Homemade Clif Bars

I love Clif bars...and Luna bars, and Larabars, and so on. So I thought, why not try and make my own? A quick google search landed me a recipe to try.

3 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup soy protein powder
1 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 egg whites
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup cinnamon roasted nuts, chopped
2/3 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 bananas, mashed

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line a baking sheet with wax paper and spray with non-stick spray.
2. Thoroughly mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir in the wet ingredients until blended.
3. Put spoonfuls on the waxed paper and shape as you like (I chose bars, but round would make a nice breakfast cookie)
4. Bake for approximately 15 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown.

Next time, I'll probably switch up the nuts and fruit for a new combination.

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Onigiri: Japanese Rice Balls

Onigiri is one of my favorite Japanese snacks/meals. I used to grab a couple from the convenience store for a quick lunch--so good! There's something special about the Japanese smoked salmon, perhaps umami??

I got my Onigiri recipe from Let's Cook Japanese Food! It's a really great basic Japanese cookbook with tons of great recipes. I chose to use leftover rice from dinner, along with grilled salmon. Not as good as the authentic variety, but simple to make. The onigiri recipe is on page 142 for reference. I'm not going to cover the recipe here, but just explain what to do.

Onigiri

Ingredients

• Japanese style short grain white rice (Nishiki is a good starter brand, available at most grocery stores), cooked and cooled
• Cooked salmon, flaked

Method

1. Spoon out a small handful of rice into wet hands. Gently compact rice into a rounded triangle shape (see picture for example); this will be the shape of your rice ball.
2. Make an indentation in the rice for your salmon filling--I like a wide and deep indentation which better allows for each bite of rice ball to have some salmon.
3. Place flaked salmon in the indentation, making sure not to overfill, as this will make it difficult to contain.
4. Take a bit more rice and cover the salmon filling, reforming the triangle shape if necessary.
5. You can wrap in a piece of seaweed if you like, but I do not recommend this if you plan to store for any amount of time.

This makes a great portable snack or quick lunch while you're on the go. Pack it with a salad and this makes a great lunch.

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Fifteen Chocolate Brownies

Jamie Oliver is genius, and it's not just the British accent. I found this recipe in his book, Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook. It's got all kinds of recipes in it. I've made his sticky saucepan carrots (which are REALLY good) and his brownies. I can honestly say I've never had better brownies in my life. It's better than even the Ghiradelli mix you can buy at the store. Of course, it's not as easy as adding eggs and some oil, but almost.

Fifteen chocolate brownies (p. 384)

18 tbsp butter
7 oz dark chocolate, broken up (I used a mixture of 80% cocoa and milk chocolate)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a 12 inch baking pan with was paper.
2. In a double boiler (put a large pan over simmering water), melt the butter and chocolate until smooth. Whisk dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to the chocolate. Finally, add in the eggs until smooth.
3. Pour batter into the baking pan and bake for 25 minutes. It is important to not over bake these brownies, so do not test with a toothpick.

These brownies are perfectly moist and melt in your mouth. I found they keep for several days without becoming dry--likely due to the under baking.

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something new

Because I'm too lazy to post a recipe, I'll leave you with a recommendation. I found a delicious beer. I like it only because it doesn't taste like beer at all. So here it is:

It is also available in a peach flavor which sounds delicious.

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a little bit vegan

I ended up buying The Complete Vegan Kitchen cookbook a few weeks ago because there were too many good looking recipes in there. Just in the past week I've made two sweet items from it: brownies and coffee cake, both with pretty good results.

Brownies

1/2 cup very hot espresso (you can use strong coffee instead)
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. To start, preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8" square baking pan.
2. Whisk the espresso into the cocoa and sugar until smooth (this is where the "very hot espresso" is essential). Add the vanilla and oil.
3. Gently stir/fold in the flour, baking soda, and salt just until incorporated.
4. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 35 minutes.

I find these brownies to have a slightly different texture than others I've made. Not fudgy at all, but a bit crumbly instead. I do think the espresso makes an interesting twist.


Coffee Cake

1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cinnamon sugar roasted nuts, chopped
2 tbsp canola oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 vegan sour cream
2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8" square baking dish.
2. For the coffee cake topping, mix the brown sugar, whole wheat flour, cinnamon, and chopped nuts; add the oil. If the mixture is too dry, add a bit of water until crumbly. Set aside.
3. For the batter, mix the all-purpose flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl. Add the sour cream (I used regular since it was on hand) and vanilla until incorporated. (My mixture was a bit dry, so I added a bit of milk. This again, of course, is not vegan, so I'd substitute soy, rice, or almond milk.)
4. Pour the batter into the baking dish and sprinkle the topping evenly over the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

I really enjoyed this coffee cake, and the best part was how easy it all came together.

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