I almost always have a bag of these in my freezer. I grab one on my way out of the door in the morning and it thaws by the time I want to eat it a few hours later. I've also been known to nibble on them while they are still frozen.
Homemade Granola BarsAdapted from Mollie Katzen’s wonderful book, Sunlight CafeIngredients:
Nonstick spray
½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3 cups rolled oats
½ cup oat bran
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
½ to ¾ cup (packed) brown sugar
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 ½ cups mashed silken tofu*
¼ cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350 (325 for a glass pan). Lightly spray a 9- by 13-inch baking pan and a baking tray w/ nonstick spray.
Mix together the flour, oats, oat bran, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Crumble in the brown sugar, rubbing it w/ your fingers to break up any clumps. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Measure the yogurt, oil, and vanilla into a second bowl, stirring until well combined. Add the wet mixture to the dry, and mix until thoroughly blended. (You may have to use your hands-it will be a thick batter, verging on a dough.)
Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan, patting it evenly into place with your hands. Bake in the center of the oven for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and cut into bars of any size or shape. Place the bars on the prepared baking tray and bake for another 15 minutes, or until golden around the edges. For extra crunchy bars, turn off the oven and leave them in there for up to 45 minutes longer. Remove the bars from the oven and place them on a rack to cool.
Eat the bars within a few hours or seal them in a heavy sip-style plastic bag and store them in the freezer.
* you can replace the tofu w/ unsweetened applesauce, canned pumpkin or mashed banana
Other options:
Replace the oil w/ ½ cup peanut butter or almond butter
Replace the flour with quinoa flour (or any other non-wheat flour)
Add up to 1 cup chopped nuts and/or sunflower seeds.
Really these bars are quite forgiving. I’ve done a lot of experimenting with them and they have never turned out bad. Some versions are just a bit crumblier than others and take more effort to get out of the pan. I've replaced part of the oil with applesauce or jam. I've used raisins in place of half of the chocolate. I often replace up to 1 cup of the oats with different combinations of ground flax seeds, wheat bran, and dried coconut.
Peanut Butter Fudge Pie...Yum!
How could one resist checking out a book called the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook? Cheese is one of my weaknesses...its one of the foods I can't seem to give up no matter how hard I try. So, after having such great success with the smoky cheese dip I was really excited when I found this book. So far I've made 3 recipes out of it: Swizz Cheez* and Peanut Butter Fudge Pie with a Granola Nut Crust. I was particularly excited to try the cheese recipe because I've never tried to make a vegan block cheese, nor do I know anyone who has. Unfortunately I felt that the final product was a bit too lemon-y. It definitely resembles swiss cheese in flavor but the lemon juice seemed a bit strong. The pie was much tastier and the crust was even better than the filling in my opinion.
