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!

Recipe Corner: Baklava

My favorite time of year is just after fall hits… When it’s still warm enough outside to get out and do yard work in your capris and shirt sleeves but not warm enough to heat up the inside when you bake, creating an inferno-like situation. As soon as this happens I whip out a piece of paper and begin my fall/winter baking lists.

Right at the top of the lists is Baklava. I got this recipe a few years ago from my Scentsy lead and I’ve been making it ever since. It’s addictive… You think about it at weird times during the summer when it’s incredibly too hot to have the oven on for 55 minutes and stand at a stove for 20… You dream about it… You salivate like Homer does when he talks about donuts.

So I will show you how to make my heavenly baklava. It’s easier than you think, so don’t be daunted. Embrace that which is baklava. It will change your life forever. As always, recipe will be after the tutorial!

For the Baklava you’ll need a 9x13 inch pan. Grease it up good with cooking spray. You’ll also need a roll of fillo dough and a moist tea towel to keep it moist. This is very important. If you don’t keep the dough moist, it will crack and tear and just be a bear to work with. I also have over there a bowl with a silicone brush, some real butter and a knife. And what’s not pictured… Pecans and cinnamon. Oh and you’ll need the recipe… And your cellphone if you just can’t seem to be separated from the stupid thing (like me).

Finely chop or kinda ground your nuts. You can use walnuts, but I use pecans because I don’t care for walnuts anymore. Add your cinnamon, stir it around til the pecans are coated.

Add one (two sheet) layer of fillo dough, slather it with melted butter. Repeat until you have like eight sheets layered with butter in between.

Sprinkle your pecans on. Top with two sheets of buttered fillo dough and continue with one of the pecans, two more of the fillo, until you have all the pecans gone. Finish up with a layer around 6-8 layers thick.

Like this. Cover the top with melted butter.

Here’s the tricky part. Using a sharp knife, cut the baklava into squares. Cause believe me. It’ll be too hot right out of the oven, then too sticky after you put the syrup on. This way it’s already cut and all that yummy syrup can seep into the cracks. If you want to be fancy and cut your stuff into squares, you can go right ahead and do that. But I’m not fancy, and this stuff is a PAIN in the butt to work with. Trust me. LOL

Now you put the baklava in the oven and wait and wait and wait and wait. You may die waiting. And your house will smell FABULOUS!!! Like you want to bottle it up and get high off it fabulous.

While you’re salivating over the smell of the baklava cooking, you can get your syrup going. You’ll need a heavy saucepan, honey, vanilla, white sugar, and water.

Combine all that and simmer for 20 minutes.

Get your baklava out after the 50 minutes has elapsed and it’s golden brown and beautiful. Revel in its loveliness.

Then CAREFULLY and SLOWLY pour the super hot syrup over the baklava. You’ll have to do it in stages… And be careful not to float the tops off the baklava. Or if you do… You can just eat them…

Then you wait until it cools slightly. I usually wait until I think the fear of incinerating my tongue has passed. This year it wasn’t to be. I ended up burning the crapholies out of my tastebuds, but man it was so worth it! Tasted soooo good.

So here’s the recipe:

Breazy’s Best Baklava

1 pound ground nuts (pecans, walnuts, etc)

1 tbsp cinnamon

2 sticks (or three) melted butter

1 pkg fillo dough, thawed and brought to room temp

Syrup

1 c Water

1 c white sugar

1/2 c honey

1/2 tsp vanilla

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom and sides of a 9x13 pan.

Grind nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll fillo dough. Cover fillo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have eight sheets of layered dough. Sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. Continue until all the nuts are gone. Top layer should be about 6-8 layers thick.

Using a sharp knife, cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. Bake for about 50 minutes until the baklava is golden and crisp.

Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it’s wrapped up.

 

Now I haven’t frozen it yet. I’ve been tempted. But I don’t know whether it should be before it’s baked or after it’s baked? I’m just so scared of ruining some lol. It just costs soooooo much to buy a pound of pecans.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family and I do. If you make it and use a different kind of nuts, like hazelnuts or cashews, let me know!

Nini’s Perfect Pumpkin Bars

When I was younger, these bars were ehhh… I didn’t really care for pumpkin… In bar or pie form. I don’t know why. But now that I’m older I CRAVE these bars and pretty much anything pumpkin in origin from September 1st on LOL
These are no exception. My mom has been making them since I was little. It was a recipe she got when she worked in law enforcement and I have to say they’re the bomb.

Nini’s Perfect Pumpkin Bars

Day Two: Here I've waited my whole life for you, and now you don't even want me. 

2 c. Flour

2 c. sugar

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Baking Soda

2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/4 tsp. Ground Cloves

1/4 tsp. Ground Ginger

4 eggs, beaten

2 c. Pureed Pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling; regular pumpkin puree)

1 c. Cooking Oil

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. In separate bowl combine eggs, pumpkin and oil until combined. Add in dry ingredients in increments to mix in thouroughly. Spread batter into an ungreased 15x10x1 inch jelly roll pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

6oz Cream Cheese softened

3/4 of a stick of butter, softened

2 tsp. of Vanilla

3 to 3 1/2 c. Powdered Sugar

In bowl, mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar; beat well after each addition. If frosting is too thick, add small amounts of milk to thin it out.

You can sprinkle pecan pieces (or walnuts) over the top of the frosting. Or add it to the frosting itself. We’ve done it both ways and love it.

Cut, eat and enjoy!!!

