I’ve learned by now that there’s really no way around my post-lunch chocolate cravings. I’ve tried ignoring them, or substituting something healthier, and sometimes that works for a few days, but it inevitably ends in a huge chocolatey binge at some point.  I’m just a person who needs chocolate, and that’s that. But since I’m determined to rein in the travel-driven overeating of the last few months, I’m currently searching for less-bad-for-you, more-portion-controlled chocolate treats.

For the past few months my chocolate fix has been to go down to the lobby shop and fill a bag with chocolate covered almonds, chocolate covered raisins, and white chocolate pretzels. This is a bad, bad habit, because even if I tell myself a lot of times that the bag of chocolate-covered goodies will last me all week, I always eat it in one sitting, staring at my computer screen, during that 3pm work slump. (Is that a universal thing? It seems to be at my office). And then I usually feel sick, because I usually overfill the bag.

So taking inspiration from this habit, I came up with a recipe that hits the same notes but is a bit less indulgent: Chocolate Almond Granola Bites. Using oats, rice cereal, a mix of Blue Diamond Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt Almonds, almond butter, honey, and of course, chocolate, I whipped up a batch of these bars, and then cut them into very manageable pieces. They are still chocolatey and satisfying but the almonds, almond butter, and oats give them more staying power and nutritional value. I also used unsweetened chocolate, which made me feel extra virtuous. I’m not saying that eating one of these is the same as eating a bag of chocolate covered pretzels… but it does the trick!

This post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds. All opinions are honest and my own.

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Chocolate Almond Granola Bites

Makes 16 bars.

• 1/4 c. almond butter
• 1/2 c. honey
• 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
• 1 1/2 c. rolled oats
• 1 1/2 c. puffed rice cereal
• 1/2 c. Blue Diamond Sea Salt Almonds
• 1/2 c. Blue Diamond Dark Chocolate Almonds
• 16 white-chocolate covered pretzels

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8 inch baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the almond butter, honey, and chocolate. Stirring, melt the liquids over low heat until the mixture is smooth and even in color. Remove from the heat
3. Add the oats, rice cereal, and almonds to a large bowl and stir to combine. Pour the chocolate-honey mixture over the cereal and stir to thoroughly coat the cereal with the chocolate. Let cool to room temperature, then press the mixture firmly into the prepared pan. Press the white-chocolate covered pretzels on top of the mixture, spacing them evenly.
4. Bake the granola bites for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven. Let cool completely before slicing and serving.

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The Book: Like many, I’m a long time fan of Green Kitchen Stories, the wonderfully vibrant blog written by David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl. David and Luise are masters of inspired, healthy cooking, making fruits and vegetables shine in new ways with every post. I loved their first book, Vegetarian Everyday, which was released in the states last year (you can see my full write up here), and it quickly became a go-to book for me when I needed something fast and healthy, as evidenced by this baked pistachio falafel, these savory corn muffins and this baked blackberry oatmeal. When they announced that they were writing a second book, this one based on their travels around the world, I immediately knew I had to have a copy. And Green Kitchen Travels, now safely nestled into my cookbook shelf, does not disappoint.

This is one well-traveled family: together with their four year old daughter, Elsa, they have been everywhere from Spain to Mexico to Morocco to Thailand, picking up new flavors and inspiration in every corner of the globe. The recipes they’ve included to mark their travels are not meant to be recreations of authentic local dishes, but instead are healthy recipes in the unique GKS style influenced by the flavors, ingredients, and techniques they’ve found around the world. It’s fusion at its finest – adopting whatever works from each cuisine and blending it with an existing style to create something balanced and new. I was particularly taken by the chapter dedicated to soups: Vietnamese pho and Indian dal and Italian ribollita all in the same few pages! Of course, the pictures are stunning, as anyone who reads their blog already knows. The travel theme just gives the couple the green light to add to their colorful collection of food pictures with jawdropping landscapes from around the world, market scenes dripping with color and life, and of course, their adorable daughter in exotic locales worldwide. I do love the feeling that in a way, this book is a love letter to Elsa, as you see and hear her influence on their journeys and cooking style throughout the pages – this book is very much a family affair.

The Food: The day I left for my recent trip to Malaysia, I felt like cooking just because. Knowing that I wouldn’t be around to eat whatever I made, I flipped through the pages of Green Kitchen Travels looking for something that I could leave behind for Trevor. I quickly settled on this light Italian cake, which felt like the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon espresso on a warm fall day. The cake is gluten-free, made from a combination of polenta and almond flour, and uses only honey as a sweetener, so you can cut yourself a big slice without too much guilt. I’ve had hit or miss results with “healthy” cakes, and in particular cakes made with ricotta, but this one was very good. It was moist and not overly crumbly, with a delicate flavor of lemons, almonds, and honey. It’s not very sweet, so while I’m not sure I’d serve it for dessert, it’s the perfect thing for an afternoon break or an indulgent breakfast.

Recipe Shortlist: Mexican Breakfast Salad; Rye and Chocolate Croissants; Halloumi Veggie Burgers; Sweet Vietnamese Cucumber Salad; Harira Soup (Tomatoes, Chickpeas, and Dates); Baked Eggplant Rolls; Berber Tagine; Sweet Potato and Eggplant Moussaka; Turmeric Lassi

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Green Kitchen Travels from Hardie Grant, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Ricotta and Polenta Almond Cake (Torta di Ricotta e Polenta)

Recipe from Green Kitchen Travels. Serves 8.

• 1/2 c.(100g) butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 c. clear honey
• finely grated zest of three small lemons
• 1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 1/4 c. (5 oz) almond flour, or whole almonds, ground into flour in food processor
• 1 c. (4 1/2 oz) fine ground polenta
• 1 c. (9 oz) ricotta, preferably creamy
• 1/2 c. flaked almonds
• powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the base of an 8 inch springform tin with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Place the butter, half of the honey, the lemon zest, and the vanilla extract in a large bowl and beat until creamy, using an electric mixer if you have one. Add the egg yolks and continue to beat until fully incorporated and creamy. Add the almond flour, polenta, and ricotta and fold everything together using a spatula.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Still beating, drizzle in the remaining honey and continue to beat the egg whites until medium peaks hold and the honey is fully blended in. Gently fold the egg whites into the rest of the batter.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and sprinkle the flaked almonds evenly over the top. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before removing from the tin. Dust with powdered sugar before serving if desired.

