Homemade Granola Bars

You know when you get a recipe that sounds really good, but it just has 86 ingredients in it, so you put off making it for a long time? Well, I've got one of those recipes for some breakfast bars, from the Veggie Meal Plans blog, but it seems that I've wandered around the bulk section of Central Market enough recently to actually complete the recipe. And besides, it's not a terribly strict recipe, it seems that aside from the base, you can add five 1/3 cup measures of basically anything you want. This time I used almonds, pumpkin seeds, apricots, pears, golden raisins, and peaches.

These are a great break from the typical granola bar, because they're soft and chewy, and studded with so much dried fruit that adding sugar would just be over-kill. I've gotten pretty sick lately of store-bought granola bars; they're either hard like an oat-y little 2x4, or they've got that chewy, crispy rice texture that is so processed and syrupy that it shouldn't be considered much better than a cookie. These bars are none of the above, and I love them for it.





I'm already thinking about another batch later on. Since you can really do anything with this recipe, as long as the proportions stay the same, I was thinking of a slightly nuttier version, with apples, raisins and walnuts. I don't think hubby likes these so much, but being the breakfast lover that I am, I've been packing them away for meals and for snacks. Food in bar form just doesn't get much better than this.

Baguettes

Yesterday, while stumbling my way around this silly, empty internet thing, I ran across a really great website about bread. I wish I could link to it, but I apparently forgot to bookmark it :( Anyways, while reading about a hundred things I had never considered in my baking before (like dough temperature, and hard water affecting the bread, for example), the craving for a nice French baguette struck me. I started thinking about goat cheese, and bruschetta, and that delicate crackling sound of the cooling crust.

So in response to that craving, today I made two of the most splendidly awful looking pair of baguettes I've ever seen. The chewy texture and complex, salty flavor were spot on, though. The crust was delightfully crispy, but not as golden and crackly as I could have hoped. The recipe I followed called for a "moist, sticky dough" and a total of almost 4 hours of rising/proofing time. So I'm not much surprised that I ended up with loose, flat, over-proofed baguettes, rather than the round, slender beauties I had imagined. These actually reminded me more of ciabatta bread, with the flattened slipper shape and bubbly, holey crumb.





But it made me feel much better to read another article that stated (after many helpful and detailed paragraphs full of some things I did not know, and some things that I did know but had forgotten about the fabled perfect baguette) that the author of the article had received better training in bread-baking than myself, and had been working on perfecting his baguette for 5 years. So certainly there are no hard feelings if my first self-guided attempt is knobby and ugly and pale. Baguettes-1, Candace-0. See ya next round, punk...

Even if they ended up over-proofed, I did confirm one thing I read yesterday--that a short rise time develops less flavor. In fact, it's recommended to use a technique called poolish, or a starter, or to rise the dough in the refrigerator. The main idea of all of these methods is that the dough is at least a day old before it ever gets any heat. Letting this dough sit around in the kitchen all day today as I went about my chores built a toasty, yeasty, salty flavor that was noticeably absent in my last white bread. It's perfect by itself, and it's heavenly with a little butter.

These beauties have a great open texture, and I can't wait to toast them up and plunge the spears of bread into a big garlicky bowl of warm bruschetta.

Notes from the Kitchen this week

Did you know that mangoes are a part of the same plant family as poison ivy, oak and sumac? I just found this out recently, and in quite an unpleasant way. Apparently, a lot of people have allergic reactions to mangoes, especially from contact with the skin of the fruit. I got a lip rash a few weeks ago, blamed it on my nasty petroleum-based chap stick, and moved on. But I went and bought mangoes again at the grocery store, and lo and behold, I can already feel the lip itch begin. Damn it. Here's the Wikipedia article about it. I basically have poison ivy on my lips.

This is really a mixed blessing for me--on the one hand, at least I know what has been causing this horrific and painful rash, but on the other hand, I probably won't have much of a taste for mangoes from now on. It would probably be possible to eat them occasionally if I was careful about the peel, but honestly the rash ruins all food (and romance) for me for about a week, so it's really not worth the risk. I've been so sensitive to foods since my little detox experiment, so I certainly won't be tempting fate with risky foods right now. (even regular old pizza makes me want to barf!)

So I guess this is goodbye forever, Mango, you sweet juicy poisonous treat. I'll miss you, but I suppose a smoothie made with other, gentler fruits will taste almost as good without you.

Some other kinks in the kitchen this week--I seem to be short on forks, I always run out of them first; my sink is leaking something fierce, and it's all full of dirty dishes; but mostly my new hotel job has been leaving me tired and achy (but not too hungry, so I guess it balances out!)

