup milk
4 ounces dark chocolate, melted (I subbed semi-sweet baking squareS)
¾ cup milk chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a loaf pan liberally with non-stick spray.
In a bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder, then set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk egg and sugar together until smooth.
Whisk in vanilla extract, then add bananas and milk and mix until combined.
Add in dry ingredients slowing, mixing with a spoon until batter comes together.
Add in melted butter and mix until incorporated, then stir in melt chocolate.
Fold chocolate chips into batter. Pour batter into loaf pan. Set pan on a baking sheet, then bake for 55-60 minutes, or until center is set and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cook time may be shorter if you do mini-loaves.
Remove bread from over and sprinkle with additional chocolate chips if desired. Let cool completely (1-2 hours) before cutting.

Filed Under: Dessert, Recipes · Tagged With: Baked goods, chocolate, Recipes

Thanksgiving Recipes

November 21, 2011 by Marci Leave a Comment

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving week! I’ve mentioned before that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, and I’ve been eating the flavors of the season since October. If you’re looking for easy last-minute recipes for your table, here are a few I’ve posted this year.

For a list of recipes I wrote about last year, see this post.

You’ll notice lots of focus on pumpkin and apple, and even a few veggie dishes.

Enjoy spending time with your families!

Apple Cranberry Sauce

Sausage Apple Stuffing

Homemade Marshmallows

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Pumpkin Gingerbread Loaf

Apple Cake

Squash and Farro Salad

Sweet Brussels Sprouts with Pecans

Filed Under: Recipes, Thanksgiving · Tagged With: Recipes, Thanksgiving

Hukuna Frittata

October 24, 2011 by Marci 3 Comments

For a recent Sunday night dinner, eggs were on the menu. Instead of scrambling like we usually do, we made our first frittata. Last December, we bought a Le Creuset cast iron skillet at an outlet store in Florida. The thing probably weighs ten pounds, but we wanted to try the cast iron method of cooking meat, and on sale was a good way to try it.

Only special pans can go from the stovetop to oven, and Le Creuset makes their products special for that. Eggs are also a great food to start on the stove and finish in the oven.

The frittata turned out to be a fun way to eat vegetables and eggs in a pie shape. We loved it! So many ideas of how to alter the ingredients to make this again. I had mine with a little salad of lettuce and tomato and a bagel on the side. And we shared some bacon.

The best part was the leftovers for lunch! I ate it cold twice for lunch during the week with a salad.

We loved the potatoes and egg together, and bacon would have been great in the frittata too. Can’t wait to make more frittatas!

Vegetable Frittata

Makes 8 wedges

Ingredients:

3 baby yellow potatoes, diced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt {divided}
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 C grated Pepperjack cheese, plus more for sprinkling
2 scallions, chopped

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a cast-iron skillet (important), drizzle with 2 T EVOO and let heat up. Cook diced potatoes and garlic for about 8 minutes until tender.
Add chopped bell pepper for last 3 minutes.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs with salt, pepper, milk and cheese.
In the skillet, spread vegetables evenly so they don’t overlap. Pour eggs on and don’t stir.
Let sit for about 3 minutes, until sides are getting geled and inside is still wet.
Transfer skillet to oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until top is firm and starting to brown.
Remove from oven and add scallions and more cheese for melting.
Cut into wedges, and it should remove easily.

Filed Under: Dinner, Recipes, Vegetarian · Tagged With: Breakfast, Dinner, Recipes, vegetables, vegetarian

Peanut Butter Blondies

October 12, 2011 by Marci 3 Comments

My freezer of goodies was very bare and I needed something good to grab after dinner. Even Jeffrey was asking for a cookie! There was nothing sweet in our house, it was hard to believe.

I pulled a recipe in September’s Cooking Light for these brownies, and actually had all the ingredients at home. They were very simple to make, and turned out quite fluffy and peanut butter-y. The chocolate chips and pb chips were a tasty bonus. I also really liked that they cut nicely. I remember when I used to make box brownies as a kid, they were jagged and ugly. I guess if you put the time into making them from scratch, they cut nicer too!

Peanut Butter Blondies

Ingredients

1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 tablespoons 2% reduced-fat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray
4 (0.75-ounce) peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped (I subbed Reece’s peanut butter chips)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.
Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt), stirring well with a whisk. Combine peanut butter and next 4 ingredients (through eggs), stirring well. Add peanut butter mixture to flour mixture; stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
Scrape the batter into a 9-inch square metal baking pan lightly coated with cooking spray, and arrange the peanut butter cups over batter. Bake at 350° for 19 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

I served these for our Yom Kippur dinner, but still had most of them leftover, so to the freezer they went! We’ll enjoy them for sure.