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Saturday was our first harvest, the first of many moments that I’ve been longing for since burying our seeds in tiny pop-up pots in the depths of February. The moment I daydreamed about while stabbing at still-frozen ground with my turning fork in March. The moment I finally believed might happen this year when the first tender sprouts poked their heads out of the ground at the end of April. Summer is really coming.

This week’s haul was modest – a few handfuls of the sweetest green peas, a world away from the starchy peas that even the best grocery stores carry; the twisty turny garlic scapes that shot up in a matter of a few days; and 3 pounds of the most beautiful bright red strawberries, the result of two years of patience as the plants developed their roots and spread across the ground. This week we came home with a few snacks, but from here it only gets better, until it’s the end of August and we’re hauling home more tomatoes than we can even imagine eating, begging friends to take our extra cucumbers and squash, and sweating over the stove as we can jar after jar of tomato paste and pickles, trying to save it all to brighten our winter shelves.

I’m saving the strawberries for next week (hint hint), so this week we’re talking scapes. For those of you who have never seen one, they look like curly, flexible scallions that come out of the middle of garlic plants. If you let them grow, they eventually flower, but most farmers and gardeners clip them to send the energy that would otherwise be used to create flowers into creating bigger bulbs. Since the scapes themselves are edible, trimming them off seems like a win-win. The most common thing to do with them is make pesto, although pickling them, grilling them, and using them in soup come in as close seconds. Since there are already tons of recipes for those things out there, I decided to try something less common – giving the scapes a quick dip in a seltzer batter and frying them to make garlic scape tempura. Even a little bit of heat mellows out the garlicky bite in these, so don’t worry that munching on them whole will be too intense. There are two tricky parts to making tempura – one, getting the consistency of the batter just right, and two, keeping the oil at a temperature that is not so hot as to burn your tempura, but hot enough to cook it quickly and keep the coating airy. After a little trial and error, I got the hang of it, and you will too. I served these with a goat cheese and sour cream dip flecked with chives – it was intense and delicious, but it overwhelmed the delicate flavor of the tempura a little bit. Go light with the dip, or try something thinner or less salty if you’re looking to change it up.

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Garlic Scape Tempura

Serves 3-4 as an appetizer.

• 8-10 garlic scapes
• vegetable oil, for frying
• 2/3 c. flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2/3 c. + 2 TBS seltzer
• sea salt, to taste

1. Wash your scapes and cut into 3-4 inch pieces. Some people choose not to eat the flower bulb end, but if your scapes are young and tender and the bulb is small, it won’t make much difference.
2. Pour vegetable oil into a wide heavy-bottomed pan, filling to a depth of about 1 1/2 inches. Heat over medium heat, to a temperature of 375°F.
3. Whisk together the flour and baking soda. Immediately before you begin frying (i.e. when your oil is hot enough), whisk the seltzer into the flour until a light smooth batter forms. Dip your scapes into the batter to fully coat, then carefully place in the hot oil. Only put as many scapes as can fit with plenty of room between them in each batch – you don’t want to crowd them. Fry for 1-2 minutes, until just beginning to color, then remove from the oil with a skimmer and let drain on a paper towel. Immediately shake sea salt over the hot tempura. Repeat until you have used all the scapes. Serve immediately.

Goat Cheese and Sour Cream Dip

Makes about 1/2 cup.

• 2 oz. goat cheese
• 1/4 c. sour cream
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp minced fresh chives
• salt, to taste

1. Put the goat cheese in a medium bowl and beat with a fork until mostly smooth. Add the sour cream and mix together until evenly combined. Stir in the black pepper and chives. Taste, and season to your liking.

The post The First Harvest // Garlic Scape Tempura with Goat Cheese Dip appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

In January, I decided that instead of setting one big, difficult goal for my health and fitness for the whole year, I would create a new, smaller challenge for myself each month. The idea was that my progress would be more measurable and the goals would be easier to achieve, and so far, that’s been true. I’m now in the middle of challenge #3, and I’m really glad that I’m doing it this way. I’m feeling pretty fired up about exercise (at a time of year when it’s easy to want to give up on it entirely), and I’m craving super indulgent foods less and less. Thinking more about fitness and my body does mean that there are some days when I’m much more frustrated than I would be if I weren’t trying to achieve something, and on those days I have to continually remind myself to take the long view – the negative emotions that come with overthinking your size and shape can be so overwhelming. But there are also days when I feel really happy about something I’ve achieved – like making it to the top of a rock climbing route I’ve been struggling with for weeks (seriously, that caused elation), or noticing that I feel really good three miles into a run. While sometimes I think that feeling neutral about yourself is preferable to the emotional highs-and-lows of struggling to achieve something, when it comes to my health, I should probably choose the highs-and-lows.

February’s challenge, which was to have one entirely vegan meal every day, was eye-opening for me in a couple of ways. First, it’s really hard to find vegan food in restaurants, even in a  big food city like Boston. Even at health-food and salad chains completely vegan choices are few and far between, making finding lunch on the days I was too busy to make it ahead of time a real challenge. Second, just having to think through all of the ingredients in a dish to make sure they were fair game made me a lot more aware of what I was putting in to my body at any time of day. I will admit that I cheated on the two days that my girlfriends were visiting, but I didn’t beat myself up about it. Although I don’t love eating vegan meals, I did like the way doing this challenge made me think and feel, and that I’m starting to see the numbers on the scale creep down, so I’m thinking about how I want to incorporate this into my eating habits longer term.

