A healthy snack option

Here's this week's selection:

Carrot sticks

Ingredients:
-Carrots

Directions:
1.  Peel the outer skin off the carrots.  This makes it so you don't even need to wash them!
2.  Cut

That's it!  There isn't anything more to it.  If this is too much for you, you can also buy "baby carrots" at the store where they have already done steps 1 and 2 above.  And for those of you counting calories, this is healthier than the cheese and crackers snack idea of last week.  If you want to make it really healthy, you can dip the carrots in a mixture of melted butter and brown sugar.  Then it is only 4 calories per carrot.  Eating them the natural way they are 72 calories per carrot.  Bon Apetit!

--Dustin

Granola

The price of cereal got you down?
My friend Brooke recommended this recipe to me from the church home storage recipes pamphlet, when I was picking up my kids and they all kept going to her stove top and snarfing her yummy freshly cooked cereal! I'm amazed at how easy the recipe is for your own Harvest Crunch.

Here's the recipe:
2-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups water
6 Tbsp oil
1-1/2 tsp salt
10 cups rolled oats (uncooked)

In a pan combine sugar, water, oil and salt. Heat until sugar is dissolved, but do not boil. Pour syrup over the oats and stir until well coated. Add a little more rolled oats if the texture seems too moist. Place in pans or sheets about 1/2-inch deep. Bake a 425 F 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Bake 15 minutes longer if you want it crunchier. Makes 11 cups. Store in an airtight container.

Brooke says she just adds whatever else she wants to make it yummier--raisins, craisins, almonds, cinnamon (maybe to the syrup) just whatever.

Next Day Note: I made this yesterday and just added a hand full of craisins & a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar afterward. This morning, it was what EVERYONE wanted for breakfast, despite the apple cinnamon cheerios, corn bran squares, cinnamon life and mini wheats in the pantry. It was soooo yummy! You really MUST try this.

EZ snack

I haven't posted here in over 6 months, and Mary Cahoon requested that I start up again, so...

For this week's snack I'm going with a suggestion from Mary. She didn't tell me the recipe, so I had to do some research and experimentation. I'll save you all a lot of time by sharing what I found out.

Crackers and Cheese

1/7 Box crackers (any style)
1/11 block of cheese, sliced into slices 1/11 inch thick

1. Put a single cracker on a plate
2. Put a single slice of cheese on top of the cracker
3. Finally, top with another cracker

For those wanting more cheese, there are two options. Either put two slices of cheese in the middle or only slice it 1/7 inch thick. By the way, don't try more than two slices in the middle or cheese thicker than 1/7 inch. I found out the hard way this is too much cheese. Just trust me on this--you don't want to make the same mistake I did.

For those of you with New Years resolutions to eat healthier, I've included the following:

Health information (per sandwich)

Calories: 14 Pi (recall Pi=3.14159265359878....)
Fat: Yes, but only a tiny bit
Trans-fat: No, but only a tiny bit
Protein: Maybe
Carbohydrates: I think so
Vitamins: 114%
Riboflavin: 2 tablespoons
Sodium: Who cares?
Yumminess: 6 (I forget what this is on a scale of)
Weight watcher points: minus 2

--Dustin

Easy Smeasy Pork Chops

When I ate this at Mom's house, she wouldn't even admit there was a recipe, it's so easy.  But I was begging for it cuz it's so yummy.

All you need is pork chops, potatoes, cream of mushroom soup and onion soup mix.  That's IT!

So, if you have pork chops, put them in a 9x13 pan or whatever size works.
Then peel your potatoes and slice them pretty thin...scalloped potato style.
Put a good thick layer of potatoes on top on your pork chops.
Then, stir onion soup mix into your cream of mushroom soup.  (I do one envelope into 2 cans)
And smear that all over the potatoes.

Cook it for 1-2 hours...til it's not pink inside @ 350 or 325 if you want to cook it longer.
Viola!  Yummy yummy meal and only a vegetable to do to make it complete!

Mary's Favorite Brownies!

Mary's Favorite Brownies!
(although she doesn't know what it's like as a single batch, she has only made it quadrupled)

½ cup butter or margarine
¼ cup cocoa

2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup chopped walnuts (Mary only uses Pecans though - cuz' they're better - and from Oklahoma)
1/8 tsp salt

In small saucepan melt butter and cocoa, stirring as it melts. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl beat eggs until frothy. Add sugar, flour, nuts and salt. Don’t stir yet. Then pour cocoa mixture over top and stir all together Scrape batter into greased 8 x 8 – inch pan. Bake in 350 F oven for about 30 minutes until the edges begin to show signs of pulling away from the sides of the pan. Cut into 25 squares when cool. Frost for a more festive occasion.


ICING

1 1/3 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
3 tbsp. butter or margarine
5 tsp hot water

Beat all together, adding more liquid if mixture is too firm to spread easily. Spread over baked brownies. Allow to set before cutting.

One more snack

Here's another snack to give the kids in the afternoon, or when you go to the park, etc...

--Fruit Snacks--

1 package Fruit Snacks (any flavor)

Directions:
1. Tear open plastic package. This can be difficult depending on the brand, and younger children will likely need help. If you are a boy scout who carries the ten essentials, you would of course use your pocketknife. Otherwise, you could use a knife, scissors, nail clippers, a sharp rock, a key, a pen, or anything else handy.

2. Eat fruit snacks one by one. Or stuff them all in your mouth. Either way, YUMMY!

--Dustin
(1 point per package or 2 points per individual fruit snack)

Awesome Healthy Banana Muffins

This recipe is adapted by Manya from Julie Fairbanks. It's WONDERFUL!!

1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt, scant
4 very ripe medium size bananas
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/4 - 1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup pecans

Cream together shortening, sugar and salt. Add mashed bananas, egg, vanilla, cinnamon, soda and powder. Stir. Add Flours and Oatmeal. Stir. Add pecans (if wanted - but I highly recommend it). Mix and put into muffin tins.

Bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy thoroughly - these truly are divine.