Recipe Tutorial: The Bomb Banana Bread

So… I really can’t stand bananas. They make me sick when I eat them by themselves. Not fun. Not a good way to start off a tutorial on how to make the Bomb Banana Bread, huh? Well, banana bread period is really the only way I can enjoy bananas. And I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect banana bread recipe for like ever. And I finally found it!

First off, you’ll need your ingredients. The recipe follows all my wonderful pictures lol. What you can’t see is the egg that’s nestled so cutely in the bowl.

You gotta make sure that your bananas are ripe. You don’t want them overly ripe, to the point they’ve got a million black spots on em and you can barely handle them without smushing them out of the peel. These were almost there, but they were just right. They made perfect smooshy sounds.

Speakin’ of smooshin’, if you have a chillin’ there that is eager to help, set them to smashin’ the bananas. They’ll enjoy it more than you think!

You’ll come up with something that looks a lot like baby food. At this point, you could give it to a toothless one and they’ll go crazy.

You put your melted butter in next. You don’t have to get it completely melted, I didn’t and it didn’t mess it up at all.

Then add your sugar, vanilla and egg. I used Watkins vanilla, and like I’ve said before- if you use Watkins vanilla, you need to halve what ever the recipe calls for. If not, it’ll be overpowering.

Then you add your dry ingredients and mix….

Add your pecans. You can add walnuts, but to me walnuts just don’t taste good anymore.

Butter your baking pan. I used margarine on mine and it came out effortlessly. I was impressed.

Pour the yumminess in the pan and put it in the oven… Now comes the hard part… The waiting!!!

But the wait is well worth it. Out comes this gorgeous loaf of banana goodness with a nice, beautifuly golden crust on top.

Let it warm for awhile. It doesn’t have to cool down all the way, but if you cut it too soon after you take it out of the oven it’s just going to fall apart. I waited a good hour and a half before cutting this one and it was still warm.

Slather with butter or margarine (or in this case I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter) and enjoy the fruits of your labor!

This was seriously the easiest recipe I’ve found in a LONG time. I’ve been looking for a decent banana bread recipe for awhile and I am SO glad I found this one. I’m seriously contemplating making loaves and muffins to sell for Christmas!

The Bomb Banana Bread

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for an hour to an hour and 10 minutes. Test it with a skewer or a long knife to make sure the middle is cooked through. The skewer or knife should come out clean when done. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Recipe Time! Garlic Bread-Wrapped Meatballs.

You say what?! Garlic bread wrapped meatballs?! What kind of sorcery is this?

Well you’ve probably seen the recipe on Facebook. My mom tagged me in it and once I saw it I had to try it. I try every recipe once the way it’s written in the instructions, and then the second time (if there is a second time- sometimes my recipes fail to impress and we can’t find any way to make them better).

So I figured I’d try this one the way it said to the first time.

This is a pretty easy recipe and I suggest it for a side- unlike an entrée that we made it. Wasn’t filling enough… So I might have to make me and bubs some fried Eggplant later lol.

Here’s what you’ll need (full recipe at the end of the post): Shredded parmesan cheese, Grands flaky layer biscuits, oregano (or Italian seasoning like it calls for, but I didn’t have) Garlic powder or garlic salt, premade Italian style meatballs and string cheese.

Cut four pieces of string cheese into five smaller pieces. You’ll need 20 chunks of string cheese when you’re done.

It was REALLY hard for me not to put this bowl in the microwave and melt it and eat it with bread. REALLY hard.

Take your biscuits out and get them ready.

Get your meatballs ready.

Take your flaky layer biscuits and separate them into two separate layers. I suggest, actually, that you should buy two things of biscuits because no where have I found a package of biscuits that hold 10 biscuits. Only 8. So I don’t know what they were thinking when they came up with this recipe.

Take and place a piece of cheese in the middle of your stretched out biscuit.

Put a meatball in your biscuit pouch. Please excuse my chipped mani. I haven’t gotten the chance to redo my nails. Continue this until you have all your cheese pieces used up.

And there you have your little meat and cheese pouches.

Take your trusty garlic powder and sprinkle thusly….

Not really sure how much I used…. I just sprinkled… No measurements needed.

Do the same with the Oregano or Itallian seasoning….

If you do all this whilst using Julia Child’s accent, then you’re doing it right. Do everything whilst using Julia Child’s accent.

Take your parmesan cheese (don’t sniff it right now, cause it smells like butt) and sprinkle it over your rolly thingies.

This is when it starts smelling like pizza…… Bake for about 25 minutes….

And THIS is what you get. NUM YUMMY!!!!

Serve with marinara sauce and your favorite Italian accoutrements and you have a scrumptious dinner!!!

Garlic Bread-Wrapped Meatballs

1 can Pillsbury Grands Jr. Golden Layers refrigerated buttermilk or flaky biscuits

20 frozen cooked Italian-style meatballs (about 5 oz), thawed

4 sticks (1 oz each) string cheese, each cut into 5 pieces

grated Parmesan cheese
teaspoon Italian seasoning
teaspoon garlic powder or garlic salt
1 cup marinara sauce, heated

Directions:
1 Heat oven to 375°F. Separate dough into 10 biscuits. Separate each biscuit into 2 layers. Press each biscuit layer into 3-inch round.

2 Place 1 meatball and 1 string cheese piece in center of each dough round. Wrap dough around meatball and cheese, pressing edges to seal. In ungreased 8- or 9-inch round cake pan, (or a 9x13 rectangular pan) place seam side down in single layer.

3 Sprinkle evenly with Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning and garlic powder.

4 Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and biscuits are no longer doughy in center. Serve warm biscuits with warm marinara sauce for dipping.