Since I’ll be on vacation for a third of March, I’m only applying this month’s challenge to the 20 days that I will be home. This doesn’t mean that I’m giving up on being active and healthy while I’m away – on the contrary, I think it’s going to be a super active and outdoorsy trip. What I am giving up is lists and schedules and my daily routine, which is definitely where these fitness goals tend to fit in. So, with that in mind, I decided that my goal for March is to run 40 miles over the course of the 20 days that I’ll be home, a goal that is certainly achievable but feels like a true challenge. Since I started using the Nike+ Running app to keep track of my runs, the most miles I’ve logged in any month is 41, and that was last June. To be fair, I started using the app after my two half-marathons and I probably only use it for about 90% of my runs, but still, I’m not running more than 40 miles most months, and 10 miles a week is something that I should be able to achieve on a regular basis. I’ve already gotten 10 miles in so far this month, so if I can squeeze in another 10 before we leave, I’ll be halfway done.

One of the challenges of fitting runs in during the work week is figuring out how and when to eat to best fuel yourself. I am not a run on an empty stomach type of person, and whether I’m running in the morning or after work I need to eat something filling and energizing 45 to 60 minutes before I hit the road. As I thought about the attributes of my favorite pre-run snacks, I began making a mental list of the features I’m looking for in the perfect snack: portable, so I can easily bring it to work with me; dense, so that I feel energized without having to eat a large volume of food; a little sweet, to satisfy my dessert cravings and get my blood sugar up; a good balance of carbs and protein, for short and long term energy. Where did this list lead me? To these almond butter cookie bites, portable mouthfuls of energy-dense almond butter, dates, oats, and chocolate. There are lots of recipes for no-bake almond butter bites out there (these ones and these ones both look good), but I wanted these to be baked so they felt more like a cookie, and were easier to throw in my purse without having to worry about melting/smushing. These little cookies come in at just under 100 calories per piece, with 2 grams of protein and 1 gram of fiber in each one. They’re a little bit crumbly, so you have to be careful while dipping them in the chocolate, but I think that might be their only flaw. They’re flavorable, filling, and sweet enough to feel like dessert without the “empty” ingredients that most cookies and desserts have.

Past Fitness Challenges

January: 10 Visits to the YMCA; Recipe: Gluten-Free Olive-and-Feta Corn Muffins
February: One vegan meal every day; Recipe: Pakistani Chickpea Pulao with Sweet-Hot Date-Onion Chutney

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Chocolate-Dipped Almond Butter Cookie Bites

Makes 18 small cookies.

• 3/4 c. oats
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 4 pitted dates
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. almond butter
• 1/3 c. chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the oats in a food processor or blender, and blend until finely ground. Pour into a bowl, and whisk in baking soda, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined.
2. Add the brown sugar and the dates to the food processor or blender, and pulse until a smooth paste has formed. You may need to stop to scrape the mixture down the sides once or twice. Scrape the paste out of the blender and into the bowl with the oats. Stir to combine. If there are still a lot of big chunks, add the whole mixture back to the blender and pulse a few more times to fully integrate.
3. Add an egg to the bowl with the oats and sugar mixture, and stir until all of the mixture is evenly moistened. Stir in the almond butter until fully combined. You should have a smooth, moist dough that holds its shape when rolled into a ball. Roll the mixture into 18 small balls (less than an inch across) and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are starting to turn golden brown and the cookies have cracked on top. Carefully transfer to a baking rack to cool.
4. While the cookies are cooling, melt the chocolate chips over a double boiler, whisking just until the chocolate is smooth. Carefully dip the cooled cookies into the melted chocolate so that half the cookie is covered. Place on wax paper to cool completely.

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Part of me wishes I had never discovered this recipe, because now I’m kind of obsessed with these tasty little pan-fried breads. Seriously. They are the best thing that I’ve made in a long, long time. You know that feeling where even as you’re putting something into your mouth your belly is telling you “too much! You will regret this!”? And yet you do it anyways, because whatever you’re eating is really tasty or somebody put a bowl of oreos in front of you or you’re just bored and noshing mindlessly? Well that has happened to me all three times I ate these, except when I’ve finished them and am sitting on the couch with a very full belly, instead of regretting it, I think “that was so worth it.”

Parathas are a type of stuffed, Indian flatbread. You make a filling – in this case a mildly spiced mixture of smashed potatoes and green peas – plop some into the center of a piece of simple whole wheat dough, fold the dough over the filling twice, and then roll it out again so that the potatoes and peas get all mushed into the dough itself. You fry it in a little hot oil for a minute or two, until the dough is cooked and the inside is hot, then you tear it open and devour it, potentially pausing to dip it in a sweet chutney if you have that sort of self control. They’re soft and doughy, addictively salty and spicy, and just so full of savory goodness. They’re a little bit messy to roll out, but even as someone who hates cleaning sticky dough off counters, these are worth the trouble. This particular recipe for parathas is another hit from Mangoes & Curry Leaves – I’m so glad I finally bought myself a copy of this book! For those of you who know me in person, don’t be surprised if I serve you Indian food anytime you come over to my house in the next few months.

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Spiced Potato and Pea Parathas

Recipe adapted very slightly from Mangoes & Curry Leaves. Makes 8 parathas, serves 4-8.

• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 c. AP flour
• 1 tsp salt
• scant 1 c. lukewarm water
• 2 c. Spiced Potato and Pea filling, recipe below
• 2 TBS vegetable oil

1. Mix flours and salt together in a medium bowl. Stir in lukewarm water, then turn dough out into floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Return to bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let stand for 2 hours.
2. Split dough into 8 equal sized pieces, keeping the ones you are not working with loosely covered. Roll a piece of dough out to an 8-inch round. Spread 3-4 TBS of the potato filling over one half of the dough. Fold the dough in half to cover the filling, then fold in half again in the other direction so that you have effectively folded the dough into quarters. Roll out again into an 8 inch circle, smushing the filling into the dough. Don’t worry if you’re filling starts to break out of the dough and gets a little messy. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough and filling.
3. Heat 1 TBS of the vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add a partatha to the pan and cook for 1 minute. Flip over and cook for 1 minute on the other side. Both sides should be golden brown. If they aren’t, cook for another 30-60 seconds on each side. Remove to a plate, add a little bit more oil to the pan, and repeat with remaining parathas. Serve immediately with sweet chutney.

