Healthy Granola Bars

Most often, granola bars are laden with lots of extra sugar and less-than-good-for-you ingredients. The "healthy" part of them all but disappears at that point. Sure, there are a few good ones out there now, but they can be expensive. For the same price you can make an entire batch or more.

The best part is that the recipe below can be tweaked to your liking. Don't like dates? Sub in raisins. Want to cut back on the honey? Go for it. Got a thing against peanut butter? Well then you're crazy and I just can't help you. Or use a nut/seed butter. The possibilities are endless! Enjoy!

Healthy Granola Bars

Yield: 16 servings
Ingredients

• 1 cup dates
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup walnuts, roasted
• 1/2 cup peanuts, roasted
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats

Cooking Directions

1. Soak dates in water for 10 minutes.
2. Process dates in a food processor until small bits remain (about 1 minute). It should be able to roll into a ball, with a dough consistency.
3. Toast the oats at 350 F in the oven until slightly golden brown, about 15 minutes.
4. Place oats, nuts, and dates in a bowl.
5. Warm honey and peanut butter in a small pan over low heat. Stir and pour over oat mixture and then mix, breaking up the dates.
6. Once mixed, transfer to an 8x8 or 7x11 dish lined with parchment paper.
7. Press down until uniformly flat. Cover with parchment paper, and let set in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to harden.
8. Remove bars from pan and chop into 16 bars. Store in an airtight container in the fridge or wrapped up in the freezer.

Disney's Banana Roll-Up

Banana Roll-Up

Mission Tortilla Factory

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 Mission® Flour Tortillas
4 Tbsp. Peanut Butter divided
2 Bananas

Directions

Spread peanut butter across each tortilla. Top with banana slices. Roll-up and eat.

Soaked and Sprouted Almonds

I would call these almonds about the sweetest, softest raw, unprocessed almonds I've ever had. What a great way to start the day. Or to snack on.

Soaking the almonds both enhances the almond flavor and the sweetness that are naturally occurring. Plus, as a HUGE bonus, the almonds are much softer and much more easily digestible. Something about the activation of enzymes, which rock. You gotta love those enzymes. Always making life a little easier for our stomachs. Enjoy!

Burger a la King

What's that? You want a burger Elvis would enjoy? Well then you've come to the right place! Peanut butter, bananas, and most importantly bacon make a surprising appearance on top of this monster of a burger.

This was prepared as part of Denny's and Foodbuzz BACONALIA challenge and is an entry for a chance to win.

A burger fit only for a King. It's good to be The King.

Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love a soft, chewy cookie. Something about hard, crunchy cookies is a big turn off in most cases. Bleh!

So these cookies are perfect because I also love peanut butter. A soft, light, chewy peanut butter cookie is just what the day needs sometimes to end just right.

Omitting the chocolate does not diminish how delicious these are. In fact, I think they might be even better without it, though some chocolate fiends might disagree.

And the size is perfect. Small enough to get the full effect without feeling like you're gorging on cookies. So sometimes two is even ok!

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Love peanut butter and banana sandwiches? Of course you do! Want it all in a slice of bread? Of course you do! It's so good with a little extra peanut butter spread on.

One of the great things about this quick bread is that the subtle hints of peanut butter and banana develop over time as well. I'd say it's best around day 2-4, but day 1 is downright delicious too. The banana comes out stronger on day 1, so if you want a really peanutty bread, up the PB. Enjoy!

Ebelskivers!

We got a gift recently - an ebelskiver pan. You probably know what an ebelskiver is already, but just in case you don't....think of an ebelskiver as a puffy filled pancake. Pretty awesome, huh?

Sure, you can go around using fancy and homemade ebelskiver/pancake batter, but not I. Why do that when all the fun is in the filling? That's where creativity reigns supreme!

For instance, you could do banana in one, chocolate tahini in another, honey and nut butter in another, strawberry jam in another, banana and peanut butter and bacon in another, and bacon and cheese in the last one. Ohhh yeah.


So let your heart and your imagination be your guide. Enjoy!

Sunflower Seed Butter and Avocado on Hawaiian Sweet Bread

Yum yum yum.

Today I came up with a whole new peanut butter sandwich combo. I like peanut butter well enough, but I really like other nut/seed butters. So I used sunflower seed butter from Trader Joe's, a quarter of an avocado I brought back from California, and some King's Hawaiian Sweet Bread.

The combination was fantastic. The sweetness from the bread mixed with the savoriness from the sunflower seed butter combined with the creaminess from the avocado had me wanting more and more and more.

Maybe I'll go make another one right now...

Popcorn with Sunflower Seed Butter

OK..here's how it should have gone down:

A hankering for popcorn threatens.
The need/desire to combine it with some protein.
Oh, I know. I'll drizzle some melted/watered-down sunflower seed butter (Trader Joe's!) on top and maybe make popcorn balls!

Alas, this was not the case - either too much popcorn, too little sunflower seed butter mixed with hot water, or too watered down. At any rate, I got the taste I wanted (I suppose) but lacked the fun of popcorn balls and also most of the popcorn that came in contact with the sunflower seed butter ended up a little soggy. Eww.

So I need some help. Some tips. Some hints/tricks/suggestions for how to make this work. But here's what I ultimately want: popcorn with a nut butter that doesn't have sugar or regular butter added to it. Anything anyone? I still have that hankering!

Cottage Cheese Yogurt

I don't know why I came up with this. I just wanted to get some of the lactose out of the protein-rich cottage cheese so that it might be even healthier and easier to digest. It turned out better than expected though. I thought maybe it would have the consistency of cottage cheese and the tartness of yogurt, but it's really more of a fine balance between the two. Creamy cottage cheese that is less salty and more appealing texture-wise.

It's uber simple (I always opt for the simple), and best of all it can be combined with a variety of toppings or addins. I added oats to mine the night before and a drop of tahini right before I devoured it for breakfast. Experiment with your own unique take on Cottage Cheese Yogurt. Enjoy!