Mommy's Granola Bars

It's a quiz day in math class!  I'm feeling a little down since I just graded a bunch of the quizzes and students who have been working on graphing quadratics for THREE weeks are still struggling with it.  I'm gonna have to look for some new strategies.  Any suggestions?  

Last night was also the first cheer performance for a basketball game!  It was really exciting and the girl's did a nice job.  They are a brand new cheer squad and they have already learned a bunch of cheers as well as a few dances.  The captains did a good job calling the cheers, but as a group we are going to have to work on staying sharp and smiling.  We are also continuing to work on our stunts and learning new routines.  I'm exciting for next month when we have a cheer clinic scheduled with a college cheerleader who has volunteered to come help us out!  How cool is that?  

Coaching and math teaching has been going really well at my new school and overall I just love it!  

I made my mommy's granola bar recipe recently when I knew that I was going to be at school for a long time and needed some sort of snack.  My average day starts at 5:45 when I go to the gym to work out.  Then, I get to school between 7:15 and 7:45 and hold office hours or work on lesson plans.  School goes from 8:30 to 4:00 and then I usually have cheer practice or office hours or some sort of school activity until at least 5:30.  Some nights I am here until 7!  On those crazy long days, I need some sort of pick-me-up and these granola bars totally do the trick.  I can't wait to make these again and maybe try mixing up the ingredients.  For this recipe I used dried fruit, but you could totally mix it up by putting in some chocolate chips, almonds, peanut butter chips, caramel...whatever!  This recipe can also easily be gluten free! 

Mommy's Granola Bars

Ingredients:

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1 cup rice puff cereal (I used the Kashi 7 Grain one)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1 tbsp flaxseed

2 tbsp wheat germ

1/4 cup dried cherries

2 tbsp dried blueberries

2 tbsp raisins

1/4 cup almond butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla 

pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Lightly grease a 8 by 8 pan.

2. In a bowl, mix the oats, puff cereal, flax. wheat germ, and dried fruit.

3. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the almond butter, brown sugar, honey, and salt.  Stir until the mixture starts to bubble.  Remove from heat and pour over the dry ingredients.

4. Stir the mixture to coat all the dry ingredients.  Then pour the mixture into your prepared pan and press evenly into the pan.  Place in the fridge for a few hours or overnight to chill.  Once chilled, cut into bars.

Enjoy :)

Guest Blogger: Thirsty Thursdays by Zack

Today, I have a very special guest blogger!  I am pretty pumped about this.  It's my little brother!  When our spring breaks lined up this year, we spent some time hanging out.  I told him about how I really wanted to get my blog going again and he told me about how he wanted to be a bar tender.  I was like, hmmm....how can we combine both of these fun/fantastic ideas?  And here we are: Thirsty Thursdays by Zack!  The little bro is going to share with me drink ideas that he has and I am going to share them here! 

Z shared this recipe with me along with some cute photos.  He took this recipe from Cookin Bug, and jazzed it up into his own frozen version.  I give you: The Frozen Pineapple Almond Upside Down Cake! 

Frozen Pineapple Almond Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 oz Cake Vodka

1 1/2 oz Amaretto

3 oz Pineapple Juice

1 Pineapple Slice

splash Grenadine

Strawberry Vodka Whipped Cream

1 Maraschino cherry

Directions:

1. Blend with ice: Cake Vodka, Amaretto, Pineapple Juice and Pineapple slice

2. Pour into glass

3. Add splash of grenadine

4. Stir gently to gradually combine grenadine with frozen drink

5. Top with whipped cream and a cherry

Enjoy :)

Black Forest Cake

Bri's birthday weekend was a lot of fun.  We spent Friday night together for dinner at Mary's Hamburgers and then rented Despicable Me 2 to watch afterwards.  It was a fun date-night!  On Saturday, we had dinner with his family at Caro Mio which was absolutely delicious and then had a fun night with friends.  And finally, the bday festivities continued on Sunday with dinner at Giordano's and then Black Forest Cake for dessert!

Bri loves the cherry-chocolate combination (not my favorite) and so it was the perfect dessert for his birthday.  Here's the thing though, although this is not my favorite, it was really good and so that is saying something.  It was a perfect cake and even looked pretty! Making desserts look attractive has never been my strong suit and I was really excited about how gorgeous this cake turned out.  This has been a great birthday celebration!

Black Forest Cake
(adapted from All Recipes)

Ingredients:
For the Cake:
2 1/8 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tbsp vanilla
For the Cherry Filling:
30 oz pitted sour cherries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 and 1/8 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
For the Frosting:
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease 2 9 inch cake pans
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Beat in the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla.  Divide batter equally into the two pans and bake for 35 minutes.  Let cool completely.
3. To make the cherry filling, drain cherries and reserve 3/4 cup of cherry juice.  In a small saucepan, combine the cherry juice, cherries, cornstarch, and sugar.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.  Stir in vanilla.  Let cool.
4. To make the frosting, beat the cream and sugar until stiff peaks form.
5. Assemble the cake: using floss or a long knife, cut each cake down the middle to form four skinny cakes.  Three layers are for the cake, one is for the crumb topping.  Place bottom layer on a plate and top with a layer of whipped cream.  Spoon about half the cherry mixture over the whipped cream.  Place second cake layer on top and then repeat with the whipped cream and the rest of the cherry mixture.  Leave out a few cherries for decorating and place final cake layer on top.  Cover the rest of the cake with the whipped cream frosting.  Use crumbs from the last cake layer to cover the sides of the cake.  Pipe frosting along the top and bottom.  Finally, decorate the top with more crumbs and remaining cherries.

Enjoy :)

Cherry Clafoutis

It is the last week of camp and I just can't believe it! Time has flown by! This week is all about camper favorites and we have been having a blast.

