Granola bars

I love trying new snack recipes that are healthy for the kids to eat. I've been making granola for a long time and they love it, but sometimes they want something else. Every couple of days the kids and I have a conversation that goes like this: Them "Mom, can I have a snack?" Me: "Sure what do you want?" Them: "Can I have a junk snack?" Me: "What kind of junk snack?" Them: "Something with chocolate."
So I've been trying to perfect a granola bar recipe that the kids would enjoy as much as the prepackaged variety that was healthier for them with no luck, until tonight. I decided to try out a recipe from one of the blogs I follow. I made a batch a few days ago, but I got distracted and only added half the oats I needed, plus the recipe called for cinnamon which we all thought overpowered the flavor. Tonight I made sure I measured out the ingredients properly, omitted the cinnamon and added chopped up dried cherries and some chocolate chips. They were a big hit with everyone, well Super Why ate all but one bite of his then handed it to me and said this is icky. I'm pretty sure he was just full since he ate the rest of it.

Can't get enough oatmeal cranberry cookies

While perusing the aisles at BJ's the other day John tried an oatmeal cranberry cookie someone was doing a demo on and he loved it. He came home and told me how surprised he was that he liked it so I figured I would try to make them. How was I suppose to duplicate a cookie I hadn't tried? I had no idea what they tasted like or what kind of texture they were suppose to have. I ended up searching online to get a rough idea of what such a cookie would have in it which of course found about a bazillion different recipes. I did find one that caught my eye, it was suppose to be a healthy alternative to regular oatmeal cookies and since I'm always looking for good healthy recipes I decided to give it a shot. There was only a tablespoon of butter, used whole wheat flour and a good portion of the sweetness came from applesauce. They mixed up really quick and only took 10 minutes in the oven.

I let them cool for about 5 minutes before I brought one to John to see if they were anything like what he had and if he would notice that there was whole wheat flour in them. I waited close by while he tried it. He took a bite, looked at it and kept right on eating. I asked him if it was anything like what he had at BJ's, he said "no, but this is gooood." Next they had to pass muster with the kids, Bookworm said she liked them but would rather have applesauce (which is code for you made the mistake of telling me there were cranberries in these so now I'm not going to give them a chance). Cheeseburger boy and Super Why gobbled theirs down and Cheeseburger boy asked for more. Finally it was my turn to try them, they really are good. They aren't really a cookie consistency, kind of muffin like, not sure how to describe it. These would really make excellent breakfast cookies. I know what I'm having for breakfast in the morning!

Bread, bagels, breakfast

Today was a baking day, I made 2 loaves of bread and about 10 bagels. That should be enough to last us until Monday, maybe Tuesday.

I started to restock my freezer today. I like to make some of the kids favorite breakfast foods and stash them in the freezer so that if we are running behind on a school morning or if I'm just being lazy and don't want to cook, the kids can still have a hot breakfast. This afternoon I decided to do whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes, these are a BIG hit with the tribe. Generally I try to do this kind of cooking when the kids are in bed and for good reason. I can usually get about 4 dozen pancakes out of a double batch, today only 2 dozen made it to the freezer. Cheeseburger boy and Super Why kept running back and forth from the dining room to the kitchen, one more Mom, one more Mom, please. I can't really blame it all on them, I did eat about 4 of them myself.

This week I'm going to restock the bacon, egg & cheeses bagels. I'll post some photos when I'm done. If your interested in any of the recipes, let me know.