I've never worked in a hotel before, but in the past 4 days I've done some neat stuff. Plating salads and making Panna Cotta for a banquet of 150. I also helped as part of an assembly line of cooks plating the entrees--I somehow ended up as the person slapping a bloody dripping chunk of prime rib up against a rounded scoop of rice, trailing the copious blood between the pan and the plates, and side to side around myself as I slid the plates down. Panna cotta was definitely more pleasant than that, despite how much of the creamy custard mix clotted in the bottom of the huge, drum-like pot while I scooped it out by the pitcher, pouring it into dainty cosmopolitan glasses. Once set, they were elaborately topped, and finished off with a crispy triangle of bunuelo.

Banquet be damned, I came so close to snatching one and gobbling it while hiding inside the freezer! I may have to add panna cotta to my dessert file, just to toss it in the mix should I ever need to make a dessert. I've been systematically copying recipes down from all over the internet, and from all of my magazines and cookbooks (I know, it's going to take forever!) and I recently found myself 10 pages deep in pies in an issue of Gourmet from last summer. Being the finger-licking berry-lover that I am, I couldn't resist writing down all 9 or 10 recipes. You should've seen the pictures, it made me feel all bright and summery already. If I'm lucky, the price of berries will dip a little later, but for now, I guess I've gotta stick with the frozen stuff.

Speaking of frozen stuff, I made a wonderfully flavorful vegetable stock the other day, mostly from frozen vegetable scraps that I've been saving. And I'm pretty sure that my laziness played a big role in the big flavor of this rich, brown vegetable stock. First, I threw every spare trimming in the pot that I could find--I trimmed the woody ends off of some asparagus and broccoli, tossed in 2 tomatoes, smashed 3 huge garlic cloves, and added the stems from a pound of shiitake mushrooms, plus 4 dried shiitake caps. All of this in addition to the usual mirepoix (a fancy French term for onions, carrot, and celery) and bouquet garni (bay leaves, peppercorns, herb stems) that come standard for any type of stock.

I let the stock come slowly up to a simmer while I cooked dinner, and then totally forgot about it while watching Lost after dinner. By the time I remembered it, the stock had reduced halfway, and some smushy vegetables were now sticking out of the liquid like bones. By then, it was bedtime, so I put a lid on the pot and stuck it in the refrigerator, still in the pot, veggies and all. It sat steeping like this all night long, and I finally drained it at 7am the next morning before I left for work.

From a full stockpot, I ended up with only 6 cups of velvety brown mushroom-flavored stock, enough for one dinner for two of humble vegetable soup, but let me tell you that the flavor of this soup was far from humble. I further flavored the broth with red onion and garlic, some reduced sherry wine, the juice of 2 lemons, and a generous flourish of parsley. Then I filled the pot with white beans and all the bright green spring veggies I could find--asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, and peas. We had some warm, crusty buttered bread for dipping, and this simple soup came alive in our mouths.

As I greedily slurped down the last bit, drooling while trying to strain the little garlic chunks and excess parsley with my teeth, I reflected how mediocre this soup would have been had I used the canary yellow vegetable stock from the carton that I normally buy. Sure, this pot took a week or so to compose from scraps, and even at that probably cost more than the $2.99 for the yellow stuff; but gods, the dark clarity of the broth and the rich, herby, almost sweet flavor were worth that amount, however much it was!

I know that soup recipes often tell you that home made broth is preferable to packaged or powdered kinds, and while I agree, I don't always heed their suggestions. It's just simply easier to buy the carton than it is to watch that pot for an hour or two, strain it all out, and then find extra tupperware for storage. But I think I may have learned my lesson this time around; and although this soup is very much gone and digested, I'm already fantasizing about the next savory pot of home made broth.

Meal Plans

While living at our last apartment, an efficiency smaller than some people's closets, it seemed that I fell into a dinner-time slump. And in a kitchen too small for two people to work (or move), with a broken oven whose gas range served as the most effective space heater ever, who could blame me? Once every few nights I would hear, without failing, "Tacos? Again? Yea, I guess I could eat some tacos."

So upon moving into a new apartment with a huge, fully functional kitchen, I simply had to make use of it and expand my repertoire. These two motivations are what birthed my most recent project--The Recipe Card File. I know, it's so old school, but I love it! My mother hates to cook, and I never knew my Sicilian grandmother to cook either (sadly! oh the recipes that must've gotten lost in that gap!) so I never inherited a recipe card file. Not that my veggie-lovin' self would probably find use for half the recipes that could be provided by the women in my family, but I adore the idea of a family recipe file, being handed down to my kids and their kids, etc. "Spelt Pancakes, just like Grandma Candace used to make," that's what I'm talking about!





