Coconut Maple Granola
February 18th, 2012 § 12 Comments
Good Morning Everyone! 
Who’s ready for a fabulous long weekend? I know I am!
This weekend is going to be an exciting and relaxing one for me. Today will be filled with hair, make-up, and nails in preparation for my school’s annual Cotillion dance tonight and then I am free to chill out for the next two days. I don’t even have that much homework!
This morning I woke up with a hankering for homemade granola. No biggie, I thought. I got washed and dressed and got right to work!
Granola is actually one of my favorite things to make. It’s mess-free, easy to prepare, and can be made in under an hour. Plus you can adapt it to whatever you have on hand and it’s virtually fail-proof. Unless you burn the granola…I may or may not have done that a few times. 
Coconut Maple Granola
“Coconut maple is my favorite granola flavor because it’s different, yet totally delicious! I like using granola as a topper for yogurt and ice cream! Granola will stay fresh in an air-tight container for up to 3 months!”
Ingredients:
- 2 ½ cups old-fashioned oats
- 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
- ½ cup puffed rice cereal (like Rice Krispies!)
- ½ cup roasted cashews
- ½ cup roasted almonds
- ¼ cup canola oil
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 275º Fahreneheit. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir until well combined.
- Place granola on a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick spray or lined with parchment. Bake for 25-30 minutes without stirring!
- Preheat oven to 425º Fahreneheit. Bake granola for an additional 3-5 minutes and enjoy!
Yield: ~3 ½ cups granola
What are your plans for this weekend?
Have you ever made granola before?
Bacon, Date, And Goat Cheese Galette
February 13th, 2012 § 11 Comments
Valentine’s Day is coming and, I’m not going to lie, I have a pretty hot date lined up. 
A pretty hot, albeit a bit wrinkled, medjool date, that is! He’s such a sweetie!
Alright, alright. I know that was a little [okay, a lot] corny, but I just couldn’t resist. I had to mention Valentine’s Day somewhere in this post!
Seriously, though, this galette is so good that you might actually want to date it. Or at least serve it to your date on Valentine’s Day. It’s life-changing!
Admittedly, I’m not usually one to toot my own horn, but toot toot! This miiiiiight just be the best galette you’ll ever taste. Even my 11-year old brother, Phil, gobbled it up and I thought for sure that the goat cheese would be a turn-off to him. It’s the perfect combination of savory [bacon], tangy [goat cheese], and sweet [dates].
I don’t know how I come up with this stuff!
Want the recipe?
Bacon, Date, And Goat Cheese Galette
Galette crust adapted from Perry’s Plate
Ingredients:
Crust
- 5 tablespoons butter, cold
- 2-3 tablespoons cold water
- 1 egg, beaten and divided
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (I used half all-purpose and half oat flour.)
Filling
- 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature (I used light cream cheese.)
- 2 ounces goat cheese, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 8 medium medjool dates with pit removed, roughly chopped
- 4 strips bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1-2 tablespoons honey, for garnish
- fresh scallions, for garnish
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a baking sheet and set aside.
- Grate butter into a medium bowl with a coarse cheese grater. Place grated butter in the freezer until ready to use.
- In a small bowl, mix together the water, half of the beaten egg, and the sugar. Add the flour to the bowl with the butter and, with your fingers, massage the butter into the flour until the butter is well combined. Stir in egg mixture and knead until well combined.
- Flour your prep surface and roll out the galette dough until it resembles a circle, approximately 12 inches in diameter. Transfer to prepared baking sheet.
- In a small bowl, stir together the cream cheese, goat cheese, 2 teaspoons of honey, and olive oil. Spread onto the circle of galette dough, leaving approximately 1-inch border around the edges. Top with chopped dates and fold the excess dough over. Brush dough with leftover beaten egg.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Add prepared bacon and chopped scallions. Bake for 5-10 additional minutes.
- Drizzle galette with 1-2 tablespoons honey, season with salt and pepper, and serve.
Yield: 4-6 appetizer or snack-sized servings
Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day!
Peanut Butter Bran Muffins
September 12th, 2011 § 25 Comments
I knew this would happen.
School is back in session. Homework is in full swing. I have two Cross Country meets a week and a social calendar that is slowly filling up. Oh yeah, and I still have to find time to bake and blog. It’s the only way I can stay sane. Duh! 
“So what’s in store for this lovely little blog?” you ask. Nothing new really. Now that my weekdays are absolutely crazy most of my baking has to be done on the weekends. Gone are the days of spontaneously preheating the oven, pulling out the mixing bowls, and whipping up some delicious brownies at 11 o’clock in the morning.
Now I have a written “To-Make” list that helps me plan what I’m going to make and when I am going to make it. Take last weekend for example, I scanned my list and decided to make Lofthouse-Style Frosted Cookies and bran muffins. The cookies were nice treats to have during the week and the muffins made great on-the-go breakfasts. Delicious, moist, and peanut buttery on-the-go breakfasts. 
Peanut Butter Bran Muffins
“Wholesome, high-fiber muffins that are great for fueling hectic school days. Spread them with a little peanut butter and you’ve got yourself a breakfast or snack worth waking up for!”
Ingredients:
- 1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
- 1 cup wheat bran
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ cup agave
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1 egg
Directions:
- Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper baking cups, or spray bottoms with nonstick spray.
- In large bowl, combine, flour, bran, sugar, and baking powder, mix well. In medium bowl, combine agave, peanut butter, milk, and egg, blend well. Add all at once to dry ingredients, mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. (DO NOT OVERMIX!)
- Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes or until golden brown and wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Serve muffins warm.
Yield: 12 muffins