Spiced Potato and Pea Filling

Recipe adapted very slightly from Mangoes & Curry Leaves. Makes 3 cups.

• 1 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 TBS vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp minced garlic or garlic mashed to a paste (1 large clove)
• 1 c. finely chopped onion
• 2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
• 1 c. frozen peas
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste

1. Place diced potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and boil potatoes until tender, about 15-20 minutes. Drain, let cool slightly, and roughly mash potatoes with a potato masher or a fork. Leave some chunks.
2. Heat oil in a large frying pan on medium-high. When oil is shimmering, add mustard seeds, cook for 45 seconds, until they stop spluttering, add the turmeric and garlic and stir-fry for 30 seconds, then add the chopped onion. Lower heat to medium. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 5-8 minutes, until onion is soft and staring to brown. Add jalapenos and cook for 2 minutes longer, then add potatoes and peas and stir to mix thoroughly together. Cook just to heat peas and potatoes through, about 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat. Season to taste with salt. Let cool and use as filling for parathas or samosas. Also tasty on it’s own, or shaped into cakes and pan-fried.

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I have one more treat from The Southern Vegetarian that I’d like to share with you – savory cheddar pecan cookies, served with a spicy sriracha pepper jelly. The first time I flipped through the book, these were the thing that most caught my eye. The combination is quite Southern, and also so crave-ably moreish that I couldn’t resist making a batch with all the bits and bobs of cheddar that had built up in my fridge. The cookies taste a lot like cheese straws, and they would be the perfect little appetizer for a cocktail party.

If you don’t have any cocktail parties on the horizon (aka, you’re me), I also happen to think that these are the perfect thing to nibble on with a glass of wine while curled up and watching TV. Which brings me to the reason I’m posting these today: tonight is quite possibly the most important TV event all year, the Game of Thrones finale. Brace yourself for full dorking out: last week’s episode was nuts!! I legitimately have been thinking about it all week long (and I know the internet in general has been having a grand old time with it). I’m actually anxious about tonight’s episode (although I did get this Game of Thrones themed beer to make me feel better), which makes me feel a bit foolish, but HBO/George R.R. Martin are really killing it. And even worse, after tonight’s episode, I have to wait an entire 10 months for the next season. At least this year we’ll have three seasons to re-watch instead of just two. And no, I don’t read the books: honestly, I’m afraid it would ruin the show for me. Please don’t judge me for just writing that.

And since I’ve already gone down the path of admitting embarrassing facts about myself, you might also find me eating a plate of these during The Bachelorette tomorrow. No shame.

Savory Cheddar-Pecan Cookies

Adapted slightly from The Southern Vegetarian. Makes about 16 cookies.

• 1 c. whole pecans, toasted
• 1 c. flour
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 TBS butter, cut into 4 pieces
• 6 TBS water, chilled

1. Place the toasted pecans, flour, salt, and pepper in a food processor and run until finely ground. Empty into a bowl.
2. Add the cheddar cheese and the butter to the bowl. Use a pastry cutter or a fork to blend the ingredients until the cheese is broken up and the dough is slightly crumbly. Add the cold water 1 TBS at a time, pulling the dough in from the edges with a fork between additions, until the dough just comes together when squeezed.
3. Gather the dough into a ball and roll into a log about 7 inches long. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes (to harden it before slicing). If you’re freezing the dough for longer than this, you will need to thaw it slightly before slicing.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Slice the chilled dough into 1/4 inch slices, placing on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned, then transfer to a rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Sriracha Pepper Jelly

Adapted from The Southern Vegetarian. Makes 1/2 pint.

Note: The original recipe says that the natural pectin in the lemon helps the jelly gel without any added pectin, but made this way, my jelly was definitely more of a sauce. If you’d like a thicker jelly, add 2 tsp pectin to the other ingredients before bringing to a boil.

• 1 c. turbinado sugar
• 1/4 c. rice vinegar
• 1 red bell pepper, de-stemmed, seeded, and minced
• 1 TBS sriracha
• peel of 1 lemon (use a vegetable peeler)
• 2 tsp pectin (optional, see headnote)

1. In a small saucepan, whisk together sugar, vinegar, red pepper, sriracha, lemon peel, and pectin. Place over low heat. Stir constantly as you gradually increase the heat to bring the mixture to a boil. Once the mixture is boiling, boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat. Pour the jelly into a clean, pre-warmed half-pint jar. Let cool, stirring occasionally to re-distribute the chopped pepper. Keep refrigerated for up to a month.

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Even though my last post was only five days ago, I somehow feel like I’ve been avoiding writing here, and I feel guilty. What is that all about anyway, blogger’s guilt? It’s unwelcome, and I would like it to leave. I tried in earnest to post yesterday – something healthy, since I seem to have been avoiding healthy food posts since finishing the cleanse. I was planning on sharing lamb-and-beet burgers with goat cheese and fried eggs, inspired by Nigel Slater’s Tender. But they came out more like lamb-and-beet sloppy joes, probably because I skipped half the steps out of laziness, and I also didn’t measure any of the ingredients. My bad.

So I’m reverting to cookies. Biscotti, actually, since somehow they seem to me to be a healthier sort of cookie, something just a little sweet and crunchy to have with your tea and help tide you over until dinner. I seem to need a lot of “tiding over” the past few weeks – winter is starting to drag on, and when the light starts to leave the sky and you can tell just by looking that it’s going to be breathtakingly cold as soon as you leave the building, it’s a little depressing. So I’ve been guzzling mug after mug of cinnamon spice tea, and trying my best not to snack mindlessly from the office snack drawer. Tomorrow, though, mindless snacking won’t be a problem – I’ll bring a few of these little guys, and have them to look forward to all morning. A cup of tea, a small plate of biscotti, and I’ll have made it over the hump. And soon, I know the days will get longer and the weather warmer, my seedlings will start to flourish, spring will be back, and maybe I’ll no longer need tiding over. It isn’t so much longer, you know.

Cherry-Hazelnut Biscotti

Adapted slightly from Martha Stewart. Makes about 3 dozen.

