Homemade Chewy Granola Bars

I love granola bars. I especially love those ones that come two to a pack - the crunchy oats and honey ones? I always try and tell myself that I am being so healthy, but I know in my heart of hearts that I am really just eating a couple of nice crunchy cookies. Just keeping it real.

However, that doesn't keep me from eating them, and so I was happy to discover this recipe for homemade granola bars on CHOW (and if you don't know this very fun foodie website, you should check it out). Not only does this recipe make pretty great granola bars, but it is a great way to use up those odds and ends of nuts and raisins and seeds and perhaps even chocolate chips that are hanging around in almost-empty bags in your cupboard. If you are anything like me.

The trick with this recipe is to cut up them up into bars while they are still warm, so they don't harden into crunchiness and then break into a million pieces when you try to slice them up. I learned this lesson the hard way when I made my cashew brittle chunks. Give the tray about 10 or 15 minutes on the cooling rack once you take it out of the oven and then cut them into bars or squares or whatever you like. (I like bars, but that's just me.)

Here's the super-easy recipe.

Homemade Chewy Granola Bars, adapted from CHOW

Combine 3 cups rolled oats, 4 cups assorted mix-ins (nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips, dried coconut, wheat germ, or whatever similar ingredients you have on hand), , 1/8 cup of molasses, and a can of sweetened condensed milk. Press into a greased pan and bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is lightly browned. Cool on a rack and cut after about 10-15 minutes.

Click here for printable recipe

Monster Cookies!

This one comes courtesy of my friend L, who is as sweet as these cookies. We had them at our little Super Bowl shindig recently, and people who never eat dessert (you know who you are!) ate them. People who always eat dessert ate them. People ate them before, during and after dinner. Let's just say they were a monster hit.

So of course I cornered her and pleaded shamelessly for the recipe. And unlike some of my other sweet friends (you know who you are!) she happily handed it over. And when I looked it over, I realized that the recipe is almost as fun as the cookies. It's a mix and match approach, and what I mean by that this this: You start with a cookie dough base made up of butter, sugar, flour, peanut butter and oatmeal. Then you get to pick THREE of the following to mix in....

Walnuts. (Although I'm sure if you are a pecan or an almond person, those would be okay too.)

Chocolate chips. The old classic.

Butterscotch chips. Love 'em.

Peanut butter chips. Yes, I know they look just like the butterscotch ones. You will just have to trust me on this, and know that I sampled both chips carefully, all in the name of science.

M&Ms. Mmmmmmmm&Ms. Yum.

Raisins. I gotta tell you, with the other choices, I am afraid for the raisins. Hang in there raisins, I am sure there are some healthy people out there who will pick you and the walnuts.

Once you have made your final selection, you mix 'em into to your cookie dough, bake them, put them on a plate, and stand back. Now as for the recipe below, I have not changed one word of it because I would not want to mess with perfection, and because I think the color commentary in there is just classic. L has many, many sisters, and clearly the configuration of the monster cookies is a point of family debate in her house. I see that the amounts of the mix-ins are left up to the baker to play with. I also see that L went with not three of the mix-in choices but FOUR. This is why I love this girl.

Monster Cookies. No Fear.

MONSTER COOKIES!

Preheat oven: 350˙ | Prep: 20 minutes | Cooking: 8-10 minutes | Cooling: 15 minutes
| Eating: 2-3 minutes

2 sticks of butter, softened
2 cups of white sugar
2 1/2 cups of brown sugar
6 eggs
3 cups of creamy peanut butter (one sister uses crunchy, I don't know what the difference is)
9 cups of oatmeal

Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add peanut butter, stir in oatmeal.

Add: Choose three:

Milk chocolate chips
Butterscotch chips
Baking M&M's
Peanut butter chips
Raisins
Walnuts

I use: 3/4 bag of butterscotch chips, 1/2 bag chocolate chips, 1/3 bag peanut butter chips, 1 cup of walnuts. People seem to like the butterscotch taste. My sister uses: 2 cups of chocolate chips, 1/2 lb mini M&M's and then picks one or two of the others, adding amounts to her taste. But what does she know?!

Click here for printable recipe

Applesauce Cookies

Yes yes, it is no longer cookie-baking season, I know, I know. But I just can't go cold turkey. I have to ease my way into healthiness...and so here is what I consider a nice, heathy....cookie. It has applesauce. It has oatmeal. It has raisins. It is a one-cookie healthy eating program. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

One little word of caution about these delicious little numbers. I'm not sure why, but they are VERY sticky on the bottom. You will be a-okay if you use parchment paper like the recipe says, but if you throw caution to the wind and just use a naked cookie sheet, it might end in tears. I used my faithful Silpat and they even tried to stick to that. Tried and failed, because the Silpat is invincible. But consider yourself warned.

