::cooking:: homemade granola bars

Monkey Boy and Little Man are going to different schools this year...something I neglected to blog about simply because having two kids in two different schools means 2x the volunteer hours for me! We sent MB to a new charter school and have been super happy with how it has turned out- small class sizes and a collaborative, "21st century' approach to learning has made MB's 1st grade outstanding so far.

One of the other differences between the kids' schools is that MB's school is nut-free- no peanuts, tree nuts or any other nuts are allowed. LM's school allows nuts and has an 'allergy table' for those kids who need to avoid nuts (or other allergens) at lunch time. One of kids' favorite things to eat is granola bars, which I never had a problem sending until this year...did you know it's practically impossible to find nut-free granola bars?

I searched high and low and found gluten-free granola bars, dairy free granola bars, sugar free granola bars- but it was impossible to find nut-free bars. Of course I then turned to the internets and found a granola bar recipe that I was able to change to be completely nut-free so that both LM and MB could bring bars to school. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
3 cups rolled (old fashioned) oats
1/2 cup wheat germ (not pictured)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
1/2 cup dried fruit- I use a berry medley from Trader Joe's
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 325

Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper or heavy duty foil. Make sure the lining covers the bottom of the pan and goes up the sides part way- otherwise your bars will stick like crazy to the pan! Grease lining with cooking spray.

Mix all the ingredients in a big mixing bowl.


Pour into the prepared pan and pat down until it's evenly and firmly packed.

Bake until golden- approx 30 min. Let the pan cool on the counter till granola is firm, then use the parchment paper/foil to lift the bars from the pan.

Cut into bar shapes with a sharp knife.

Wrap individually in wax paper or plastic wrap, or store in an airtight container.

Makes approx. 16 bars.

This makes for a firm, slightly chewy granola bar that tastes a lot like a big oatmeal cookie. The kiddos love them and will eat two batches a week. It's a very versatile recipe, too, since you can use different dried fruit: I've tried a raisin medley, plain cranberries, wild blueberries, and chopped mangos in different batches and they all came out delicious.

If I let Little Man make a batch, he will add some honey or molasses for some added sweetness but I think it tastes fine without. The sweetened condensed milk not only binds the granola together, but adds a nice carmel-y flavor once it's baked.

And of course, you can add any nuts you would like...just reduce the amount of rolled oats by the amount of nuts you add. So adding 1/2 cup of almonds means you will only use 2.5 cups of rolled oats.

Enjoy!

date night, DIY style

Over the weekend, the Dearest and I went on our first date night in a while. I had planned this date night out some time ago and didn't tell the Dearest where we were going...I just told him that it was something we'd never done before, and that he had to wear close-toed shoes. I'm sure that led to some crazy speculation on his part!

But no, we didn't go zip-lining or bungee-jumping....instead we did this:

It was a "Date Night" cooking class at the Laguna Culinary Arts Institute! When we arrived, we were given aprons and shown to our stations....

Whew, that's a professional kitchen set up, isn't it? A little bit intimidating even if you are a decent home cook.

We were joined by four other couples- it turns out each couple had one person who did most of the cooking and other one was there to learn how to cook better. In our case, I was the 'home cook' and the Dearest was the aspiring cook. Don't we look like pros?

After a short introduction on how to best handle/use the knives, Chef Anna led us in preparing the lemon curd for dessert. That required whipping egg whites over a double boiler on the stove for at least 10 minutes.....and let's just say that everyone was taking shifts because after 2-3 minutes of constant whipping our arms were getting TIRED. I don't know how the pro chefs make it look so easy when they whip something by hand. If I have to make whipped cream I always use my Kitchenaid and if I was making this recipe at home I would have been sorely tempted to use a hand mixer to do the whipping on the stove.

Once we had the curd made, we stashed it in the walk-in to chill while we worked on the rest of dinner. First course was asparagus soup - it only took about 20 minutes to make but it was SO GOOD. We all sat family-style around tables in the dining room and happily slurped up our soups. Then it was back into the kitchen to work on the side dishes.

Chef showed us how to blanch veggies and use an ice bath, then we worked on making a compound butter of lemon and tarragon. We cooked orzo, added lemon and parsley to flavor it, then moved on to preparing the salmon. First we seared the filets in a very hot pan, the moved them to the oven to finish. Check out the Dearest 'working the line':

With all the people at the stoves, there was much shoulder bumping, elbowing and jockeying of position- all in good fun! And here is the finished plate:

Seared salmon topped with lemon-tarragon butter on a bed of lemon-infused orzo and a side of sauteed spring veggies. SO YUM!

After we finished our main course, it was back into the kitchen one last time to assemble the trifle. Pound cake, lemon curd and berries were layered to create these:

And no, they weren't supposed to be overflowing but this was our final course and some of us had had 'some wine' so we got a little enthusiastic filling the cups! It was amazingly delicious-like a restaurant-quality dessert! We ate so much over the course of the class that I could barely move once we got home! And we came home with a big box of leftovers, too.

The whole night was great fun and the Dearest said he really enjoyed the surprise. We might have to take another class with friends as I can see this would be even more enjoyable with a group who know each other well.