Thursday, June 12, 2008

Baking Up Some Memories

When I woke up yesterday morning Little Guy was watching The Food Network. He has been obsessed with food and recipes. This morning while I was drinking my coffee he was watching Emeril make chicken 'n dumplings. As soon as I finished my first cup, he turned and asked if we could skip the pool and just do some baking. I didn't mind the request since I have been browsing some recipe blogs lately and found a few recipes I wouldn't mind trying.

Since we are trying to spoil hubby a little bit every day leading up to Father's Day, we went and picked him from work and took him out to lunch at SoulShine. (Both boys got a big kick out of the "Slap Yo' Mama Bread Pudding" on the menu.)

After lunch with Dad we went and picked up a few ingredients from the grocery store and came home to spend the afternoon in the kitchen. We had a ball and now we have lots of fun treats that we have never tasted before and some to share as thank yous for his swimming teacher and with our neighbor.

Here is a picture of what we made:







Chewy Granola Bars Recipe
2 1/2 c. Oats - quick rolled oats
1/2 c. Rice Krispies
1/4 c. coconut (definitely optional because we HATE coconut)
1/2 c. M&M minis (we used mini-chocolate chips)
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/4 c. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Add all of the ingredients and mix together until combined. Press into a square 8×8 pan. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and score into bars. Let it set completely and then cut into bars. For thinner bars, press mix into a 9×13 pan. They seem to set a little better in the 9×13 pan. (We put ours in a 9 x 13 pan!)

Two Bit Wonders
(These seriously could not be any easier!!)
2 cups unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
Mix two ingredients together. Drop by spoonful onto lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 13-14 minutes.

Craisin and White Chocolate Blondies
1/2 c butter (I used salted)
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup craisins
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350F. Melt butter in the microwave in a large microwaveable bowl. Add the brown sugar and stir until moistened (about 2 minutes). Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix well. Stir in craisins and white chocolate chips. Spread batter, it will be thick, into an ungreased 9x13 inch baking pan. Bake for 22-27 minutes.
With all this baking you would think Little Guy would have had his fill for a while. Not so fast... he has already started talking about going to Fresh Market for some shrimp and digging through the cabinets for chili powder. Apparently he saw Bobby Flay cooking up something delicious while our cookies were baking!

11 comments:

Dr. Wifey said...

yummy! can you send some of those my way? lol

Deanna said...

The email version would definitely be lower calorie. That is the version I SHOULD be eating!

Supermom said...

how does those two bite wonders taste? Something that easy can't be THAT great.
or are they?

Deanna said...

My husband devoured them! He said they were AWESOME. I am going to take his word for it because I don't eat coconut.

From the Doghouse said...

Those look really cool! I understand about your boy; mine loves Alton Brown and jumps in the kitchen himself occasionally.

And I love Soulshine.

Confessions of A Mississippi Mom said...

To bad you don't live close I would be at your house... b/c that looks so yummie, and I'm trying to keep on my diet girl... gosh I love sweets

Anonymous said...

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Webmaster said...

Man, that looks fantastic. Someone's going to have a yummy Father's Day!

Beth Cotell said...

These sound wonderful and pretty simple. I might have to give them a try! Those two bit wonders sound right up my alley!

black betty said...

great! now, i'm hungry...

Anonymous said...

They were ALLLL.. good... the chewy granola bars were the first to go... I didn't get many of them since the boys really enjoyed them... The coconut ones were for me but our youngest said he liked them too.. not surprising since he likes to drink coconut soda from the store... I can't even stomach that stuff... I have a great wife and who's also a great cook.. she whipped up some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for Fathers Day that were awesome.. we ate them while playing games with the boys.. what a great day..