• 1 3/4 c. dried cherries
• 1/2 c. frangelico liqueur
• 3 c. flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 4 TBS salted butter, softened slightly
• 1 c. sugar
• 4 eggs (3 for dough and one for brushing the cookies)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 c. coarsely chopped hazelnuts

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Place dried cherries and frangelico in a small saucepan, and bring to a low simmer over medium-low heat. Cook until cherries have softened, 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain the cherries, reserving the cherry-frangelico liquid.
2. In a medium  bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a separate, larger bowl, beat together softened butter and sugar until pale and creamy. One at a time, beat 3 of the 4 eggs into the batter – it should be pale yellow and fairly runny. Beat in the vanilla, and 2 TBS of the reserved cherry-frangelico liquid. Add the flour to the wet ingredients a cup at a time, stirring between additions, until dough is smooth. Stir in cherries and hazelnuts until evenly incorporated.
3. Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Divide the dough in half, and shape into two logs about a foot long each. Flatten the logs to make rectangles that are a half inch thick. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Beat the remaining egg lightly in a small bowl. Brush the beaten egg on top of the dough. Bake for 35 minutes, then remove from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes on wire racks.
4. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F. Slice each log on the diagonal into cookies about 1/2 inch thick. Lay cookies down on the baking sheet, and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven, flip the cookies, and bake for another 8 minutes. Remove and let cool. Store in an airtight container.

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This post is a result of the confluence of several forces.  Number one, Baked Explorations was going to be September’s cookbook of the month, until it was this weekend and I realized that I was going to be spending all my time taking my mom to tea at the Taj/ buying most of the stock at the Ann Taylor outlet/ eating homemade duck confit/ snuggled up in bed… not having a baking extravaganza like I had planned.  I’m not complaining, though, it was a great weekend.  Number two, as every food blogger and their mother has mentioned several times since the first chilly day in September, it’s fall, and fall makes us all want to eat lots of apples and stews and pumpkin-flavored things and caramel.  Number three, Trevor and I have gone to the movies every Friday for the past 3 weeks, and each time I got popcorn for dinner.  So it’s been on my mind.

The summer movie season was kind of disappointing.  I mean, Avengers was awesome, and OK, so was Prometheus, but other than that?  Not much doing.  The fall movie season though is looking pretty exciting.  The Hobbit on December 14th.  Les Mis (with Hugh Jackman!) on Christmas Day.  Cloud Atlas on October 26th.  Anna Karenina on November 16th.  Life of Pi on November 23rd. I could go on, but suffice it to say, I might be eating a lot more popcorn before Christmas.  And this particular popcorn – mixed with homemade caramel sauce, salty peanuts, and a drizzle of melted chocolate – will definitely be sneaking into the theater in my purse more than once.  The guys at Baked have gotten it right again with this recipe.  Maybe it’s hard to go wrong with caramel and chocolate and popcorn, but this recipe is addictive, and also super easy to make.  It’s a great addition to any baker’s repertoire!

I have to tell you two more things about this popcorn.  One, it would make a great holiday gift as part of a food package, especially tied up in cute little plastic bags.  I haven’t found a single reliable source for food safety information on caramel corn, but internet consensus says homemade caramel corn should last about two weeks in an airtight container.  If it’s in your house, I promise you it won’t last that long before you devour it, but I think you could get away with making it a few days before giving/serving it (and hiding it from your sight!).  If in doubt, wrap it up and freeze it until you’re ready to give it away.  Two, while straight-up air-popped popcorn is a great healthy snack, this recipe is a fat/sugar/calorie bomb.  Be careful with it.  Treat each cup of popcorn like you would a chocolate chip cookie – they have basically the same ingredients.  Now with that warning – go try it!

Caramel Corn with Peanuts and Chocolate

Adapted slightly from Baked Explorations.  Makes 10 cups.

• 10 cups popped popcorn (about 1 regular sized bag)
• 1 stick butter
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. light corn syrup
• 1 TBS molasses
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp vanilla
• 1 c. roasted, salted peanuts
• 6 oz. dark chocolate, melted (1/2 regular sized bag)

1. Preheat oven to 250°F.  Line a large roasting pan with parchment paper, and set aside.  Place popped popcorn in a large bowl.
2. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt butter.  Once melted, stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and molasses.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to bubble.  Then, stir constantly until it reaches 240°F, also known as “soft-ball stage.”  To see how to test for this stage without a thermometer, see this article (basically, when a drop of syrup on a cold plate or in cold water forms a sticky “soft” ball – not immediately hard and not still fluid.)  Immediately remove from heat, and stir in salt, baking soda, and vanilla.  Careful – the baking soda will make it foam up slightly, so keep stirring and don’t let it spill over the edges.
3. Pour caramel over popcorn and stir to coat evenly.  Sprinkle with peanuts, then spread in lined baking sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes, remove and stir, then bake for another 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
4. Drizzle cooled caramel corn with melted chocolate.  Once the chocolate has hardened, break the caramel corn up into pieces and enjoy!

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September has gotten off to a really busy start.  (Is it OK to say “start” when you’re two thirds of the way through the month??)  Busy in a good way – two trips back down to Durham for recruiting – and for snagging a quick lunch with Marco; a quick weekend in Chicago to run my first ever half marathon and see Steph; a visit from the lovely Phoebe; celebrating the arrival of my friends Dave and Noah in Boston with not one, not two, but three different parties; a tequila-pairing dinner at Lolita with out-of-this-world-good food; visits to Andover to work on the “farm” (more on that soon!); and all the other regular things that make life busy.  I’m not at all complaining, but I am glad that the next few weeks will be a little bit quieter and give me time to enjoy the beginning of my favorite season.

One thing that I’ve been meaning to do since the beginning of the month is make these muffins.  As soon as that crisp note filled the air and pumpkin beers started to line the shelves of every liquor store, I thought about them.  Sweet and savory at the same time, with just the slightest hint of heat from the cayenne, these might just be my favorite muffins ever.  (Well, maybe not better than my mom’s pumpkin muffins… I don’t think I’ve ever eaten less than four of those in a sitting.  Hey, they’re small.  I should get the recipe for you guys.)  These are great either for breakfast – I’ve even used them as the “sandwich” around a fried egg – or for a mid-afternoon snack, with a hot cup of coffee.  The recipe is adapted from Baked Explorations, and makes me think that Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito might just be geniuses.  In fact, now that it is decidedly baking season again (my coworkers are gonna be so excited), I’m hoping to try a few new recipes from this gem of a book.  Caramel apple cake, anyone?

Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins

Adapted slightly from Baked Explorations.  Makes 12 muffins.

• 1 c. canned pumpkin puree
• 3 TBS sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 stick butter, melted, then cooled slightly
• 2 c. flour
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 5 oz. extra sharp or raw milk cheddar cheese, grated

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Line muffin tin with paper muffin liners and set aside.
2. Mix together pumpkin and sour cream until evenly combined.  Whisk in eggs and butter until mixture is smooth, and set aside.
3. Whisk together flour, pepper, baking powder and cayenne until evenly combined.  Whisk in brown sugar, then pour wet ingredients into dry and stir to combine.  Batter will be fairly thick, not runny.  Stir in 3/4 of the grated cheese.
4. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling to the top.  Sprinkle each muffin with some of the remaining cheese.  Bake for 17-20 minutes, until golden-brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean of any batter (it may have melty cheese on it, but you don’t want still wet batter).  Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove from pan.  Serve warm!

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Last weekend was a busy one for me.  My cousin’s wedding (congratulations, Danny and Amanda!) was the big event, and I spent most of the weekend catching up with family, drinking margaritas, dancing till my feet hurt, and traveling to and fro.  By the time I got home Sunday afternoon, I was exhausted.  So exhausted, in fact, that the idea of putting together a blog post for my 5pm deadline for Greatist was pretty daunting.  Which is about the time Trevor came to the rescue.  As I sat at the kitchen table bemoaning the state of my creativity as well as the contents of my fridge, half-heartedly throwing out ideas, (“all I have is one eggplant.  I’m just going to cut it up and put it in the oven and call it a day.”), he became a man of action.  He grabbed the eggplant, sliced it, salted it, and began actually doing the things I was musing about (“maybe eggplant chips.  Maybe rub them with garlic like bruschetta.  No, maybe brush them with garlic oil.  And let’s have a sauce.  With basil.”)  By the time he was done saving the day, I was inspired, and these garlicky eggplant chips had just come out of the oven.  I snapped a few pics, and the blog-crisis was solved.

These chips, though, man were they a good spur of the moment creation!  Crispy, super-garlicky and flavorful, and hot out of the oven they were better than any potato chip I’ve had in a long time.  Plus, they’re made from eggplants, which are loaded with health benefits and low calorie, and they’re baked (always better than fried, even though eggplants do soak up quite a bit of olive oil as they bake).   All in all, a super delicious snack or appetizer.  I couldn’t stop talking about how much I liked them as we walked to dinner that night, although once I got to dinner I started talking about that… so maybe I just like food. :)

Head on over to Greatist for the recipe!

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For all of my Greatist posts thus far, I’ve made healthy, easy, quick dinner-time food, because when I think about eating healthy, I think about mealtimes.  But truth be told, I’m pretty good about eating healthy meals – I rarely eat meat, I’m good about incorporating vegetables into everything I eat, and I frequently choose whole grains as my starch just because they’re tastier.  The areas where I really struggle are sweets, and snacking.  I tend to think that I deserve a little treat wayyy more often than I really do.  And don’t worry, I know I deserve treats sometimes – just not 10 times a day.  Having a desk job doesn’t make it any easier, especially when you sit next to the department chocolate bowl, and the snack drawer is full of additive-heavy granola bars and peanut butter-filled pretzels.  I tend to get the munchies twice during the work day – the first bout at around 11, which I have recently realized is easy to satiate with some milky coffee, and the second at around 3:30, when I get tired and lose a good portion of my self control.

One solution?  Bringing my own snack, one that I can feel good about, but that will still satisfy my cravings.  Since I usually crave cookies or brownies or other baked treats when I want a snack, sneaking filling and health ingredients into baked goods is an essential skill.  These fruit and nut bars from Joy of Baking are a perfect example.  They have just a teensy amount of sugar and flour, no butter, and are primarily composed of dried fruit and nuts, but are still super delicious and satisfying.  The effect of that small amount of sugar and flour is great – it’s almost like a sweet tempura, in that the fruit gets a very light coating of a slightly sweet, crispy coating.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be avoiding the snack drawer today – and my coworkers will probably thank me too, if I decide that I can bear to share these.  Head on over to Greatist for the recipe.

Other healthy snacks on my “to try” list:

• Savory Moroccan Date BonBons
• Quinoa Granola Bars
• Popcorn with Truffle Butter, Thyme, and Parmesan
• Sesame and Almond Brittle – OK, so it’s not that healthy but you could do worse!

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Now that I’m back from my first real business trip – which was hectic and busy and fun and interesting and a serious crash course in Spanish, what with participants from Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Brazil – I’m here with a trip report and pictures from my mini-vacation to Vermont last weekend.  I’m probably being an idealist, but I have visions of Vermont as being beautiful in every season – green and bucolic in summer, crisp and splendidly colorful in the fall, quiet and snowy in the winter, and breathtakingly fresh in the spring.  I have some foundation for these ideas – I used to go to summer camp on Lake Champlain, and it was always gorgeous and idyllic.  More recently, I visited a friend at Middlebury in late spring, and I’ve never enjoyed a drive as much as the one through those mountains, nor seen quite as many daffodils in one place.  Now I can confirm that the fall is just as crisp and wholesome and nice as I imagined, leaving only winter for me to investigate.  If I like winter, I might just have to move there.