So the way I've been using my recipe cards is like so--when it gets to be the time of week to go shopping again, I thumb through my files (I recently had to expand a second box after adding over 100 new recipes!) and pick out the following items:
-4 or 5 entrees, depending on what is left in the fridge at this point
-a salad dressing
-usually a soup and a cold salad, which may be used as a side dish or for lunch
-a loaf of bread (I usually have to double the recipe to make it last all week)
-something for breakfast; muffins, scones, coffee cake, granola bars, etc.
-any ingredients that have a recipe of their own, that are specified in another recipe, such as a spice blend, marinade, or dip


After I choose my recipes, I can quickly check each card and write down the missing ingredients onto a shopping list. Many times, I find I can already produce several of the week's recipes from stuff I already keep in stock.

Just simply sitting down and doing this for myself once a week has been really great for both of us--Jon gets to eat new things other than black bean tacos (which, by the way, were some dang good tacos!), and I get to expand my horizons and make full use of my awesome kitchen without having to rifle through the cupboards every night to figure out what's for dinner. So I figured if making these meal plans has so simplified my own life, then perhaps my readers could also benefit from having a meal plan to look at. So I'm going to start posting my meal plans up here approximately once a week, whenever my kitchen empties out enough for me to make another one. Hopefully you'll be able to draw inspiration from it for your own meal planning, and feel free to ask questions when I'm slow on posting recipes for something that sounds good.

So without further ado, here's my meal plan for the week:

Dinners-
-Crispy garlic tofu bites, with sesame snap peas on the side

-Cheese & vegetable enchiladas with mole sauce, borracho beans on the side

-Spring vegetable soup, with bread and salad on the side

-Leftover veggie burgers (I have mushroom burgers & beet burgers in the freezer)

Salads-
-Chickpea & tomato salad, served on a green salad with smoked tofu (as an entree)

-Maple walnuts

-Mustard & basil vinaigrette

Bread-
-Greek "Daktyla" bread, a wheat & cornmeal bread topped with sesame seeds and made to look like a loaf of thick fingers so it's easy to pull apart

Lunches-

-Golden Potato-Eggplant Salna (Jon *hates* eggplant, so this is a personal lunch to use up an extra one leftover from last week)

-Garam Masala, for the salna

-Leftovers, salads, and meals made from odds, ends, & extras

Breakfast-
-Breakfast bars, made with oats, spelt flour, and lots of nuts and dried fruits

-Fruit salad

-Cold cereal, or oatmeal


The best thing about making recipe cards for meal plans, is that I get to try out new things every week! Check in later for some of these recipes, or poke me with an e-mail if you get impatient. You know I'm still eating delicious stuff, even if I neglect to tell y'all about it!

Breaking the Fast

I know it's only been one week, but my detox program is through. I fasted for a little over half the time I meant to do so, and I started eating cheese again on Saturday, but I think, all things considered, that I did something I had never done before for an admirable length of time, so even though I only reached the halfway mark, I still feel good about myself for doing that much.

You wanna know the thing that broke me? Stromboli. I borrowed this crazy awesome bread book from a friend of mine, and then had to scramble to copy down all the recipes I wanted when she asked for it back--I was trying to avoid looking at it during my experiment, because I know how easily bread can break me! But this book plus Jon's encouragement finally led to the production of this scrumptious bread-- a rolled focaccia dough, swirled with oozing cheese and herbs, with a crispy olive oil and salt crust.....I'll do a full post on this stunning Italian bread a little later, but for now trust me (and this photo) that it was my undoing, and that it would have been yours, too.





But aside from the breaking of my fast, I would say the best thing about doing it was all the fruit. I bought so much fruit for juicing and munching that I had to find a second fruit bowl!








All that's left of that juicy arrangement now is a bowl full of oranges, topped with a random lemon and brown banana. I meant to juice more, but I didn't mean to do the dishes and dig out the pieces, so it didn't happen as much as I had hoped. But I got a chunk of ginger yesterday, which I forgot while at HEB, and did all the dishes, so now it's on for some orange carrot ginger juice!

And in non-food news, remember how a while back I said I would post a picture of my green-friendly recycled curtains? Well I finally got them up a little while ago, and here is a picture of my lovely (I think so, anyway) thrifty curtains. Much much better than $10 a panel, and more funky, too!

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Somebody once asked me, "If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?" My clever answer is breakfast. Maybe that's not a fair answer, but I like it anyway. Really, you can have anything you want for breakfast--bacon and eggs, cold pizza, quiche, cereal, tea, toast, muffins, or just plain fruit--yup, I could eat nothing but breakfast forever.

Here are some great healthy breakfast ideas to help you get out of that cereal slump.

Juices and Smoothies are always a refreshing way to start your day, and they even work for people on the go. Just blend it up, pour that cool, creamy concoction into a travel mug, and you're good to go! To increase the "full" feeling from a liquid breakfast, be sure to use solid fruits and veggies for their fiber content instead of just juice, and add a scoop of protein powder if you have it. You can really put anything you want into a juice blend or smoothie (try and resist the urge to add ice cream!) so here are some suggestions.





