Cheerio Bars

Pretty much my standard breakfast is cereal and milk. For a little bit in college I went with Apple Jacks. And for about a year I became a fan of Kix. And I've toyed with Post Raisin Bran (for the fiber). But for the most part, I am a Cheerios girl. I'm not even talking about all those fancy Cheerioses that are out on the market now. I'm talking about good old fashioned regular cheerios. And no, I don't put fruit or sugar on my cereal. I don't mix anything in. I pretty consistently just eat my regular cheerios with some skim milk and call it breakfast and I'm perfectly happy. (I do sometimes shout CHEEERRIIIOOOOOOOOEEEOOOOOOSSSS! but that only happens when I'm alone and it freaks out the furry sous chef.)

This information about me loving Cheerios becomes important to know because my grandmother recently passed down her cookbook of clippings and little handwritten recipes to me. She's 91 and lives in a retirement community and doesn't really cook that much anymore. In the middle of the binder, was a love note from my grandpa which was short and very sweet. There also was a handwritten recipe with no title. This recipe contained Cheerios, marshmallows, and peanut butter. I think that may be considered the trifecta of yummy.

I'm always looking for a reasonably healthy snack that will keep me filled up as I run around rural Ohio keeping my life together. These most definitely fit the bill. Yes, there are marshmallows and butter in them so they cannot be considered "health food". But really, Cheerios are good for you. People feed them to babies so they can't be horrible. The Brain said he didn't care either way about them, but then chipped away at the pan and ate almost half of them in the first night. I think he likes them too.

I'm also submitting this to Laura over at The Spiced Life. She's having a blog event about recipes handed down from our grandmothers.

Cheerio Bars

from Grandma Shazamer

3 Tbsp butter

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (I used Jiff)

one 10.5 ounce bag of mini marshmallows

6 cups Cheerios

Melt the butter and peanut butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the marshmallows until everything is a gooey and consistent mass. Remove from heat. Stir in the Cheerios and make sure the peanut butter marshmallow mass evenly coats the cereal. Press into a greased 13"x9" pan. Chill to set.

Crispy Rice Treats?

Well, the good news is that I have finally gotten out of my rut and I've started cooking again. Thank you to the 4 people who still read my blog (other than family and people who love me)! I'm cooking again and it's pretty good and for the most part healthy. Yay! Unfortunately, the amount of time I'm limited to because of school and subbing has gotten even smaller thanks to my furry sous chef.

Who would think that this fluffy little dog would leave mountains of dog hair around our cozy little home? Like for the first time in my life I understand the need to vacuum every. single. day. And with all the rain and mud in the back yard, yep, there's mopping pretty damn often too. It's a good thing she's so cute and loveable and happy or I'd start to get annoyed that my dog has turned me into a clean freak.

Also, challenging and new, I've given up both butter and dessert for Lent because I'm Catholic and that's what we do. Although I have relaxed the rules a little because I will eat things made with butter. And I have had a cookie or 15 as "after school snacks". In fact yesterday I had a slice of pie at midnight, which didn't follow a meal, so clearly that was a "midnight snack".

These delicious Crispy Bars are another fine example of a snack. Except these are really healthy. While I was on the couch with my bronchitis/stomach flu blend I was watching Ellie Krieger during a brief moment of consciousness (before I realized that the Food Network wasn't the best thing to watch while nauseous) and she made these and immediately I was curious.

Fast forward a week or so and I was healthy again and on a mission to make these bars. The most difficult thing about them (besides waiting a half hour for them to set) was finding the crispy brown rice cereal. I never did find it. I found puffed brown rice. Then I was praying that they turned out okay because I did NOT want to eat this cereal without slathering it in peanut butter and honey. And the peanut butter I used is my new favorite. It's Mighty Maple and mighty delicious! Overall I was totally pleased with this snack. It's healthy! It's delicious! I am definitely making it again to get rid of the excess puffed brown rice cereal!

