Perfect Granola Bars

Perfect Granola Bars
http://michellesnewrecipes.blogspot.com/

1/2 cup and 1/3 cup butter, softened (13 1/3 tbsp.)
1/2 cup honey (6 oz.)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup brown sugar (2.7 oz.)
4 1/2 cups oats (15 oz.)
1 cup whole wheat flour (4 1/2 oz.), or all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup add-ins (i.e. chocolate chips, cranberries, etc.)

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl (or stand mixer). Press into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 325º for 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack; gently press down on bars after baking to flatten (I use a small, flat cutting board to press down on them). Cut into 24 bars (4 by 6). Store in an airtight container.

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

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Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 60 min
Serves 8

Ingredients

• 16 ounces Mueller's Elbow Macaroni
• 8-10 slices bacon
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 5 cups half and half or milk
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Fontina cheese
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup Italian-flavored dry bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Cook and drain pasta according to package directions.
3. Cook bacon in large saucepan over medium heat until crisp. Remove and crumble. Set aside.
4. Pour off all saucepan drippings except 1 tablespoon. Stir in garlic. Cook and stir until tender.
5. Gradually stir in milk. Beat in eggs & Italian seasoning.
6. Cook and stir until hot & slightly thickened.
7. Stir in Cheddar & Fontina cheeses. Cook and stir until melted.
8. Stir in Parmesan cheese, pasta and bacon.
9. Spoon into a lightly greased 13x9-inch baking dish. Top with bread crumbs.
10. Bake 40 minutes, or until hot. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Mini Taco Bowls

What You Need

8 flour tortillas (6 inch)

1 lb. extra-lean ground beef

1 cup TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa

1/2 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Cheddar Cheese

2 cups chopped lettuce

1 tomato, chopped

1/4 cup KRAFT Ranch Dressing

Make It

HEAT oven to 350°F.

MICROWAVE tortillas on HIGH 30 sec. Line each of 8 muffin cups with 1 tortilla. Carefully fold back edges of tortillas, leaving opening in centers for filling.

BAKE 10 min. Meanwhile, brown meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in salsa; bring to boil. Simmer on medium-low heat 10 min.

SPOON meat mixture into tortilla bowls; top with remaining ingredients.

Homemade Graham Crackers

Homemade Graham Crackers (Makes A LOT, depending on the shape you cut them in)

weelicious.com

1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar, packed
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Butter, chilled & cubed
1/4 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup Water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a food processor or mixer combine the first 6 ingredients.
3. Add cubed and chilled butter to the mix and pulse/mix until it resembles coarse meal.
4. Add honey and water and continue to mix until it all combines.
5. Remove and shape the dough into a flat disk and place between two pieces of parchment paper.
6. Roll dough out until 1/4 inch thick. Cut into crackers or shapes.*
7. Place cookies on a Silpat or parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
8. Cool and serve.

*To Freeze: After step 6, place the cut out cookie shapes on a baking sheet and freeze for 20 minutes. Remove, place in a Ziploc bag, label and freeze for up to 4 months. When ready to bake, follow steps 7-8, adding an additional 1-2 minutes baking time.

** If you have no Whole Wheat, you can use 1 Cup Oat Bran to 2 Cups AP Flour instead of what the recipe calls for and it works perfect!

Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

1 1/2 C. warm water
1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast (1 1/2 pkg.)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/8 tsp salt
1 C. bread flour
3 C. regular flour
2 C. warm water
2 Tbsp baking soda
To taste, coarse salt
2 – 4 Tbsp butter (melted)

Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often.

After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again. Bake in oven at 450 for about 10 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

Pizza & Dough

I found this recipe through momadvice.com.

I feel that I have 'cheated' a little bit since this recipe calls for the use of a bread machine and some of my readers will not have bread machines. My advice, if you are looking for a bread machine, is to first look for one at a thrift store, they should have outlets available for you to plug in a try out the machine. Otherwise you can look for a local Italian grocery store who may sell fresh dough (locally, Cantoro's Market, 7 and Middlebelt), or you could pick up frozen pizza dough at any grocery store.

Most of the ingredients you should already have in your cupboards.
Ingredients: water, corn meal, olive oil, flour, onion powder, garlic powder, yeast, salt, baking powder and sugar (in the blue lidded container).

First I placed all of the dry ingredients into my bread maker.

Followed by the water and the olive oil.

The dough setting on my machine takes an hour and forty minutes... so plan well in advance.

This dough recipe claims to be a knock off of Pizza Hut's... I haven't eaten at Pizza Hut in years (and I didn't order one for a side by side comparison) but my husband (who prefers Jett's) said that this pizza had "great taste!"

The dough batch is enough for two medium pizzas, or a large pizza and bread sticks.

Toppings Side Note: I've made a few home-baked pizzas in my day, and so I've learned that a single (15-ish oz) can of pizza sauce can cover 3 pizzas. When I first open my can of sauce, I divide it into thirds and freeze the two remaining thirds for later date pizzas.

