Another Pinterest find! This recipe comes from Savoring the Thyme. The bars are actually the brainchild of yet another blogger, but when I went to her site I couldn’t find the bars….so….here’s the recipe:

5 Ingredient Peanut Butter Granola Bars (Yield 12-16 granola squares)
4 cups rolled oats
2 tablespoons chia seeds (these are optional, I just love the texture they give)
1/2 cup unsalted peanuts, chopped
3/4 cup natural peanut butter, melted
1/2 cup brown rice syrup (honey works too!)

add ins!
chocolate chips
wheat germ
flaxseed
dried fruit (I made some with cherries!)
other nuts
seeds
coconut

Preheat over to 350.

In a large bowl, combine oats, chia seeds and peanuts. Add brown rice syrup (or honey) and mix to combine. Add melted peanut butter and mix until moistened. This works as a perfect, simple granola bar, but you can also throw in any add-ins at this time. Fold them into the dough. You may need to get in there with your hands and work the granola dough! If dough is still too dry (this can depend on your ingredients) add more peanut butter or syrup (or honey) 1 tablespoon at a time until moistened.

Press dough in a greased (non-stick spray) 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes.

These would also work as a great no-bake granola bar, but I liked how they came together and the chocolate chips melted as they got warm. If you want to make no-bakes, simply press the dough into the pan and refrigerate for 60 minutes.

Breakfast is served!

My Notes: Personally, I don’t have chia seeds, so didn’t use them. Also, this bar was pretty crumbly so I dumped it into a bowl and the boys ate it that way. You could totally pour milk over it, if you wanted. Crumbly-ness didn’t bother us one bit, but if you are looking for a bar that you can slice and take with you, this one isn’t it. Oh, and I added chocolate and white chips and a bit of cinnamon. Hubby and Kid rating: 4.5 stars!

Cake for breakfast? Yes, please!

The recipe is courtesy of Alexandra’s Kitchen

Buttermilk-Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Serves 6-8

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. lemon zest or more — zest from 1 large lemon
7/8 cup* + 1 tablespoon sugar**
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
½ cup buttermilk

* 7/8 cup = 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons
** This 1 tablespoon is for sprinkling on top

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cream butter with lemon zest and 7/8 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with ¼ cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt.

3. Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Fold in the blueberries.

4. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan (or something similar) with butter or coat with non-stick spray. Spread batter into pan. Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 35 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness. If necessary, return pan to oven for a couple of more minutes. (Note: Baking for as long as 10 minutes more might be necessary.) Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Buttermilk Blueberry Cake

This cake turned out really well! I’ll definitely make this one.

My changes:

I used sucanat instead of sugar.
I purposely did not sprinkle sugar/sucanat on top.
Also, I used freshly ground soft white wheat instead of store-bought. \
I have a stash of buttermilk powder that I use so that I can make buttermilk-enhanced dishes at a moment’s notice.

I found these peanut butter and jelly muffins on Talking Dollars and Cents via Pinterest a while a go and knew right away that my guys would love them. I made them yesterday and they were a hit!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used freshly-ground soft white wheat)

2/3 cup sugar (I used sucanat)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup milk

1 cup creamy peanut butter (all natural)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup of your favorite jam, jelly or preserve

1/4 cup sugar (this is to sprinkle on top – which I skipped)

Directions:

Coat muffin tins with non-stick spray.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Stir dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) together in bowl #1.

Make a “well” in center of dry ingredients.

Stir liquid ingredients (eggs, milk and vegetable oil) together in bowl #2. Do NOT add the jam, jelly or preserve to bowl #2.

Pour liquid ingredients into “well.”

Stir just to combine. (Batter will be slightly lumpy.)

Fill muffin tins 1/3 full.

Drop 2 teaspoons of jam, jelly or preserve into the center of each tin, then finish filling tins with batter until 2/3 to 3/4 full.

Sprinkle tops with sugar. ( I skipped this step – they are sweet enought)

Bake 18-20 minutes or until golden. (less if you make mini-muffins)

Remove from oven.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing.

Makes 12 muffins. (or almost 24 mini muffins)

PBJ Mini Muffins

These were good and were healthy enough that they could be served as a lunch – with some fruit/veggies on the side. And some milk. I’ll be making these again!

I kept seeing recipes for homemade cheese crackers (like goldfish crackers or Cheez-its) and am glad to say we finally got around to making some!

