Pumpkin Pie for Breakfast

 

I love making larabars.  It is a snack I have blogged before, that my kids adore.  I keep looking at the store for the new flavors to make them myself at home.  This year they added pumpkin pie to the lineup.  This was great for several reasons: first I always have a partial can of pumpkin this time of year since most recipes only call for half a can, it is a great seasonal flavor snack or breakfast, and I love the smell of the spices and fruit in this.  It smells like Thanksgiving. 

First thing to do is to take that partial can of pumpkin and spread it really thin on a silicone baking sheet or cookie sheet lined with parchment.  This is important, don't skip it!  Bake it at 250 until dehydrated.  You could use a dehydrator if you prefer, but this doesn't take long.  Let it cool.  Crumble into the food processor with 1 cup pitted dates, 3/4 cup cashews and 3/4 cup sliced almonds, 1/4 tsp each: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice.  Follow same procedure for regular larabars.  You could use seeds instead of nuts.  These taste like pumpkin pie and are so good.

To make them festive I made them look like little turkeys!

 I used sliced almonds for tail feathers, and slices of pitted dates for the head.  These are for breakfast for Thanksgiving with a fruit platter made to look like a turkey.

Hope you have a delicious and amazing Thanksgiving!

Homemade Larabars

So I love having good health filled portable snacks for hiking and trips.  Hence my love of larabars.  However they are cost prohibitive, so I was thrilled to find out that I can make them at home and make any flavor we like or invent.  They are crazy easy, and can be adapted however you need.

Basic recipe is 1 cup pitted dates, 1 cup dried fruit, 1-2 cups seeds nuts or other add ins.

Chop the fruit in a food processor till sticky and paste like.  Put in a bowl.  Chop nuts seeds or other stuff and mix into sticky date paste.  Form into balls, circles, bars, or other shape, and chill till solid.  Store cool and dry, does not need refrigeration.

You may need to knead the ingredients together to get it all to stick and  hold, but the work is pretty minimal.  I will say, this is not a job for the vitamix.  A food processor works much better.  I love that this is just as good nut free as with nuts too.

We make it with dried blueberries and either cashews or pumpkin seeds and a bit of lemon extract, tastes like a blueberry muffin.  Using almonds dried cherries and almond extract you get cherry pie.  I looked at the list of flavors on the larabar website and the ingredients tell you how to make each flavor!  The kids invented a good one too, pineapple and strawberry.

The add ins they picked were coconut, chia seeds, and cashews and walnuts.  I want to make carrot cake:  dates, dried carrots, dried pineapple, raisins, coconut, cinnamon, walnuts, sunflower seeds.  The kids want banana bread: dried bananas, dates, sunflower seeds or almonds.  Even Rich LOVES these.  It is great to finally find a healthy snack he likes.  We pack them in some plastic wrap or a baggie and take them hiking or on field trips.  Filling, tasty, and full of nutrition, what could be better?

New Favorite Snack: Birdseed Bars

We laugh about this snack a lot at my house.  Rich, the hubby, makes fun of me for eating birdseed all the time.  But I really like millet so I just tell him to shut up, with a smile :)  Truth be told I wasn't sure how these would be the first time I made them, but I desperately missed the granola bar like snacks I used to have.  Now these can be adapted easily depending on what ingredients you can or can not have, and every variation I have made have been great.  They are easy and fast, but there are a few tricks, so let's get started:

Birdseed Bars

Step one is to gather and measure all your ingredients first.  This is critical, so not start cooking until you have everything measured out and near the stove.  Grease an 8x8 pan.  Measure 1/2 cup honey, and 3/4 cup nut or seed butter of your choice, I like sunbutter, cashew butter and almond butter for this.  Set these aside.

Then place these ingredients in a bowl:

1 cup whole grain puffed millet cereal
1 cup whole grain puffed brown rice cereal
      of course you can use two cups total of any whole grain puffed cereal you like,
      but the health food kind not Rice Krispies, they will not work in this recipe
1 cup dried fruit of your choice, I used mixed berries and cherries
1 cup shredded coconut, optional, you can also add any candied ginger or citrus instead

Mix well.

Next we are going to puff some amaranth.  Amaranth is a yummy small seed/grain.  It puffs in a hot pan like tiny tiny popcorn and it is really fun and delicious.  Two tricks, keep a cover handy, and preheat the pan.  Trust me on this, do not put the amaranth in until the pan is good and hot.  Letting the amaranth cook in the not hot enough pan just produces burnt amaranth.  So measure out a half cup of amaranth, and preheat a high sided pot over medium heat, I used a 3 quart saucepan.

Now that the pan is hot you take one tablespoon at a time, and shake shake shake the pot, often you will need the cover, and the seeds will pop like popcorn, you can see them get bigger and lighten in color and smell slightly popcorn like.  It goes fast.  As each batch finishes, dump it in with the cereal and fruit.  When you have popped all the amaranth, return the pan to the heat.  Give the fruit and grains a quick stir, then carefully dump the honey into the pot, turn off the heat and stir that bubbly honey, then stir in the nut or seed butter till smooth and melted.  I use a silicone spoonula for this.  Pour the sticky stuff over the bowl of grains and fruit, and mix well.  I use a tool called a dough whisk for this, you can find it here KAF Dough Whisk, I use this tool for a lot, worth every penny.

Once this is well mixed dump into prepared pan and press well.  Let cool and cut into bars.  We love them around here, and they are a great healthy adaptable alternative to a granola bar.

Hope you try these and love them as much as we do :)