Recipe Tutorial: Quick No-Bake Granola Bars

The first few weeks of school have come and gone for my little minions. Well they’re not so little anymore. At almost 14 and almost 12, they’re I guess, pint-sized minions.

Anywho. My kids always beg for an after school snack, so I decided to get a little inventive with the items I already had in the kitchen.

You’ll need: Oatmeal, rice crispies, brown sugar, honey, peanut butter and assorted fillings. I added dry roasted peanuts, granola, peanut butter chips and marshmallows. You can add pretty much anything you want. The sky is the limit!

Add your honey, brown sugar and peanut butter in a saucepan and combine.

It doesn’t look appealing, but trust me. Turn your stove on medium/low and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Bring it to a boil and continue boiling for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Get all of your non-melty ingredients together.

Grease a 9x13 pan and set aside.

Add the liquid to the dry and stir. Let it cool just a tad.

Add the marshmallows.

Peanut butter chips.

Add some mini chocolate chips and stir to combine.

Transfer to a pan and using your hands or a spatula, smooth the mixture out.

Sprinkle with chocolate chips and let cool as long as you can.

They’re so fantastic smelling that it might be kinda hard to keep your fingers out.

Cut them into bar shapes when you just can’t handle waiting any longer and enjoy!!

 

Easy No-Bake Granola Bars

*Note* You can tweak this recipe any way you like. I rarely ever measure anything but the oats for this, so you don’t have to either. Just go with what you think tastes good.

2/3 c Peanut Butter

1/4 c Honey

1/2 c Brown Sugar

3 c Oatmeal

Fillings and Add Ons:

1 c. Rice Crispies

1 c Dry Roasted Peanuts

1/2 c Granola

1 c marshmallows

1/2 c Peanut Butter Chips

1/2 c Mini Chocolate Chips

 

In a large bowl, combine oatmeal, rice crispies, granola and roasted peanuts. Set aside.

Combine peanut butter, brown sugar and honey in saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat until boiling, stirring occasionally. Once it reaches a boil, time for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Pour honey mixture over dry ingredients and stir to combine. Let cool slightly.

Add marshmallows, peanut butter and chocolate chips. Stir.

Press into greased 9x13 inch pan, let cool. Slice into bars and enjoy!

German Fest Recipe Tutorial: Fried Cabbage with Bacon and Onion

Last but not least, and again, another flop with everyone in my household but me is another side dish. I happened to love this and can definitely envision it in a bierock type wrap.

And here’s a view of my mother-in-laws home town, Weinheim Germany.

Village of Weinheim, Germany (photo courtesy of Google Earth)

A beautiful view of the bustling little hamlet (Photo Courtesy of Aleta Sanford)

The house my mother-in-law was born in in Weinheim. (Photo Courtesy of Aleta Sanford)

A castle in Weinheim. Not sure what castle it is, but it’s gorgeous. (Photo courtesy of Aleta Sanford)

OK… Enough sight seeing! Onto the yummies. This recipe is super, super simple and REALLY yummy. I think next time though, I’m going to half the recipe as it won’t get eaten before it spoils otherwise.

Cut your cabbage and onion ahead of time. Beware of strong onions that smell a lot like methane.

Cut your bacon up and fry it in a pot. I love bacon.

Add your onions and garlic to all the fun happening in the pot and cook until your onions are caramelized.

Add your cabbage and fry for 10 minutes.

Add your spices. Cover. Reduce heat and fry stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

Then serve with your favorite German dishes and know that if you’re honoring someone special, they’re probably looking down and smiling, so proud of what you’ve accomplished.

Photo Courtesy of Aleta Sanford

Fried Cabbage with bacon, onion and garlic

6 slices bacon, chopped

1 lg onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lg cabbage, cored and sliced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp smoked paprika

Place bacon in large pot and cook until crispy. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion caramelizes.

Stir in cabbage, cook 10 minutes. Season. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.

German Fest Recipe Tutorial: Spaetzle

OK. I’m a spaetzle novice. First time I made it was last year and it was a box of spaetzle that was probably a year or more old. It wasn’t all that whoopy. So I gave it another chance and made it on my own.

