The week in preview and homemade granola bars.

I think a good packed lunch contains three components; fruit, sandwich-like main dish, and something crunchy (maybe something sweet if you are lucky).  The crunchy thing is my nemesis.  Once you start with chips and crackers, nothing else tastes quite as good.  I just know these foods are somehow engineered to be "hyper-palatable".  I am imagining food scientists out there coming up with tastier and tastier processed foods until none of us are satisfied by a cold glass of water and an apple.  My own personal conspiracy theory.

So I decided to try a homemade granola bar recipe.  This one will cover the crunchy thing and the sweet thing in any packed lunch.  I got it from a blog by a woman who decided to make everything from scratch for a year.  We are talking everything.  Bread, tortillas, chicken broth, the whole bit.  Now I am not going that far, but we'll give the granola a try.  http://outpostcoop.wordpress.com/

Co-op Granola Bars

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup chopped nut (I did peanut, but pecan or walnut works)
1/4 cup ground flax
1/4 cup wheat germ
Toast this combo in a 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes stirring a few times

While that is toasting, combine
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
in a small sauce pan and gently melt over medium heat.  Stir to avoid bubbling.

Once the oat combo is toasted combine it with
1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Then pour in the liquid mixture and stir well.  Turn it out into a greased 9x9 pan.
Be sure to turn down the oven to 300 at this point and bake again for 20-25 minutes.

Mine turned out just a little too toasty, so I would just cut down the toasting and baking time to the lower number.

***Update.  These are REALLY good.  Ruby ate a full one when she got home and asked for more.  I can't stop snacking on the crumbs.  They definitely make the binder.  Next time I'll play around with the ingredients a little. Dark chocolate and dried raspberry perhaps.

The week in preview

Sunday and Monday:  This snow has me itching to make chili again.  Enough for two nights too.  I hope my new Chili 3000 spice blend from Penzey's arrives in time!  I'll top with sour cream, cheese, and chopped avocado.
Tuesday:  Chicken Caesar salad with rolls.  And I'll make a total of 6 chicken breasts to use the extra three for Wednesday night's dinner.
Wednesday:  Chicken Lemon Gobetti.  Right off the back of the gobetti box.  We'll see how Giada does with this one.  I am going to add a bag of baby spinach to the recipe to make it a one pot meal.
Thursday and Friday:  The other most popular blog post from "A Year of Inconvenience": Pork Carnitas in the slow cooker.  I am thinking this will be reminiscent of my old favorite Pork Ragu in the slow cooker, only with a Mexican flare.  Lots of garnishes here, tacos one night, and burritos the other night.  If I have time I will make a Mexican Slaw with cabbage, cilantro, jalepeno.