Pinspiration Post- Homemade Lara Bars & Granola Bars

Pinspiration Post #1 ~ Homemade Snacks

I have to admit, I enjoy my Social Media.  Sharing photos and chatting with readers, other breeders, friends, and family on Facebook, sharing photos on Instagram, and checking out all of the amazing ideas on Pinterest can be fun and informational.  The challenge is, as a homeschooling mom of 3, wife, homemaker, family cook, blogger, farmer, breeder, youth club leader, co-op teacher, etc. I really shouldn't be "wasting time" on Pinterest, right?  So what's a lady to do?  There are SUCH fabulous ideas on Pinterest that COULD help me out, be enjoyed, and be fun for the family!  My guilt-free idea was that I must at least use some of the ideas I find rather than just drooling over them all and pinning them to boards to never be looked at again.  With that idea came this post, my "Pinspiration" trials whether they are a success or a total failure, I'm going to share them here with you'll!

This first week I decided to give some healthier, homemade snacks a try.  I've been eyeing some homemade Lara bar recipes for some time now but never took the time to grab the ingredients.  Once I decided I'd post about it, I buckled down, put the ingredients on my shopping list and gave them a try.  Most of them came out SO well that I just HAD to try the granola bar recipe I'd printed out and stashed in the same "To Try" pile.  Although I made some mistakes, they were really good as a whole and the kids actually ate them up! <3  Getting them to go crazy over healthy, easy, grab and go snacks was all it took for me to want to share them.  Here are the Pinterest Homemade Snack Recipes I tried this week.  You can find these and other "Real Food" ideas and recipes on the board labeled as such on our Pinterest page here.  There are so many other ideas on here I'm definitely going to be trying soon so keep an eye out for other Pinspiration posts from me!

First and foremost are those homemade, healthy Larabars I mentioned. 
I began buying Lara bars for my kids after reading about them on the 100 Days of Real Food blog last year.  A pack and go snack with 5 ingredients or less?  AND one that will help my kiddos to stay "regular" (sorry for TMI! but it's so true!)?  AND one that they will actually enjoy and ask for?  I'm all over that!  I loved the Lara bars and became an instant fan but they do tend to be a little pricey AND homemade is always my best choice.  When I saw the Pin for Jessie Monds "How to Make Homemade Larabars" I was on it.

Her genius is not just the taste (which is extraordinary- no exaggeration!) but the simplicity!  These things are SO easy to make and even easier to tailor to your own tastes!  Now that I've made all three of her recipe flavors, the kids and I have tried them with different dried fruit and nut combinations!

The basic steps are:
1. Process your nuts (and any coconut, sunflower seeds, etc. if you're using them) and salt in your food processor until they make nice crumbs.  Pour them in a large bowl and add in any chocolate chips.
2. Process your pitted dates (and any other dried fruit called for in the recipe) until they start to come together in a sticky mass. 
3. Add the sticky, chopped fruit to your chopped nut mix and mash it, knead it, work it with your hands.  Sort of like you do with bread dough until it's nice and mixed together. (Let the kids all grab chunks of the new flavor you're trying.)
4. Press it into your 8x8 lined pan and refrigerate until set.  It takes a couple of hours for them to set really well.
5. Cut into bars and store in the refrigerator.  I also found that if we're taking them with us somewhere for snacks and lunches it works best to freeze them the night before, they do get mushy in the heat. 

There are three flavors we tried-

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough- didn't stick together as well as the others- it could have been my processor

2 cups raw cashews
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts (we used almonds and they were delicious so we're sticking with almonds)
2 cups pitted dates
1/2 cup organic mini chocolate chips (we used dark chocolate chips because of the heart healthy benefits)
Pinch of sea salt

This was the first flavor I tried and it was a hit all around.  I did have trouble with it sticking well.  The dates didn't process as well as I would have liked in my food processor and I ended up cutting many by hand.  In hindsight, I'm fairly certain this is why they didn't "form" well.  Rather than bars we could pick up, we found ourselves eating the bits with a fork but the flavors were amazing!

Chocolate Cherry Pie Torte - Hands down the kids' favorite
1 1/2 raw cups cashews
1/2 cup almonds or pecans (we used almonds)
1 cup pitted dates
1 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup organic dark chocolate chips

This was the second flavor we tried and it went MUCH better than the first.  The cherries helped the dates go through my processor easier and it became the sticky ball it was supposed to.  The dried cherries adds an awesome tangy flavor we all loved.  This came in a close second to my favorite and was hands' down the kids favorite flavor.  I've already had to make more of these for them!

Coconut Cream Pie - MY favorite
2 cups raw cashews
1 cup organic unsweetened coconut
1 cup pitted dates
1 TBL melted coconut oil
1/3 cup organic dark chocolate chips
Pinch of sea salt
Process the melted coconut oil with the dates.