Now let me give you one piece of advice… Think ahead when making this dish. If you don’t have a spaetzle maker, you might think of investing in one. You can find them at most major stores and of course, online at places like Amazon.com or even Walmart. A potato ricer would also work. If you don’t have either of those things, then a gallon sized zippie with the corner cut out will work just as well. That’s what I used.

Get your stuffs together.

Season your flour with salt and pepper (Salz and peffer).

Mix your eggs with your milk.

Add it to your flour and mix in. You don’t want it super runny if you’re using a press, but since I’m not… Yeah, this’ll work I guess.

Fill your press… Or zippie….

This just doesn’t look right.

Start adding your spaetzle to boiling salted water, taking it out as it starts floating to the top as it’s done.

Drain. This really doesn’t look appealing, but trust me. It is.

Spread your spaetzle out in a greased dish and top with shredded Swiss cheese. Bake until bubbly.

While it’s baking, caramelize some onions in olive oil (don’t use as much olive oil as I did… I am a bad judge of olive oil amounts LOL)

Take it out of the oven, sprinkle on your caramelized onions and enjoy!!!

Spaetzel

1 1/2 c flour

3/4 tsp salt

Pepper to taste

3 eggs

3/4 c 2% milk

2 c shredded Swiss

3 tbsp butter

1 onion chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Add flour, salt and pepper in large bowl. Beat eggs and milk in separate bowl, add to flour once combined.

In a large pot of boiling water, press batter into the water. Remove when they start floating and drain.

Layer spaetzle in bottom of dish and cover with Swiss cheese.

Bake 30 minutes

Melt butter (or use olive oil) in large skillet over low heat. Add onions and cook until golden brown. Sprinkle over spaetzle.

German Fest Recipe Tutorial: Jaeger Schnitzel

Next up is the main course of our meal. No one really cared for the gravy part of this, but oh well. I loved it.

Get all ingredients for your schnitzel together.

He also puts some seasoning in the flour. Some garlic and onion powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. The bread crumbs are just plain.

Break your eggs into a separate dish.

Put a little milk in there and whisk it all up.

Lookit that egg bath!

What you don’t see is that Mr. Good Witch has pounded the snot out of some pork chops.

Flour up your beaten pork.

Dip it in the egg wash.

Cover it up with the bread crumbs.

Fry them up in a skillet with about 1/4” of hot oil or Crisco. It only takes like 2-3 minutes a side.

Rest them on some paper towels while you make the gravy.

Throw down some button mushrooms in a bit of olive oil until they’ve released their juices and get all yummy looking.

I mean, c’mon… These look fabulous. But take them out of the skillet and set to the side.

Put some margarine in the same skillet and sprinkle your flour to the grease to make a roux and cook for a couple of minutes.

Then add your beef broth and whisk it in. Add your mushrooms back in and let simmer for about 15 minutes or so.

Doesn’t that look fabulous?!

Throw down the schnitzel and cover with the mushroom gravy and voila! Jaeger Schnitzel!!!! Y’know, this was the first time I had ever had schnitzel, let alone Jaeger Schnitzel, and I was thoroughly pleased. It was sooooo flipping yummy. I’m pretty sure my mother-in-law would have tipped her glass and dug in.

Photo Courtesy of Aleta Sanford

Jaeger Schnitzel

4 boneless pork chops

1/2 c flour

1 tsp salt

2 (or more) eggs beaten

3/4 c bread crumbs

5 oz button mushrooms sliced

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp flour

1 14.5 oz can beef broth.

Schnitzel

Place pork chops between waxed paper and pound until 1/4 inch thick.

Dip chops into flour, egg, then bread crumbs.

Fry schnitzel for 2-3 minutes until deep golden brown.

Gravy

In separate skillet, heat tbsp or so of olive oil and add mushrooms. Cook until they have released their juices and most has evaporated. Transfer mushrooms to a bowl.

In same skillet, melt butter, add flour. Whisk to combine. Cook until golden brown, at least 3-4 minutes.

Slowly add beef broth and whisk together. Return mushrooms to skillet. Bring gravy to simmer, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.