It was also one of my bestie, Jill's, birthday on Sunday.  I was supposed to party it up like a crazy college kid downtown with her, but following a super amazing/rich dinner, I found my tummy seriously disagreeing with me.  I felt so bad about missing her party and I can't wait to make it up to her! Jill is an amazing person and friend and I seriously owe her one at this point.  However, as I cried to my mom about how disappointed I was to be missing out, she made the very valid point that we would both be 21 for a while and could celebrate as much as we want.  I vote for celebrating often :)

All these 21st birthdays have made me really think about growing up.  I have been reflecting a lot lately and I just can't believe I have such amazing friends and family in my life.  Turning 21 has made me feel strangely old, but in a good way.  Like have have grown up so much, but I have come so far and I'm really loving the person I am becoming.  A lot of this is due to the people I have in my life and I am truly grateful!

In other news, I recently purchased this fantastic cast iron skillet (with my birthday gift cards!) and I treated myself to a Cherry Clafoutis.  I wanted to branch out and try something new and my mom purchased a GIANT box of cherries this weekend.  So we ran out and got a cherry pitter and got to work!  This dessert turned out amazing and I would love to try it again with different fruit combinations!

Cherry Clafoutis (adapted from Former Chef)

Ingredients:
3 cups cherries, pitted
1 tbsp butter
6 eggs
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 cups skim milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp chambord
3/4 cup flour
pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in the center position.
2. Over low heat, melt the butter in your cast iron skillet and coat the bottom and sides with the butter.  Remove from heat.  Place half the cherries in the bottom of the pan.
3. In a food processor, process eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla, and chambord until well combined.  Add in flour and salt and pulse for another 30 seconds or until well combined.  Pour batter into the pan.  Place the rest of the cherries on top.
4. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy :)

Dessert Fruit Dip

This is just a quick little post to say hi and send a cute little recipe your way.  My new laptop and my old laptop were just dropped off at the laptop doctor for an overnight visit.  That means I'm on my parents computer and I can't edit photos.  This is all very sad and a tad frustrating, but I'll make it work. 

I made this fruit dip as a light little treat for dessert tonight and it was great! We got a bunch of fresh berries at the store and then served them around the dip.  It's a great little treat and a super yummy way to celebrate some flavors that are in season. 

Dessert Fruit Dip

Ingredients:
1 cup non-fat plain greek yogurt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
fresh berries

Directions:
Just mix everything together and add flavors to your taste.  Serve with yummy berries!  We also had some cinnamon sugar pretzels that were pretty tasty when dipped in this!

Enjoy :)

Hot Crossed Buns-with a Twist

Hot Crossed Buns is a traditional Easter recipe.  I celebrate Passover, but I have been looking for new and fun recipes and I keep coming across recipes for Hot Crossed Buns that just look so good.  Also, I have this strange fascination with making bread from scratch.  It's so neat that you can use so few ingredients and end up with amazing tasting bread! Anyways, when I saw the recipe that the Cookin Canuck poster on Unconventional Hot Crossed Buns, I was sold.  I decided to make them in honor of Easter.

My mom's side of the family does celebrate Easter, but this year they are not in town.  I guess I still wanted to do something for Easter and sharing these guys with my family seemed like the perfect thing.  My mom recalls getting hot crossed buns every year as a child and hating them because of the raisins.  These buns have NO raisins, and they have chocolate, you really can't go wrong.  Plus, the original recipe calls for mostly all-purpose flour and a little whole wheat flour.  I didn't feel like opening a new thing of all-purpose flour and so I used all white whole wheat flour.  I didn't change anything else and they were great!

Finally, I have a little tip: once you have made the dough and need to wait for it to rise for 2 to 2 and a half hours, you can place it in the fridge to slow the process down a little.  My mom and I were going to get pedicures (yay spa day!) and I knew that the bread would be ready before we were home.  I stuck it in the fridge for an hour, and then placed it in the oven (not on obviously) for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  It was perfect!

Whole Wheat Hot Crossed Buns-with a Twist (inspired by Cookin Canuck)

Ingredients:
6 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk (I made my own: buttermilk powder + water)
1 .75 oz packet of dried yeast
4 tbsp agave nectar, divided
3 eggs
4 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
1 egg
1 tbsp water
Glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp skim milk
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Melt the butter and set aside to cool.
2. Heat the buttermilk in a saucepan until warm (NOT BOILING) and then mix in a large liquid measuring cup with the yeast and 1 tbsp of agave nectar.  Let sit for about 10 minutes, until bubbles start to form on the top of the mixture.
3. Whisk in the eggs, cooled butter, and the rest of the agave nectar (3 tbsp).
4. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt, and cinnamon together.
5. In a stand mixer with a dough hook, or with your hands, combine the flour and buttermilk mixture until dough forms.  Then, knead for 8-10 minutes until you have a pliable and smooth dough.
6. Punch a hole in the middle of the dough and place the cherries and chocolate.  Knead until they are dispersed evenly throughout the dough. Form dough into a ball and place in a large, oiled, bowl.
7. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow to sit in a draft-free place for 2 to 2 1/2 hours until the dough has more than doubled in size.  (This is where I put the dough in the fridge for an hour because of my pedicure...haha).
8. Once the dough is ready, form 12 balls and place in an oiled 9 by 13 inch baking dish.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the rolls double in size and are pressing against each other.
9. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle position.  In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the 1 tbsp of water.  Cut a cross into each of the rolls, and then brush with the egg wash.  Bake for about 25-30 minutes (mine took 30).  Buns will be lightly browned on top.  Let cool for 5-10 minutes.
10. Make the glaze: mix all the ingredients together and then, using a spoon, brush the glaze across the X's in the buns to make the traditional cross.

Enjoy :)