Most blogs show cute little shapes made from various cookie cutters. While that can be fun for the kids, you can also just roll the dough out and then cut out squares with a long knife, to keep it quick and simple.

I made up a batch using freshly ground soft white wheat and they turned out great.

Double the batch – you’ll eat them all!

From page 227 in the Healthy Treasures Cookbook.

Tonight I made the carrot cake and the cream cheese icing and was really pleased with how it turned out! It’s so healthy, but juuuust sweet enough to be considered dessert. The boys were hesitant at the idea of carrots in cake, but they gobbled it right down without complaint.

Carrot Cake

My notes: I did have to add an additional tablespoon of honey to the cream cheese icing. It needed to be sweeter than the recipe called for, in my opinion. Also, I omitted the pecans because my boys won’t eat them.

Hubby and Kid Rating: 4 stars!

I found this recipe over at allrecipes.com. I didn’t know if it would work with freshly ground wheat, but it did! I used white wheat, finely ground.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips
CINNAMON HONEY SYRUP:
1 cup honey
1/2 cup butter or margarine, cubed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine eggs, milk and oil; add to dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour the batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a lightly greased hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top; cook until second side is golden brown. Keep warm.
Combine the syrup ingredients in a 2-cup microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on high until butter is melted and syrup is hot, stirring occasionally. Serve with pancakes.

My notes: I didn’t use two tablespoons of baking powder, I used two teaspoons. I subbed olive oil for the vegetable oil because that’s what I had on hand. The syrup sounded great, but I decided against adding any more sugar – especially since we ate these for dinner; we didn’t have anything on them and they were great. Luke asked for white chocolate chips in them instead of semi-sweet and they were great!

Hubby and Kid rating: 5 stars!

Another entry from the Healthy Treasures Cookbook! I really like these muffins and have made them twice. We like having these around for a quick breakfast or for snacks. This makes a big batch and they freeze and defrost well!

Applesauce goodness in every bite!

This recipe works really well with white or red wheat flour and with a fine or course grain. It’s pretty hard to mess up! The recipe says this will make 12 muffins, but I always get way more than that – closer to 20. I did leave the cloves out the second time around because my guys are picky and don’t like anything with too much spice.
Kid and Hubby approval: 4 stars

From page 127 of the Healthy Treasures Cookbook. I’ll post this recipe since it’s online over at the author, Annette Reeder’s, blog.

Carol's Brown Stew

2 pounds of lean beef — cut into cubes

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cups water — boiling

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 clove garlic — minced

1 medium onion — sliced

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Dash allspice or cloves

1 tablespoon sucanat with honey

6 carrots — quartered

1 pound small onions

2 potatoes — cubed

Thoroughly brown meat on all sides in oil. Add water, flour, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, onion, bay leaves and seasoning. Simmer 2 hours. Stir occasionally to keep from sticking. Add carrots, onions, and potatoes. Cook till done. Makes 6-8 servings. Very good on a cold winter day. Courtesy of designedhealthyliving.com

My notes: The book version of the recipe calls for 6 cups of water vs. the 4 cups called for here. 4 cups may not be enough – just depends on how thick you like your stew, I suppose! I left out all of the onions because my guys won’t eat them. 6 carrots is a lot. I put in three large carrots and it was carrot-y enough. I served this over rice and it was a hit. Great flavor!

Kids and hubby rating: 4 stars!

From the Healthy Treasures cookbook:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

This is actually my second batch. The first batch disappeared so quickly that I wasn’t able to get any pictures! These are great as a snack, dessert, or even breakfast!

My notes on this recipe: it’s a small batch, but doubles well. The first time, I used coconut oil because olive oil in a sweet muffin sounded gross to me. It was pretty coconut-y. The second time, I doubled the batch and used half olive oil, half coconut oil. Came out great. Be careful not to over-bake. I used regular chocolate chips and they were fine.

Kid and hubby rating: 5 stars!

Yet another winner from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog! I made this for game night last night and everyone loved it! In fact, next time I’ll make a double batch because this was gone in no time!

My insight: about 4 regular Hershey bars will work just fine. I bet you could use a layer of chocolate chips, if times were desperate. Also, there’s not much dough. Use what you need to make a decent bottom crust, layer the chocolate and marshmallow, and then dollop the remaining dough on top. Butter/flour your fingers and spread the crust out. If there are holes or shallow spots, the marshmallow fluff will seep through, but don’t panic! The marshmallow will turn an amazing golden brown and no-one will know it was meant to be any other way!