I can only say, "YUM!"  This one is delicious if you're a coconut fan- it tastes like a Mounds bar, seriously.  The coconut oil helped my food processor chop the dates easier and they formed much easier than the first batch.  I DID make an oops and add too much coconut oil which I corrected by doubling the rest of the ingredients and making two batches of these.  No harm there, they're amazing and still didn't last long around here!  The kids aren't the big coconut fan I am so while they enjoyed them, this wasn't their favorite.

Homemade Granola Bars

Okay- my third and final Pinspiration snack trial was from Two Peas and Their Pod.  These are No-Bake Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Chip Granola Bars.  I know, it sounds like a party in your mouth kind of snack, doesn't it?  It is!  After searching through my Pinterest boards, I had my fourth recipe to try and I'm SOOOOO glad I did.  The Larabars were delicious but these were even better- these are completely snack-worthy! As in, the kids would eat them and not ask for deserts instead snack-worthy!  I made all of these for a recent APA-ABA Youth Poultry Club meeting I hosted at the house and these granola bars were gone in the first ten minutes! Seriously, kids LOVE them!

No-Bake Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Yield: 8-10 bars

These no-bake granola bars are easy to make and kids and adults love them! They are perfect for picnics, lunch boxes, or snack time!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups quick oats
1/2 cup crispy rice cereal
3/4 cup chopped pretzels
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cut out an 8 x 8 inch square of parchment paper. Place the parchment paper in the bottom of an 8 x 8 inch baking pan.
2. In a large sauce pan, add butter, brown sugar, honey and peanut butter. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until the mixture starts to bubble. Once bubbling, cook for 2 minutes while stirring. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

3. Stir in the oats, crispy cereal, and pretzels. Stir until well coated. Pour into the prepared pan. Press the mixture evenly into the pan. Sprinkle the mini chocolate chips over the top and gently press into the granola bars with your hands.
4. Place the bars in the refrigerator and let cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting. Cut into bars and serve.
Note-I store the bars in the refrigerator. I've kept them in the fridge for up to a week and they are still tasty!

So, there you have it!  I actually made four recipes for the kids from Pinterest this week! I'd definitely say that makes up for some of my Pinning minutes!  No wasted time here!  I enjoyed taking the time to create this post and discovering new recipes that had just been pinned to my boards WAITING for me to use them!  Thanks to you'll for the motivation!  Give these recipes a try, they're great for this time of year with the running around summer seems to create and stop back by and leave comments about how they worked for you!   Check back with me next week for my next Pinspiration!

Breakfast Recipes Week & Asheville Girls Vanilla Giveaway

Welcome to The Egg Basket's Breakfast Recipes Week Featuring an Asheville Girls Vanilla Giveaway

 

Last week I mentioned how much I LOVE baking with the Asheville Girls Organic Vanilla so this week I'm going to share my favorite Breakfast Recipes each day that require (Farm) Fresh Eggs & (Asheville Girls) Vanilla!  Along with that, the generous and kind ladies of Asheville Girls Vanilla have offered my readers a couple FREE bottle of  their awesome, organic Vanilla for a sweet Giveaway!  Entering the Giveaway is Oh, So Simple!  Just "Like" The Egg Basket and Asheville Girls Vanilla on Facebook and you've earned yourself two entries!   Now, that was easy, right?  Want to earn MORE entries another easy way?  Okay then!  Follow THIS blog (yep, right here, the one you're already reading!) to earn more entries, then leave a comment (because I so love to hear from you'll!)  on any or all of the Breakfast Recipes this week, try them, let me know how you like (or don't like) them and earn yourself MORE entries!  The contest will run from today through NEXT Monday to give everyone the weekend to try out some of these amazing recipes! 

Okay~ so, without anymore chit chat from me, here's today's first Breakfast Recipe!

Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

I mentioned this breakfast coffee cake on Facebook last week and received a very positive response and requests for the recipe.  Since I'm delayed in getting it typed up and posted for my lovely readers, I think I owe you more than one!  With that thought in mind, I'm also going to be posting yet ANOTHER deliciously warm, sweet, and comforting coffee cake later this week for your baking pleasures!  It's started out as a snowy, cold Spring here in Virginia- perfect weather for these morning delights!

 

I'm very pleased to say the kids gave this Buttermilk Blueberry Coffee Cake a solid thumbs up on the taste test and I'm pleased I was able to add whole wheat, blueberries, flax seed, and wheat germ to their morning meal to start their day off right!