-Amazing Apple Smoothie: (serves 1)
half a honeycrisp apple (THE best kind of apple, I kid you not!)
1/4 c. apple juice
1/4 c. orange juice
2 tsp maple syrup or to taste
1/4 c. yogurt
a pinch each of nutmeg and cinnamon

-Green Tea Smoothie II: (serves 1)
1 c. vanilla soymilk
2 green tea bags
1 frozen banana
1 c. frozen mango
juice of one orange
honey to taste
For this one you want to steep the green tea bags in the soymilk, so to avoid watering it down with ice, you may want to make the soymilk tea the night before and chill it.

-Apple Carrot Juice: (serves 1)
1 whole apple, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1/2 cucumber, chopped
Depending on your juicer, this may not produce as much juice as you want. I think some juicers are more efficient than mine, but I know that I would have to put in at least twice this recipe to get a nice tall glass of juice.


Eggs are a French breakfast classic. I've never been a huge fan of sulphury-tasting eggs, but I can eat them if they've got enough yummy veggies mixed in so that I don't taste the eggs much. Here are two such recipes, both of which require a little bit of extra time in the morning. Save these ones for a special Saturday morning breakfast.

-Spinach & Potato Frittata: (serves 6-8)
6 sliced red potatoes
olive oil, to saute
1 c. torn fresh spinach, or 1/4 brick of frozen spinach, thawed & drained
2 Tb. sliced green onions
1 tsp. minced garlic
6 eggs
1/3 c. milk
1/2 c. shredded cheddar
Cook potatoes first in a cast iron skillet. Add other veggies when potatoes are tender, then pour egg-milk mixture over, and sprinkle cheese on top. You can either finish it on the stove over low heat, or pop it in the oven at about 325 until the eggs are set.





-Zucchini Omelette (serves 1)
1 lb. zucchini, grated & drained
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
olive oil, to saute zucchini and omelette
1 tsp freshly chopped marjoram leaves & flowers
2 eggs
splash of milk
sour cream to garnish
Saute the zucchini a bit first before adding the egg mixture. I got this recipe from Gourmet magazine, and the chef who created this recipe insists that it tastes best about 30 minutes after it's been cooked.


Paninis are a relatively new trend for sandwiches, so why not replace that smelly old egg mcmuffin with a snazzy new breakfast panini?

-Peanut Butter Panini: (serves 4)
1/4 c. golden raisins
1/4 c. peanut butter
2 Tb. honey
8 round whole-grain waffles
1 apple, cored and sliced
4 Tb. jam
2 tsp butter, to saute
If you don't have a fancy sandwich press, you can always place a clean pot or pan on top of your panini to help press it down. This recipe came from Vegetarian Times magazine.


Fruit Salad is one of my favorite things ever, morning noon or night. You can spruce it up a bit with a sprinkle of lime juice and some chopped mint, or even with some Mexican cheese, as suggested in this recipe from Gourmet.

-Aurelia's Breakfast Fruit Salad: (serves 6)
1 pineapple, trimmed, cored, & diced
2 lb. mangos, peeled & diced
2 c. orange juice
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper, to garnish
1/2 c. or 2 1/2 oz. crumbled cojita or queso fresco, to garnish
Put the fruit chunks into serving bowls and pour the juice over it like cereal. Sprinkle each portion evenly with the garnishes just before serving.


Now this is by no means a comprehensive list of my breakfast ideas--I figured I'd save some of the special ones and give them their own post. But for now, hopefully these recipes will help you pull through that morning fog in a healthy, bright, and delicious way!

Ok, so I caved.....

Today is the second day of my fast--I could hardly believe I made it all the way through yesterday without having a bite! I cheated a little bit today by sleeping late (I figure the fewer waking hours I have to endure, the easier it will be for me not to eat!)

Yesterday I felt mostly normal, and the hunger pangs I did experience were easily drowned out with water and reading (The Gunslinger series by Stephen King; its an amazing story that thankfully has nothing to do with food!) Today though, I seem to be a little bit light-headed, and the hunger is a little stronger. Which is not bad if I plan on hanging around the house again, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards for today.

So to energize myself just a little without breaking my fast, I decided to blend up a nice refreshing fruit & veggie juice. I knew I bought that juicer for something...

Orange and Veggie Juice
makes about 2 cups of juice

4 oranges
3 stalks of celery
1 carrot
1 apple
1/2-inch piece of ginger

Peel the oranges, and chop everything into chunks that will fit into the juicer. I discarded the apple seeds, because they are mildly toxic (cyanide, yikes!), but I'm not sure if it does anything in such a small quantity. Stick it all in the juicer and enjoy (and make sure to drink the froth on top, it's the very best part!)