Crispy Rice Treats

from Ellie Krieger

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup mighty maple peanut butter

6 cups puffed brown rice cereal

2/3 cup assorted chopped fruit (I used apricots and cherries)

cooking spray

Combine honey and peanut butter in a large pot and heat over medium-low heat until melted, about 2-3 minutes. Add brown rice cereal and dried fruit and stir to combine until mixture is sticky. Press into a 9x13x2" pan sprayed with cooking spray. Let cool, then chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Cut into 15 squares.

If Only the BBQ wasn't buried in snow...

After yesterday's oh so decadent chocolate sandwiches that left me sitting around bloated and overstuffed with a happy smile on my face, today is the triumphant return of vegetables! I return to vegetables with perhaps one of the healthiest. Cabbage. Both red and white cabbage too. Double whammy!

Cabbage is a great source of Vitamin C. It's also high in manganese, dietary fiber, folate and vitamin B6. Cabbage is one of those worldwide vegetables. It can be found all over Europe, it's used in cuisines from India and the Orient. It can be eaten boiled, fermented, sauteed, or even raw. Like I did.

I wanted to make a red and green cabbage coleslaw. I guess I just thought it would be pretty. That and Val over at More Than Burnt Toast keeps posting recipes to BBQ. Our BBQ keeps getting snowed in. How weird is it that we have more snow in February than in January? Very odd if you ask me. All this BBQ posting has me in a picnic sort of mood. So I hunted around and found this recipe on Epicurious that I sort of used as my inspiration.

Although I kept having to switch bowls to get one big enough to accommodate the entire salad, it was a fairly easy recipe to make. I personally found it easier to just cut up the cabbage by hand than to use the food processor and spend so much time cleaning it. But I'm sure the food processor would work for this too. The result was this lavish and colorful salad that is super super tasty. It would go great with a burger. Or if you're a vegetable nut like me, a heaping helping is a satisfying lunch!

And since it only used half a head of red cabbage and half a head of green cabbage, expect more cabbage recipes in the very near future. Cabbage starts to lose its vitamin C quickly after being cut.

Multicolored Cabbage Slaw

inspired by Bon Appetit

3 Tbsp rice vinegar

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp sesame oil

2 Tbsp creamy peanut butter

1 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp packed brown sugar

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp minced ginger

1/2 medium head of red cabbage thinly sliced

1/2 small head of green cabbage thinly sliced

1/2 yellow bell pepper cut into thin strips

1/2 red bell pepper cut into thin strips

1 cup precut matchstick carrots strips

4 green onions thinly sliced (green and white parts)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 Tbsp sesame seeds

In a small bowl mix together vinegar, oils, peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and garlic until combined.

Combine cabbages, peppers, carrots, onions, cilantro and sesame seeds in a very large bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat.

Chocolate Sandwiches

I came home tonight alone. The Brain is working late and has already eaten. It's a Friday in Lent and being a Catholic, there was to be no meat eating for me. Not that I really think it brings me closer to God because we eat beef so rarely. But we're Catholic, so it's what we do.

To top it off, I didn't really feel like cooking tonight, maybe I'm coming down with something. So I made a tuna sandwich and munched on some potato chips. Oh the glamour that is my life. I was sitting there, quite contented really, watching 2 1/2 Men which has to be my favorite show with the possible exception of Iron Chef America, when my sweet tooth hit in a big way. There I was, wanting, no needing dessert. And we don't seem to have any regular flour in the house.

Thus baking was out of the question. Because I just didn't feel like going to the grocery store. I mean I have to go tomorrow anyway and if I go tonight I might just buy some really bad, but delicious food that I like to stay away from. Processed food. BAD food. Like pizza rolls. So I raided the cupboards. I don't have any stale "hearth style" bread so Butterscotch Bread Pudding from Small Batch Baking was out. Regular, non-bread Pudding takes 2 hours to chill and I don't have that kind of time before I have to go back to the other house to play with the doggies. I mean house sit.

