Inspiration to cook!

Lately, we have been trying to eat at home more. Reasons for this are to eat healthier and save some money. Now, this hasn't been so easy for me. I have a few meals I like to fix and the boys like to eat, but I get bored. So I have been searching different sites for INSPIRATION to get back in to the kitchen, and to enjoy it! So far it has been working! One thing I am finding is that I will make a recipe and want to make sure I don't lose it somewhere on the web. I started to print out these recipes and put them in a binder. Well, it is a waste of ink and paper, so I am going to try to keep them on this blog. Once I get the hang of it, I am hoping to have pics of us enjoying said recipes. For now, it is going to be text of the recipe with my alterations and input, basically so I can go back and make it again!

Today I made:

Gluten Free Dairy Free Baked Oatmeal Bars

from Once a month mom posted 1/3/2012

Ingredients:

2 cups gf or regular old-fashioned rolled oats

2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp gf baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 egg, or 1 T. ground flax mixed with 3 T. boiling water (let sit for 5 minutes until thickened)

1/4 cup sugar or sweetener of choice

1 1/4 gf vanilla extract

1/2 cup raisins of chopped date, more for sprinkling on top if desired

chocolate chips are good too

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil on 8X8 baking pan. Set aside. If you are making the bars egg-free, mix flax seed mixture now. Set aside to thicken.

Combine oats, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add milk substitute egg (or flax mixture), applesauce, sweetener, and vanilla. Mix well. Mix in dried fruit.

Put batter into oiled pan, smoothing with spatula as needed. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. If bars brown too quickly, tent the pan with some foil. Allow bars to cool completely, then cut into bars.

Freezing directions:

Package bars in an air-tight freezer container. Label and freeze.

To serve: Thaw. Eat at room temperature or slightly heated through.

Servings: 8

So the main thing I will change next time is to double the batch and try them in a 9X13 pan. In a short few hours Trek and I have almost finished them off! I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, which turned out very yummy! Next time I want to use coconut milk (I used regular milk, since no one in our house has any problems with dairy), I think the flavor would be good.

They are soft granola bars...as I introduced them to Trek. They aren't overly sweet, which is refreshing.

Definitely a do-again recipe!