Stowe is a very quiet place in November – the leaf-peepers are gone, and the skiers have yet to arrive.  A few trees have straggling bursts of orange, but most leaves have faded to brown and begun to fall.  Frost covers everything in the mornings, but the sun can still be warm enough at midday to forego the winter jacket.  I loved it.  We drove up Friday afternoon and after getting settled in our hotel, we got a casual dinner at Piecasso, a local pizza place that made really good pizza (loved the crust), but just OK hamburgers (duh, Katie.  But, I only went the hamburger route because I had train station pizza at lunch).  Then early to bed – the biggest, best, most comfortable bed ever.  We stayed at the Green Mountain Inn, and had an absolutely wonderful experience.  A large part of this was due to the king-sized bed, gas fireplace, and fireside Jacuzzi tub combo, but we also enjoyed pretty much every other aspect of the hotel.  Highly recommended if you’re planning a trip up that way.

Saturday, we went for a frigid but absolutely gorgeous run on Stowe’s 5-mile riverside recreation path.  Everything was covered in beautiful frost even well after the sun had risen.  We passed a picturesque herd of dairy cows and crossed wooden bridges and it was basically the exact experience I was looking for.  After the run we had breakfast (real maple syrup on everything!) at The Gables Inn and did a little thrifting in a local “stuff” store – I got blog props, of course, but Trevor found the greatest old architectural magazine.  Old, like, 1880s old, and full of detailed black and white sketches of houses and staircases and it’s totally awesome.  We spent the afternoon (as well as Sunday morning) doing some of the foodier things that Vermont has to offer – touring the Magic Hat brewery in Burlington, sampling the cider at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, picking up Lake Champlain chocolates, and trying every single one of Cabot’s cheddars.  Other than the brewery tour, I was kind of disappointed with the “factory” stores – they were very cut and dry and touristy, and mostly focused on selling their products at higher than retail price rather than demonstrating how they were made or even explaining the process.  I guess what I was really looking for was a more farm-to-table experience, and I probably shouldn’t have expected as much as I did from such big-box names.  I was tempted by the enormous bins of apples outside the cider mill on sale for 50 cents a pound.  50 cents a pound!  That’s a pretty good deal.  But, since I was leaving Monday morning and I haven’t finished my last batch of apples, I refrained.

Sunday we slept in and then had a lovely brunch at our hotel, then headed out.  On the way we stopped for a walk at the Waterbury reservoir, a beautiful, quiet spot with great views of the mountains over the water.  The area used to be farmland, and many of the trees were still covered in apples, with that great scent of slightly fermented apples hovering over the ground.  It was a good sendoff for our drive back to Massachusetts.

And now for the food – maple syrup is probably the most quintessential Vermont ingredient, so I knew this post had to include it somehow.  However, it is also one of the most expensive condiments I know of.  The lowest price I saw on it was $15 a quart, in a gas station close to our hotel, which is where I ended up buying some.  I’m sure you can get it more cheaply direct from a sugarhouse, but since it’s not sugaring season (maybe we’ll go back for it!) I figured this was my best bet.  Maple syrup in hand, I started going through maple-laden recipes I have bookmarked, but a lot of them called for a large amount of syrup and I just couldn’t bring myself to part with 2 cups of the precious stuff barely a week after I had gotten it.  As a happy medium, I went with these cookies, which are from Peter Berley’s Modern Vegetarian Kitchen.  As I mixed up the batch I was a little bit skeptical – no eggs, no sugar, no leavening, and only half a cup of flour?  Not your typical cookie.  But, as I pulled them from the oven and bit into one I was pleasantly surprised – they were some of the best cookies I’ve made in recent months.  Crunchy, dense, and both sweet and savory they make a great snack, and are particularly good dipped in a little bit of orange tea.  As an added bonus, they’re fairly healthy – although they are not low calorie (160 per cookie), the bulk of the calories in them are coming from the sesame seeds, which provide a massive dose of several minerals, as well as calcium, healthy protein, and fiber.  I think these may become my more wholesome and natural alternative to power bars for the near future.  Lastly, they can easily be made vegan with the simple substitution of olive oil for the melted butter, which is even recommended by the author.  They’re easy to whip up, so pick up some sesame seeds in bulk (try wholefoods) and give them a try!

Sesame-Cranberry Cookies

Adapted from Peter Berley’s Modern Vegetarian Kitchen .  Makes 9 cookies.

• 1/2 c. sesame seeds
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1/2 c. oats
• 1/2 c. dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
• pinch of salt
• 3 TBS maple syrup
• 3 TBS melted butter (could substitute olive oil for vegan cookies)
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Soak cranberries in hot water in a bowl for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, pulse flour, oats, and salt together in a food processor until oats are finely ground.  Transfer to a bowl and mix in sesame seeds.  In a separate bowl, whisk together melted butter, maple syrup, and vanilla until combined, then pour wet ingredients into dry and whisk together.
2. Drain most of the water from the cranberries and add the cranberries to the dough.  Mix together until it forms a thick dough.  If the dough is too dry to press together, add a small amount of the cranberry soaking liquid to the dough to moisten it.  Form the dough into small balls and then flatten into 2 inch disks and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 15-17 minutes, rotating halfway through for even cooking, until cookies are just beginning to turn golden brown.  Great straight out of the oven and several days later!

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I came home from Andover with a lot of produce on Tuesday night – besides a giant bag of apples, I also had an armful of eggplants, a bunch of kale, and fresh herbs, all scavenged from the Andover garden.  Now, free produce is free produce, and I was as excited about it as I always am about free food (or free anything, really), but I was a little perplexed by what to do with 8 eggplants.  My rate of eggplant consumption is generally about 1 per month, not because I don’t like it, but because I only have one or two ways of preparing it – the first being roasting it and tossing it with pasta and feta, the second being baba ghanoush.  These are both delicious, but I don’t like cooking or eating the same thing too frequently (except when it comes to breakfast, where my weekly repertoire of recipes never exceeds two), so I wanted to try something new with my bounty.