I also decided to shred my Mozzarella on the larger shred side of the grater. I used 2 cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese on my pizza- and trust me, it was plenty!!!

We have purchased pre-made pizza dough from Cantoro's Market (really yummy) and just spread our toppings on top and baked the pizza. This Pizza Hut clone's recipe calls for parbaking the crust for 10 minutes BEFORE adding the sauce an toppings. PARBAKE: to prebake. Who knew?

Side Note: When rolling out/stretching out your dough, use floured hands and a floured surface... and if your dough is sticky, coat it will more flour.

I decided to only bake a single medium sized pizza (since it is just the three of us) and I packed the second half for the freezer! (We'll see how that turns out... my plan is to let it thaw in the fridge over night before I make my next pizza.)

This is what parbaking did to my crust. (If you peek at the upper right section of my crust you can see my 'crust band-aid,' my husband found a You Tube video on pizza dough tossing (as if...) and you are supposed to spread the dough out on the backs of your hands with your knuckles... again, who knew?)

Then I layered on our toppings, 'his and hers' style (I'm the Feta and tomato half :) ).

After baking our pizza for 10-15 minutes, this is what was pulled from the oven. Delicious!

Thick and crusty! The only thing that I'd do differently next time, is I would butter the crust edges a little bit before the final baking!

Recipe Recap: (baking temperature: 450*)
1 1/3 cups of water
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil (+ additional for parbaking step)
2 tablespoons of cornmeal
3 1/4 cups of flour (not bread flour, just regular flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon of onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of yeast

Homemade Pancake Mix

We normally keep a box of Bisquick on hand, but every once in a while my family has a pancake hankering after we have finished the last box on our shelf! So just in time for Christmas, I decided to share a 'pantry staples' version of easy pancake making... along with some tips from my pancake flippingextraordinaire husband!

This mix is simply made from flour, milk, and egg, butter, sugar, salt and baking powder. These ingredients should already be in your cupboards!

First, combine the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt and baking powder, mix well.

Next, in a separate bowl, beat the egg until it is bubbly!

Add the remaining wet ingredients with the frothy egg. (Milk and melted butter).

I add my secret weapon of pure vanilla extract! My husband brings me Haitian vanilla when he returns from his Raincathers trips! Haitian vanilla is POTENT! Yum!

Combine the wet and the dry ingredients, and this is what your batter will look like!

I need to mention a few key pancake pointers before I continue:

1. I am NOT the lead pancake maker in our home. I'm the lead dish washer!!! Dave is much more skilled than I am, but I LOVE you guys... so I persevered and 'pancaked it up' for your benefit!!!

2. Whether you make your pancakes on a griddle (like me) or in a pan, make sure that your surface is HOT!!! (300*- 350* if you are using a griddle). I accidentally unplugged my griddle without realizing it... so it wasn't super hot(again, this is why I'm the lead dish washer...). You can test the heat of the surface by splashing a little bit of water on the surface- and if it quickly 'dances' and goes up in steam... you're set to begin dropping batter onto the surface!

3. If your batter doesn't form perfectly round circles (like when your heat has been GREATLY reduced... or turned off), you can use the back of a spoon to help evenly spread out your batter!

4. Patience is a virtue.

Soon after dropping, your batter will begin to puff!

You will know when your pancakes are ready to be flipped on three accounts: 1. your batter will begin to bubble (let the bubbles pop!) and 2. your pancakes will stop steaming- you'll recognize this when you see it, and 3. the edges and eventually the surface of your pancake will begin to lose its shiny batter look.

Duh- lish!

This recipe makes between 8 & 12 good sized pancakes, and this recipe could easily be doubled, tripled or even quadrupled!

This, by far, is my favorite way to eat any pancake!!! I call this a pancake taco!!! No butter or syrup necessary (great for even the messiest family members!)!

Recipe Recap:

1 cup of flour

1 egg

3/4 cup of milk

2 tablespoons of melted butter

1 tablespoon of sugar

3 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

*1 teaspoon of vanilla*

Muffins

This is a simple and versatile recipe with ingredients that are most likely right in your cupboards! Flour, milk, sugar (in the lidded container), vegetable oil, baking powder, salt, an egg and something yummy to mix into the batter... I chose strawberries!

My son and I picked these strawberries last summer on a vacation up north...Mmmm, so yummy and special! Still frozen, I placed the berries in my food chopper.

I chopped enough for a cup's worth. The recipe that I am using (modified from Recipeczar.com) calls for just half a cup... but I prefer more yummy stuff!!!

***Keep in mind that you could use other mix- ins like blueberries, banana's or chocolate chips!

I wanted my muffins to have more of a breakfasty healthy-ness to them, so I added 1 1/2 cups of white flour and 1/2 cup of wheat flour... I'd just use while flour for more of a 'treat' type of muffin!!!

... and in goes the baking powder and the salt!

In a separate "wet ingredient bowl," I combined the milk, the egg and the oil.

Slowly, I added the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Lastly, I added the strawberries- they looked so beautiful in my mix!

