Acorn squash, or as my beloved in-laws in WA state say it "squarsh," contains beta-carotene, fiber, potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B, magnesium, and manganese. A little powerhouse! It is a fruit because its seeds are inside--and yep, that means cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, and zucchinis are also fruits. (Strawberries are in their own class, not technically fruits, the little dickens.) But when you are a kid a squash might as well be a vegetable and, therefore, inherently repulsive. So this is how I get my monkeys to eat their squarsh. :)
You will need:
1 acorn squash for every two people I used 2 squash for the four of us so... 4T butter (Smart Balance!!) 4T brown sugar (light or dark) Kosher salt 2 cups water aluminum foil lined 9x13in baking dish
Preheat your oven to 400.
Wash your squash with soap and hot water, even if you found organic, and dry them fully. Then cut them in half from the stem down. Be careful--they can be slippery.
Use a spoon to remove the guts, just like you would with a cantaloupe.
Reserve the guts to feed to your chickens...or not.
Place the halves in your pan cut-side up.
Use a fork to score the insides of each squash...
then smear 1T of butter on each half.
Now drop 1T of brown sugar into each half, no need to spread it around. (In the picture, the bottom left-hand squash has Splenda brown sugar in it and that's why it is darker.) Then sprinkle with Kosher salt--just a pinch per half.
The last step is to carefully add 2 cups of water to your pan. Don't get any water inside your squash.
Bake for 40-50 minutes or until tender and lightly browned.
You will want to serve these right away. I put them in a bowl and the use a fork to scrape down the sides...
until all the flesh is removed from the skins and is mixed up with the delicious butter and brown sugar.
They are so flavorful--almost as good as a dessert! In fact, I always save mine to eat last because I am one of those people who needs a bit of sweet after a meal. And, no offense to the Biggest Loser, but sugar-free gum just doesn't cut it. :)
I always thought I was giving my girls a healthy treat when I would pack granola bars in their school lunches, especially the ones touted as "low sugar." Then the warnings came out about high fructose corn syrup and moms starting checking food labels with a vengeance. It turns out that you might have a hard time finding a granola bar without the stuff. Even the Fiber One bars that I used to have for breakfast are loaded with it. And now that I know, I can't let my kids eat that junk, so I make my own. This recipe is easy, super tasty, and completely void of corn syrup. Best part of all, the girls love them!
You will need:
2 cups oats (sometimes I substitute Multi-Grain Cheerios) 3/4 cup wheat germ 1 cup crushed peanuts ******* 2/3 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup honey 4 T Smart Balance 2 tsp vanilla 1/4 tsp Kosher salt 6-8 oz dried fruit (your choice) 1/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Line a jelly roll pan with foil (or any cookie sheet with sides). No need to grease it, just spread out the oats and wheat germ.
Crush your peanuts. I like to use low sodium dry roasted peanuts, but you can use any type of peanut or nut that you like. I use my mini chopper to chop up the peanuts, but you can crush them in a plastic bag using a cup.
Add the peanuts to the oats and wheat germ and mix.
Toast them in the oven for 10 minutes, stirring after 5 minutes and checking two minutes early. You don't want the wheat germ to burn. After they are done you can turn off the oven.
Line a 9x13 inch glass baking pan with wax paper. Grease the paper with a little cooking spray and set aside.
Add your toasted mix to a large bowl and pour in fruit of choice. I like to use a 6 oz bag of mixed fruit.
Add the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt to a saucepan.
Melt over medium low heat...
until the mixture comes to a simmer or low, low boil. Remove from heat when you see the first little bubbles coming to the surface.
Pour your yummy sugar mixture into the bowl over the fruit and oats.
Stir and make sure that everything is evenly coated.
Now the chocolate chips!!
Drop your granola bar mixture into your greased and lined 9x13 pan.
Spread evenly to all sides.
Cover with another sheet of wax paper and press down hard. You aren't going to bake these, so you need to press them into shape so they won't fall apart.
Leave the wax paper on top and set aside to cool and set for 2 hours. Then remove top sheet of paper and use the bottom sheet to pick up the entire giant bar and put it on a cutting board or your counter top.
I make four cuts lengthwise
and three width wise.
I get 2 to 3 weeks of granola bars this way. It depends on how many times a week they take them. It's usually around four times a week for both girls.
They are moist, but not too moist. Chewy, not overly sweet, and I can feel good about giving them to the girls. The first time I gave these to them Tink ate 3 and Goose ate 2.
I wrap each bar individually in plastic wrap. That way I can just drop one in their lunch sack.
I keep them in a Ziploc fresh shield freezer bag in the freezer. They are completely thawed by lunchtime for the kids. On the weekends I'll take out a few and keep them in the cupboard for a quick snack.
Try different nuts, fruit, and grains. You really can't go wrong! And give yourself a pat on the back for giving your kids a granola bar you made from scratch with NO corn syrup.