Turns out, I actually had several eggplant recipes already bookmarked (it’s hard to keep track of the recipes you have bookmarked when you have over 500 of them, and it can be so exciting to rediscover them), so I set about trying a few.  Eggplant cream sauce, vegetarian eggplant meatballs, baked eggplant chips, Turkish eggplant phyllo pies – where to start?  It was Saturday afternoon, I was extremely hungry after a 6 mile run, I wanted to blog and use up some of my produce, but I only had an hour before I had to leave to catch a train.  So, I decided to try these quick Indian eggplant snacks – called Beguni.  They’re just thin slices of eggplant, dredged in a gently spiced chickpea batter, and fried hot until the batter is golden brown and the eggplant is tender.  Having never been to India, I can’t personally attest to this, but from what I’ve read, they are an extremely popular street food item sold mainly during monsoon season.  (It rained a lot yesterday – does that count?)

They ended up being the perfect solution.  Super easy to both prepare and cook, I had a hot, tasty snack within 15 minutes of deciding to make these, and I even had time to snap a few photos, and make sticky figs (coming soon!).  This may not be the healthiest way to enjoy eggplant, but it’s definitely delicious, and certainly a departure from my standard eggplant recipes.  If you’re looking for a new way to prepare eggplant, a quick afternoon snack, or a tasty appetizer to an Indian themed dinner, these are definitely worth trying.  And be sure to fry up any extra batter as a treat for yourself rather than dumping it – it’s super yummy by itself, although not as good as with hot, creamy eggplant inside!

Beguni – Bengali Eggplant Fritters

Adapted slightly from Ecurry.  Serves 1.

• 1 small Chinese eggplant, 6-8 inches long
• coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. chickpea flour
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 c. water
• canola oil
• fresh mint leaves (optional)

1. Slice the eggplant into rounds about 1/2 inch thick.  Lay out on a tray or plate and sprinkle with salt, and let sit ten minutes.  Rinse off salt and pat dry.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together chickpea flour, turmeric, chili powder, and baking powder until thoroughly combined.  Add water and beat until batter is smooth.  Batter should be thick but still fluid, so that it stays in a thin layer on the eggplant when dipped in it.  Add more water or chickpea flour as necessary to get the right consistency (after frying a test fritter, I found that the batter needed a bit more water than the original recipe called for, which is reflected in the recipe above).
3. Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.  When it is shimmering, dredge the eggplant slices in the chickpea batter and place in the pan, leaving space between the fritters.  Cook for about 2 minutes, then flip and cook another minute and a half.  Fritters should be golden brown on both side, and eggplant should be tender in the center.  Sprinkle with sea salt and serve hot.  I really enjoyed eating them with a fresh mint leaf pressed on top of each fritter, but I doubt that this is traditional.

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Snacks are a wonderful, very necessary, slightly indulgent part of everyday life.  They are the food-world version of naps – and everyone knows how much naps rock.  Couch naps.  Sunday morning naps.  Post-thanksgiving dinner naps.  Naps by the fire.  Naked naps.  Naps in the sunny reading nook on summer afternoons.  And then there’s the snacks: Cookies.  Pretzels.  Graham crackers with brown sugar and butter (a Morris household specialty).  Bananas with peanut butter.  Hummus.  Chips and salsa.  Peach-mango smoothies.  You get the picture.

Both naps and snacks come in an incredible variety of types, each with its own benefits, shortcomings, and times at which it is appropriate to partake in them.  For example, you wouldn’t take a couch nap on a Sunday morning, and you wouldn’t reach for the hummus when that daily afternoon very intense chocolate craving kicks in (does that happen to other people??).  Similarly, you wouldn’t eat cookies before a big exam, you would eat something fibrous and brain-empowering, like granola bars.  Which brings us to today’s recipe for granola bars that possess a much stronger nutritional profile than your average, over-priced, but very convenient store bought granola bar.

Homemade granola bars have been on my “to make” list for a very long time, but I haven’t gotten around to it because I had kind of assumed they would be sort of time consuming.  False.  These literally took seven minutes to mix together.  Seven.  There are very few days when I don’t have seven minutes to bake.  Plus, they were much much better than I was expecting them to be.  For an egg-less, butter-less, oil-less, sugar-less baked good packed with flax and oats (and OK, a fair number of butterscotch chips too), they were so good.  Even though I sent the majority of them to this lucky guy I know who is very poor and happened to tell me that some days he doesn’t eat until 3 because he doesn’t get a break for lunch and never has anything to pack because the only things in their fridge are sausage, mushrooms, and Sweet Baby Ray’s … I probably consumed about 1/4 of the batch just by picking at the odds and ends during the photo shoot.  And then pondered why I wasn’t hungry after not eating breakfast.  Granola bars are breakfast, Katie.  Despite popular belief, eating three halves of something does not mean you didn’t eat any of it; it means you had one and a half of them.  This is probably shocking news to Steph, the queen of “I’ll just have half.”  Anyway.  They’re really good, really easy, and really pretty healthy too.  Plus you can pretty much put whatever you want in them in terms of mix-ins.  A great find.  One warning: if you’re expecting the crunchy snap of a Nature granola bar, these might disappoint – they are decidedly chewy.  It seems as though most of the recipes I’ve found use the same base recipe, but if I find a recipe for a truly crunchy bar, I will definitely share.  In the meantime, enjoy these as an appropriate pre-exam snack.  Or maybe even a pre-nap snack.  Live large.

P.S.  Thank you to everyone for your support in the Ridiculously Delicious Challenge!  I will be moving on to round 3 – more soon.

Butterscotch, Peanut Butter, and Pretzel Granola Bars

Adapted from Cherries and Chocolate.  Makes 12 granola bars.

• 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 2 TBS agave nectar
• 1/3 c. creamy peanut butter
• 1 1/3 c. old fashioned oats
• 2/3 c. high fiber, small, crunchy cereal (bran buds, flax bites, puffed rice, etc.)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2/3 c. butterscotch chips
• 1/4 c. broken pretzel pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line an 8×8 inch pan with parchment paper.
2. Combine applesauce, peanut butter, and agave nectar, mixing until evenly textured.  Fold in oats, cereal, salt, chips, and pretzel pieces.  Spoon batter into pan and smooth into an even layer with back of spoon.
3. Bake until golden brown, 25-30 minutes.  Allow to cool in pan for 5 mintues.  Then remove from pan by lifting edges of parchment paper.  Allow to cool completely (mine were best after letting them set overnight) before cutting, or they will fall apart.

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