Peanut Butter Blondies

Ingredients

Peanut Butter Blondies
1¼ C all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
¼ cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 tablespoons 2% reduced-fat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray
4 (0.75-ounce) peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped (I subbed Reece’s peanut butter chips)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°.
Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt), stirring well with a whisk. Combine peanut butter and next 4 ingredients (through eggs), stirring well. Add peanut butter mixture to flour mixture; stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
Scrape the batter into a 9-inch square metal baking pan lightly coated with cooking spray, and arrange the peanut butter cups over batter. Bake at 350° for 19 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Filed Under: Dessert, Recipes · Tagged With: Baked goods, chocolate, Recipes

Perfect for Fall Apple Cake

October 5, 2011 by Marci Leave a Comment

This is just a perfect Fall recipe. I didn’t realize before that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, is perfectly aligned with apples for Fall. I made my first apple cake this year to take to a holiday lunch, and it sure was pretty. Compared to the two challahs I made the day before, this was easy as…cake. Just mix and cook. And spend some time peeling and slicing apples. If you’re looking for another great apple dish that takes a bit more time, try this apple pie.

I have mentioned before that I have a big recipe binder separated into categories like appetizers, vegetables, etc. This recipe is from the Everyday With Rachael Ray August/September 2006 issue. I can’t believe I have recipes over five years old that I haven’t tried yet!

Regardless, I am happy to have kept this recipe, and it was great. The inside of the cake was apple heavy on top, and soft and cinnamon-y like a pound cake or soft cake below. Sorry for no inside shots, I had to keep it whole to serve at someone else’s house. Kind of sad I didn’t get to take the leftovers home! It was a really delicious cake, and another great alternative to something chocolate.

Rosh Hashanah Apple Cake

INGREDIENTS

1 cup canola oil, plus more for greasing
2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
6 Granny Smith apples (about 1¼ pounds)—peeled, cored and thinly sliced
2¼ cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/3 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt or tube pan. In a medium bowl, combine the 2-1/2 cups of flour with the baking powder and 2 teaspoons of the cinnamon. In a large bowl, toss the apples with 1/4 cup of the sugar and the remaining 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and set aside.
In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the 1 cup of oil with the eggs, orange juice, vanilla and the remaining 2 cups of sugar on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the flour in 3 batches, mixing until just combined. Add the apples and stir to combine. Transfer to the pan, leaving about an inch at the top, and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 1½ hours. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 30 minutes before unmolding it onto a rack to cool completely.

While not considered healthy by any means, it sure was good. And perfect for Fall, now that Rosh Hashanah has passed. I recommend buying a bucket of apples (or six) and baking a cake for your friends. Apples are a perfect intro to Fall.

Perfect for Fall Apple Cake

Ingredients

Rosh Hashanah Apple Cake
1 cup canola oil, plus more for greasing
2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
6 Granny Smith apples (about 1¼ pounds)—peeled, cored and thinly sliced
2¼ cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
⅓ cup orange juice
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Instructions

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt or tube pan. In a medium bowl, combine the 2-1/2 cups of flour with the baking powder and 2 teaspoons of the cinnamon. In a large bowl, toss the apples with ¼ cup of the sugar and the remaining 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and set aside.
In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the 1 cup of oil with the eggs, orange juice, vanilla and the remaining 2 cups of sugar on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the flour in 3 batches, mixing until just combined. Add the apples and stir to combine. Transfer to the pan, leaving about an inch at the top, and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 1½ hours. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 30 minutes before unmolding it onto a rack to cool completely.

Filed Under: Dessert, Recipes · Tagged With: Baked goods, Holidays, Recipes

Chocolate Chip Snack Squares

September 28, 2011 by Marci Leave a Comment

This quick and easy recipe is a great one when you need a snack in a jif, or something simple and fast to take to a friend. I made these for a friend who just had a baby. Good for a sweet breakfast added to yogurt, or an afternoon or evening snack, it’s an all-purpose treat. The thing I liked best about these is that they cut so nicely. A lot of bars I make are a little jagged when cutting, but these looked real nice. Soft and chewy. Mmm.

Chocolate Chip Snack Squares

Ingredients:

2 C rolled oats
½ C whole wheat flour
¼ C chopped pecans
¼ C chocolate chips
¼ C sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
1 & ½ C milk (any kind in your fridge)
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375.
In two separate bowls, mix dry ingredients, then wet ingredients. Pour wet into dry, mixing until combined. Pour batter into a cooking-sprayed baking dish (I use 8×8, but use what you’ve got).
Bake 30 minutes. Cool completely and then cut into 16 squares.

An easy modification to this would be to use blueberries instead of the chocolate chips to make it more of a breakfast bar. Or nuts and raisins instead of the chocolate.

These also freeze easily so you can grab one at a time to make them last longer.

Can’t beat a quick dish with few ingredients. Easy to make, easy to clean!

Chocolate Chip Snack Squares

Ingredients

Chocolate Chip Snack Squares
2 C rolled oats
C whole wheat flour
C chopped pecans
C chocolate chips
C sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
tsp. salt
1 & ½ C milk (any kind in your fridge)
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375.
In two separate bowls, mix dry ingredients, then wet ingredients. Pour wet into dry, mixing until combined. Pour batter into a cooking-sprayed baking dish (I use 8×8, but use what you’ve got).
Bake 30 minutes. Cool completely and then cut into 16 squares.

Filed Under: Recipes, Snacks · Tagged With: Baked goods, Recipes, Snacks

Easy Eats

Strawberry Blood Orange Bread

Strawberry Blood Orange Bread

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Homemade Veggie Burgers

Homemade Veggie Burgers

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Thanksgiving Recipes

Hukuna Frittata

Vegetable Frittata

Peanut Butter Blondies