The monkeys have been learning to cook and bake this summer. Among other things, I taught the Goose to make her great-grandmother's spaghetti sauce and Tinker Bell to make her grandmother's meatloaf. I also let them experiment with box mixes. Now, you would be hard pressed to find a box mix of any kind in my kitchen before this summer, but it is a great way to get the girls starting baking. It's how I learned, after all. Tink makes the most amazing Chewy Bars from a Jiffy cake mix. (I'll have to post pictures of her making them!) The Goose has been making brownies from a box, but I found a recipe on another food blog, Life's Ambrosia, for making cookies out of a brownie mix. I was intrigued and the Goose said she would love to make them. What fun we had!! Okay, she was a little annoyed at me hanging over her shoulder taking pictures, but I'm that kind of mom. :)
You will need: 1 box fudge brownie mix 1 1/4 cup King Arthur flour 1/4 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 stick butter (Smart Balance), melted 2-4 T water 1 cup (or whole bag) of chocolate chunks
Put your brownie mix in a large bowl and add the brown sugar...
and the flour and mix together.
You need to add the eggs one at a time. Always break an egg into a small bowl before adding to your batters or mixes. This way you can check for shell or other anomalies. Our chickens lay perfect eggs, of course. :)
After the eggs, add the butter and start with just 2 T of water. I actually ended up needing to add 4.
At this point the batter is pretty stiff. You might have to help your monkey stir.
Now it's time for the chocolate chunks. The recipe calls for one cup, but Goose thought it would be more fun with the whole bag.
CAUTION: Monkeys have been known to steal chocolate! Keep your eyes on them at all times!!
Dang, I turned away for one second!
Stir in all the chocolate chunks that are left after the bowl is raided by monkeys.
Grease your cookie sheets with a bit of cooking spray. I use Smart Balance, of course.
Here's what I changed about Life's Ambrosia awesome recipe-- I lowered the oven temperature to 325 because I...well, I just never bake cookies at a higher temp. Probably doesn't make a hill of difference, but it's just what I do. We did not refrigerate the batter for two hours either. The starving monkeys were too impatient and I figured with the lower temp they would be chewy without chilling. And they were!
Goose put heaping soup spoons of dough on a standard size cookie sheet. She got 9 on each sheet. Press down on the cookies just a little bit. Don't flatten them, but just help them look more like cookies and less like balls. (hee hee)
Since I had the oven turned down a bit we had to bake them for 14 minutes instead of the recommended 8-10 at 350. Let them cook on the cookie sheets for two minutes so they will set. Then you won't be able to stop eating them!
Goose said, "the chunks melted and make the cookie creamy. The edges of the cookie are crisp like a cookie, but the middle is squishy and chewy like a brownie. And they smell like pure chocolate!"
Tink said, "heaven with a side of heaven."
So...a hit, I think! The cookies got that amazing brownie crust on top that is sooooo good. Try them today and head over to Life's Ambrosia and check our her great blog.
Apple pie is my least favorite pie. Un-American, I know. I love apples, love brown sugar, love cinnamon, love pie, don't like them mixed together. I don't even like the smell of apples and cinnamon. Weird, I know. But, this recipe I like. Not love, but like and based on my tolerance and my family's adoration for this pie I figure it must be the best darn apple pie ever. You will need:
1/2 to 1 cup flour 6-7 cups Granny Smith apples 1 cup sugar 1 cup brown sugar 2 T butter 1 tsp cinnamon (I use more...lots more.) 2 pie crusts 1 pie pan cinnamon sugar
One apple equals about one cup, so I used 6 apples. If you get your hands on some tiny Granny Smiths you might need closer to 8. I used my handy dandy apple peeler (it also cores and slices). I love it and wish I loved to bake with apples more so I could use it more often.
The peels were so pretty I just had to take a picture.
Mix the flour, sugars, and cinnamon in a large bowl. I used 3/4 of a cup of flour. Finding the right amount of flour is tricky...it all depends on the juiciness of your apples. Unfortunately, you usually can't tell how much liquid they will give up until they are baked. It's a crap shoot--you could end up with an overly-juicy pie or one that is too thick and can stand on its own. Those pie slices that are thick and stand up high are beautiful in magazines, but they don't taste so great in real life. I have found that 1/2 cup is almost always too little, though.
I like to chop my apples instead of slicing them. With the slices you have to cut up your pie and I don't like that. I just want to dig in and get a forkful. The large chops cook all the way through, I promise.
Now add your apples to your flour, sugar, cinnamon mix and get in there with your hands to mix. Kids love to help out with this part!
Line your pie plate with one crust. I just use the refrigerated ones. Easy and super yummy. Add all of the covered apples to the pie pan. You will have lots of the mix leftover--just pour it over the apples.
Cut up the 2T of butter and place around the top of the pie.
Now here's a trick. I use mini cookie cutters to cut out shapes from the top crust. This trick allows more steam to evaporate from the pie and caramelizes the sugars inside. SO GOOD! (Save your cutout shapes.)
Place the top crust on top of your pie and seal the edges. Now brush the entire top crust with milk and place your cutout shapes anywhere you like, except over the openings. Now brush the tops of the cutouts with milk and sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top of the whole pie.
Bake at 375 degrees for 45-55 minutes. I use a cake tester to poke the apples and make sure they are soft. I've never had to bake for more than 55 minutes.
This pie speaks for itself, don't you think?
Enjoy!
**note: I baked this pie a few months ago. I'm still not turning on my oven in this heat and I am really, really looking forward to the big cool down in September (if we are lucky) or October. Definitely cooler by November. Or December. I'm having trouble remembering when it was cool... :)
I created this food blog when my two girls were young, I was a stay-at-home mom, and I had not yet attended culinary school. Now I'm a classically trained chef with two college-age daughters. This blog will always be so special to me and I hope you enjoy my old recipes.