What I did find when I went through the cupboards and the pantry was part of my loaf of cocktail bread that I made these delicious sandwiches out of, about half a bag of chocolate chips, half a bag of white chocolate chips, Nutella, some walnuts, and peanut butter. I decided to make some sweet sweet sandwiches. Mmmmmmm sandwiches. Through some delicious trial and error I came up with 3 separate sandwiches that I suggest with a cold glass of milk. White chocolate walnut, chocolate peanut butter, and Nutella. There is no real recipe, it's more like playing when you were a kid in the kitchen.

White Chocolate Walnut

Basically butter one side of two pieces of bread, place one slice of bread butter side down in a hot little skillet, then put some white chocolate chips on top of the bread. Sprinkle the bread with chopped walnuts and place another piece of bread on top buttered side up. Cook over medium heat until the chips are a little melty and the bread is a little browned on the bottom. Flip over and cook until the other piece of bread is browned and the chips are melted.

Nutella

Again, butter one side of two pieces of bread and place one slice of bread butter side down in the pan. Spread the bread carefully with Nutella. Place the second piece of bread butter side up and cook until both sides of the sandwich are browned (flipping halfway through cooking) and the Nutella is all melty.

Chocolate Peanut Butter

And again butter one side of two pieces of bread and place one slice of bread butter side down in the pan. Spread the bread carefully with peanut butter and then place as many chocolate chips on the peanut butter as you can. Place the second piece of bread butter side up and cook the same as the white chocolate walnut sandwich.

Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Cookies

Do you remember that stupid sappy movie from the '70s "Love Story" where Ali McGraw tells Ryan O'Neal that "Love means never having to say you're sorry"? Well she was wrong. Duh. But love means constantly saying your sorry.

For example you may find yourself one evening reading a book, like We Need to Talk About Kevin, and then you suddenly find yourself saying things like "I'm so sorry my darling husband who never used up a box of bandaids before meeting me, that my streak of athletic ineptness and general accident prone-ness has rubbed off on you. I'm sorry that I pushed you to find outlets for your frustration with starting your own business, and that I encouraged you to go and play raquetball." This sort of thing will then continue as you say, "I'm sorry I can't avoid all the potholes on the 2 mile journey to the ER and I really don't mean to make this such a bumpy drive." And on into the night as you helplessly say, "I'm sorry I don't know how to make you more comfortable, I have experience with all kinds of injuries, but when it comes to shoulders I know squat."

So yes, love means having to say you're sorry. A lot. After a mostly sleepless night, the only good thing was I finished my book. I recommend it. And the Brain is finally just now starting to dose on and off. It was necessary for me to throw my lenten resolution of not eating sweets right out the window. Whoo. I made it almost one whole day. Usually I'm way better at this giving things up for lent thing.

I made these luciously rich and tasty Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Cookies. They're a decadent dark chocolate cookie with just a hint of peanut butter that are studded with semi-sweet chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. The inspiration came after reading Peabody's blog about Peanut Butter World Peace Cookies, but I wanted something chewier. The first time I made them, the next morning I had 7 for breakfast and promptly packed them up and took them over to my friends at Catholic Charities. The lovely ladies at Catholic Charities have become my dumping ground for baked goods. They don't seem to mind. Although rumor has it there was a skirmish when it came to the last cookie in the bag. Fortunately about half of these cookies will go to another friend of the Brain and I who just had his knee replaced. So we'll only have to contend with half of these oh so delicious little addictive morsels. Perhaps they should be called crack cookies...

Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Cookies

an original recipe

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cups Hershey Special Dark Cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1/4 cup peanut butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 bag peanut butter chips

1/2 bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Stir together flour, cocoa, soda and salt in medium mixing bowl. Beat butter, peanut butter, and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in chips.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfull (or small cookie scoop) onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 8 to 9 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies will be sort. They puff while baking and flatten upon cooling. Cool slightly then remove from cookie sheet to cool completely on wire rack.