 

Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

 

1/2 cup butter or margarine

Zest from 1 Lemon

7/8 Cup Sugar + 1 T sugar

1 Egg (of course we use our Farm Fresh Eggs for the extra healthy, fluffy cakes)

1 tsp. Vanilla (we prefer Organic Vanilla and I LOVE the Asheville Girls Vanilla)

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 Cup All Purpose Unbleached Flour
1/3 cup Wheat Germ
3 Tbl ground Flax Seed
2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

3/4 cup of buttermilk

 

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. Cream butter with lemon zest and 7/8 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.  Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of the all purpose flour.
4. Whisk the remaining flours, wheat germ, flax seed, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl.
5. Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time alternating with the buttermilk.  Fold in the blueberries.
4. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan (or similar pan) with non-stick spray (we use organic).  Spread the batter into the pan.  Sprinkle the batter with the remaining tablespoon of sugar.  Bake for 35 -45 minutes.  Ours took the entire 45 minutes but definitely check with a toothpick for doneness at 35 minutes.  You don't want to burn your delicious breakfast!

Step 5 ? Enter the contest of course! 
a Rafflecopter giveaway  



Farmers Love

Farmers maintain a special relationship with their livestock.  We provide for them, care for them, pat them, hold them when they're sick, help them from their shell when they're stuck during hatching, help them birth their calves, foals, be there as needed.  It can be our lively hood, hobby, or provide sustainable, healthy food for our friends, family, and neighbors' tables.  It's also more than that. 

There's a mutual love and respect for God's green Earth and beautiful creatures.  It can be hard to explain until you feel that warm earth in your hands with the sun beating on your back as you work your gardens and crops; or when you hear your first "I laid an egg" song from a pullet you've raised from hatch or even conception and your heart swells with pride.  You might do a happy dance in the  middle of the field or yard, you may call your father or grandmother and give them that smile from their own farmyard memories.  Just a warning, my friends, once you've felt it, there's no going back!  You're one of us, a farmer, a caregiver, a provider, and there's no going back!

Along with the companionship and nourishment we receive comes a lot of responsibility and strong commitment.  The sense of that varies in different degrees from farmer to farmer but to maintain a successful, healthy farm it must be there in good measure.  It doesn't matter if your farm is on a 1/4 acre lot in a city or on 100 acres in the country, any farmer worth their salt must have that something that drives them to get up at the crack of dawn or rooster's first crow and get the work done. In terms of livestock, we all know there's feeding, watering, providing medical care, housing, and safety from predators and harm.  It's hard work and a lot of it but it's oh so worth it!  We're always learning, striving for improvements, talking to each other, and working some more! 

We're starting a series on The Egg Basket blog about taking care of the poultry on our farm- the chickens.  I'll be blogging about some recent events that set us back, made us catch our breath, and realize just how much this farming thing means to us.  We've had to work harder than ever to save our little chicken farm and get it running back on track in the healthy, sustainable way we feel God intended and with that learned some things on care and health and a lot more things on what's important and how to protect ourselves and our flock. 

I want to share those things with our readers and friends.  I want to be real and not hide our challenges.  Things go wrong on a farm, things break, you meet less than honorable people, predators test your boundaries.  What we've learned is it's important how you handle the challenges and prevent them from happening in the future. 

We don't want to hide the hardships or the struggles from our readers.   We want to share them, discuss them, and learn from each other.   If our difficulties can assist or prevent another farm family then why not share the knowledge we've accumulated? 

When I was a little girl it was common to watch as other farmers came by my father's farm to talk about the cattle or the drought or come asking for help to round up a stallion that had jumped the fence.   There is a community of folks in farm life, the only difference is now we're not limited to our next door neighbors.  Thank God because now it's hard to always have neighbors that have the farm love that I mentioned above.

 Not everyone understands the need for small scale and family farms and the sense of joy and accomplishment that comes with them.  We do have the Internet and our circle of online friends and co-farmers to share with so that's what we intend to do!   Stay tuned to learn what we learned the hard way and I pray it may help you with your own flocks.

Love & Blessings,

Tiffany  

Homemade & Fresh! Farmer's Market Spaghetti Sauce

Homemade & Fresh! 
My Farmer's Market Spaghetti Sauce!

I've been wanting to make fresh pasta sauce for my family for what seems like forever!  I was intimidated by it, my husband LOVES his Ragu but I'm trying to cut out as much of the processed food as I can from our family's diet (without him killing me!)  The way to do this in MY family with my dear hubby and with my homeschooling schedule is to keep moderation in mind!  One step at a time is key here!  I use to have the "all or nothing" approach to our meals.  I would have a few days of healthy meals then we'd run late to a martial arts class or from piano or have a doctor's appointment and be forced to stop for fast food.  That one trip would totally throw me off my my game and I'd give up and just go right back to the same old same old. 