Since I was primarily baking these muffins for my son (he just turned two), I used my mini muffin pans- but otherwise I would have used a 12 sectioned regular sized pan for this recipe.

After baking for just 18 minutes... they were perfect!

I LOVED the pink hue of the strawberries!

And yes, my son enjoyed them... especially with butter!

Recipe Recap:

2 cups of flour

1/2 cup of sugar

1 Tablespoon of baking powder

1/2 Teaspoon of salt

1 Egg

3/4 cup of milk

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1 cup of fruit or chocolate

Serving size, 12 muffins

Bake at 400* for 18-20 minutes!

Faux Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients: Ground beef, potatoes, mixed veggies, cream of chicken soup, milk and corn starch... how could you go wrong? Simple. Inexpensive. Yummy.

*Note: I'm pretty sure that I have never used corn starch before- so I had to make a mad dash last minute run to get some... don't worry if you need to purchase some too, mine was only $1.29!

I decided to start with the potatoes. I peeled and boiled 5 good sized potatoes. I did have a bit left over- but I'm OK with that... wink!

The recipe calls for STIFF mashed potatoes, which means NO milk or butter can be added. So I decided to whip out my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer and let it do the hard work of mashing for me! (I WILL NEVER HAND MASH AGAIN...EVER!)

Bonus features from using a mixer (just in time for Thanksgiving... you're welcome!)
1. Perfectly smooth mashed potatoes!
2. All of the swirling helped to cool the potatoes more quickly.
3. I could attend to making the rest of the recipe- I simply just walked away!
4. No muscle fatigue or cranky attitude flare up mid-mashing!

I added one pound of my previously cooked ground beef. It is important NOT to drain the beef, as this adds to the flavoring of the dish. I used Angus, which left me with less 'juices' than other varieties may have.

Once the ground beef has been thoroughly cooked, I added the contents of one can of cream of chicken soup. Mix well and heat thoroughly.

While my meat and soup were melding together on the stove top, I stirred one cup of milk and one tablespoon of cornstarch together.

It is important not to have any cornstarch lumps - so I made sure to smash the back of my spoon into the side of the measuring cup while stirring to break apart any lumps that I found.

TIP: Once you are satisfied that your contents are thoroughly mixed, pour immediately into the pot on the stove. The cornstarch will settle to the bottom of the container when you stop stirring.

Next add a package of frozen mixed veggies (I LOVE adding my FREE after doubled coupon veggies into meals!!!).

Keep stirring until all of your ingredients are heated thoroughly and are combined well.

I lightly sprayed the bottom of my casserole dish and poured my beef and veggie mixture inside.

Next, I loaded up a piping bag with an extra large decorating tip (I knew these would come in handy someday...) and I squeezed little dollops of mashed potatoes, coating the top. In truth, you could just spread a thin layer of potatoes on top with a spatula... but where is the fun in that? AND... I loved cutting perfect pieces between the potato dollops...

TIP: The warmer the mashed potatoes, the easier the squeezing and the better the presentation. I actually made a second Shepherd's Pie to freeze, and the time between piping the two batches allowed my potatoes to cool significantly. I also noticed that the first pie was far more attractively piped, so next time I will microwave my potatoes if necessary.

Bake at 400* for 15-20 minutes, or until thoroughly warmed!

And let me say, this is delicious!!!

Recipe Recap: serves 4
1 pound of undrained ground beef
4-5 medium/large potatoes
1 package of mixed vegetables
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon of cornstarch

This recipe *may* be the perfect answer to what to do with your leftover potatoes after Thanksgiving...

Apple Crisp

I decided to bring Apple Crisp to our weekly Life Group meeting, and a single batch (serves 6) would NEVER be enough... so I doubled the recipe.

I washed, peeled, quartered and sliced 16 medium sized apples.

I placed all of my apple slices in a lightly sprayed 9 x 13.

Since I had only planned to make a single batch, I had only set one stick of butter out on the counter to come to room temperature. I pulled a second stick from the freezer and I microwaved it on defrost(watching carefully for a puddle to start forming from the inside) until the butter nearly became room temperature. (tricky, tricky!)

I then measured 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar (3/4 cup per batch)- but my brown sugar had a few lumps. So I put my brown sugar in the microwave for 30 seconds and I was easily able to smush my lumps into the standard brown sugar consistency. (More tricky-ness!!!)

Next, I added my two sticks of butter, 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 cup of quick-cooking oats, cinnamon and vanilla to taste!

Apple Crisp is not a beautiful dessert, especially pre-baked in this picture! But all 12 servings were consumed before I could snap a final picture! Hmmm, maybe I'll have to bake this again later this week, especially while apples are inexpensive and in season!!!

Recipe Recap: (single recipe version, serves 6)

4-6 Apples. Core, skin, quarter and slice.

3/4 Cup all-purpose flour.

1/2 Cup quick oats.

3/4 Cup brown sugar.

1 Stick of butter.

1 Teaspoon cinnamon

1 Teaspoon vanilla

*Layer as instructed above. Bake at 375* for 30 minutes.