Aside from that, these were easy and cooperative little cookies, right down to the maple frosting. I used a little squeeze bottle to frost mine, but you could also use my favorite make-shift-frosting trick, which is to put the frosting into a zipper sandwich bag, close the zipper (very important), snip one of the corners off -- just a tiny snip -- and voila! instant pastry bag!

So there you have them, the healthiest cookie on the block. I think you owe it to yourself to go make some, don't you think?

APPLESAUCE COOKIES, from Everyday Foods

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup chunky-style applesauce
• 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1. Make cookies: Preheat oven to 350. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until combined. Add egg and applesauce, mix until well blended, 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix in raisins.
2. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake cookies until golden and just set, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack set over parchment paper; let cool completely.
3. Make icing: Whisk confectioners' sugar, syrup, and 3 tablespoons water until smooth. Drizzle over cookies, let set.

Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies with Rum Raisin Filling

My brother and his lovely wife host Thanksgiving dinner for our noisy lovable family -- God bless him -- and every year I beg him for a little assignment, just so I can hold my head up. I mean, what self-respecting food blogger would sail through Thanksgiving without, um...cooking something? So this year he asked me to bring a dessert, which aside from bacon is my favorite thing to make in the kitchen. I knew my sister-in-law would be making her scrumptious and classic pumpkin pie, so I wanted to make something that would be a little different, but still sort of holiday-ish.

Then as luck would have it, my Southern husband brought home a copy of the 2009 edition of CHRISTMAS WITH SOUTHERN LIVING. And along with a variety of other recipes that I just might try over the holidays, it included this recipe for oatmeal sandwich cookies that are held together with a rum raisin cream filling. Now, I know my dad is a serious rum raisin fan, and the Southern husband is a big oatmeal cookie fan, and so it all seemed like fate to me.

Now I should warn you that these cookies are serious cookies. They are LARGE cookies. They are actually TWO large cookies stuffed with 3 tablespoons each of rum raisin filling. You could eat one today and not be hungry again until next Tuesday. But man! they are good. And Thanksgiving...heck, the whole holiday season...is when you are supposed to cut loose and eat giant rum-stuffed cookies? Right? Right. So go make them...you know you want to.

OATMEAL SANDWICH COOKIES WITH RUM RAISIN FILLING, adapted from 2009 Christmas with Southern Living

Cookies:

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 cups regular uncooked oats
• 3/4 cups chopped pecans

Filling:

• 1 3 oz package cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 tablespoons dark rum
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1pound package confectioner's sugar
• 1 1/2 cups raisins

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Beat butter, shortening, corn syrup and sugar on medium speed until fluffy. Add egg and almond extract and beat until blended
3. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and cloves and gradually add to butter mixture. Stir in oats and pecans.
4. Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Press down on each ball to flatten slightly.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden. Cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes, then remove to wire rack and cool completely.
6. While cookies are cooling, make rum raisin filling. Beat cream cheese at medium speed until creamy Add milk, rum, vanilla and salt and beat until blended
7. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until completely combined. Stir in raisins.
8. Spread 2-3 tablespoons of filling on cookie bottom and sandwich with another cookie. Repeat until all cookies are used.
9. Close your eyes, take a bite and smile a really, really big smile.

Click here for printable recipe

Israeli Couscous with Green Beans, Feta and Pistachios

There is something about the word couscous that just makes me happy. I have no idea why. Usually when you think of couscous (which I'm sure you do all the time) you are thinking of the teeny tiny pastina-like version, and I do love that kind. But this recipe calls for Israeli couscous, which is the larger, pearl-sized version. It's a bit more substantial when you are making it with other, chunkier ingredients that tend to overwhelm the regular itsy-bitsy couscous. (Let's see how many times I can say couscous in this post, shall we?)

This 15 minutes or less recipe is terrific as a side dish to grilled chicken or steak, but can also stand perfectly well on its own as a light lunch or supper. And it is healthyhealthyhealthy. And very beautiful too, with the green beans and cucumbers and the golden raisins all mixing up there with the cheese and the couscous.

This is another speedy recipe adapted from EVERYDAY FOOD magazine, which I continue to get so many great ideas from. Make sure you get some nice soft feta for this one -- it's worth going to the cheese or deli counter at your market to get the nicer feta, if you can. And of course, fresh green beans.

Happy couscous, everyone. (That's seven!)

ISRAELI COUSCOUS WITH GREEN BEANS, FETA AND PISTACHIOS

• 1 1/2 cups Israeli couscous
• 1/2 pound green beans, stems removed and cut in half
• 1 English cucumber, quartered lengthwise and sliced
• 1 cup crumbled feta
• 1/2 cup shelled pistachios
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Cook couscous in boiling salted water for 4 minutes. Add beans and cook an additional 2 minutes. Drain and run under cool water until cool.

2. Transfer to large bowl and toss with remaining ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Click here for printable recipe