It's so important when making these lifestyle changes and transitions to remember everything in moderation!  Life happens, folks!  If I must get fast food on Tuesday, then I'm still doing a better service to my family by serving them unprocessed whole foods on Wednesday and Thursday than by giving up the cause altogether.  This was difficult for me at first.  It seems silly but I felt a bit like a hypocrite, talking up whole food eating and then hitting McDonald's the first time a child was sick.  Then I realized I'm not a hypocrite but HUMAN!  We are human ladies (and gents if you do the cooking and shopping;))

I'm a chicken farming, gardening, landscaping, homeschooling, blogging, taxi-driving, doctors appointment attending, housekeeping, cooking, hugging, loving, praying, dog and cat feeding & cleaning, turtle care giving, sewing, decorating, upcycling, walking, cardiac patient, medical decision making, martial arts and piano helper practicing, party organizing and giving, shopping for the whole house, God loving, Christian wife and mom!  Oh, and in my spare time I also enjoy chatting with my friends, dating my husband, crafting, reading, spending time with my extended family, target practice, walks with my dogs, and pinning on Pinterest!

Come on! What was I thinking?  So I finally gave myself a good smack, pulled my head out of the sand and hit this whole foods eating thing head on!!  That's how it's done sister! <3

So, after trying several recipes from books, blogs, pins, and magazines, I THINK I've come up with a recipe that works for our family.  It's fresh and I purchase all of the vegetables from the LOCAL farmer's market other than my onion which I am super proud to say came from our garden!  Having any part of a recipe or meal come from our little garden excites my kids and gives me a headstart on them liking something! hee hee ;)  I'm HOPING by mid summer all of the veggies will come from our backyard but so far we have an onion or two and strawberries good enough for our chickens.

 Please feel free to use this recipe to make homemade sauce for your family, tweek it, add to it, take away from it, whatever makes it work for you and your family.  It's sustainable and whole foods friendly and buying local not only helps the environment, small mom and pop businesses, and local farms but it also makes it much more nutritious for you and your lovely families!  If you happen to like it enough (I'm humbly stating this TRUST ME ) to want to use it or even blog or pin about it yay! That makes my day but please just note the source :) :) We all need to share the love, right?

Farmer's Market Pasta Sauce

1 green pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 cups chopped mushrooms
4 large chopped tomatoes (I like mine really red and ripe from the market)
2 cans (6oz.) tomato paste
1/1/2 cups of water
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup + 1 tsp. raw, organic honey
3 TBL of parsley
 2 TBL fresh basil (or 1 1/2 tsp. dried)
1 TBL fresh oregano (or 1 tsp dried)
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp rosemary

Saute veggies with about 3 TBL of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) over medium heat until cooked well.  I usually put my mushrooms in last and put my peppers and onions in a bit before until the onions are soft.  Add your chopped tomatoes and stir and cook about 20-30 min gently until the tomatoes liquify.  I like to continue stirring often.  Add in your tomato paste and water and stir.  Add in the remaining ingredients and stir.  Cover up your sauce and simmer it over lowered heat for about an hour, sometimes if I'm gardening I'll even simmer mine up to two hours but come in and check and stir it. 

For meat sauce,
Brown 1 pound of organic ground turkey (or beef depending on your preference) in a skillet.  Season with sea salt and black pepper to taste.  I like good seasoning, it brings the flavors together!  Drain the fat from the meat and add the ground cooked meat to your pot of sauce.  Stir well, cover and heat for about 15 minutes, stirring often.

For spaghetti,
I simply boil whole wheat spaghetti noodles with a bit of EVOO and sea salt according to the package directions, drain, and then serve to my family topped with the sauce and organic parmesean cheese (local if possible.) 

For an entire meal,
I throw this spaghetti with some boiled farmer's market broccolli (add a bit of fresh garlic to your water when boiling the broccolli and it's YUMMY) , some homemade bread, a spinach salad and we are done! Easy, peasy weeknight meal full of healthful flavor and energy!  I LOVE summer ripe tomatoes and this is just one easy way to take advantage of them!

That's it, you're done!  It seems pretty easy, doesn't it?  I know, it surprised me too! The trick for me was simply adjusting the spices and seasoning.  Most all of the recipes I found contained sugar and I wanted to avoid the white, processed sugar but my dear hubby prefers a little underlying sweetness to his sauce.  The honey did just trick for us.  If it's not your perfect sauce, start with the honey and/or salt.

For Later,
This sauce also works deliciously with my homemade lasagna!  I'll post that recipe later this week so while you're at it, double the recipe (it works I do it all of the time) and put 1/2 in a jar for lasagna later in the week or freeze in a freezer bag for a healthy fast food night!!

For the whole foods cooking ideal, fresh herbs are best, especially those grown in your own backyard or on your windowsill.  These are something anyone can grow, even in a city apartment and the flavor can't be beat!  My kids LOVE to go pick herbs for dinner :)

I hope you try it and love it, or at least like it! If you try this recipe leave me some comments below! I'd truly love to hear from you!

Blessings,
Tiff