Homemade granola bars

I found a bag of marshmallows in the pantry today, along with a big box of rice cereal. I was so tempted to make rice krispie treats, but instead I made some healthy homemade granola bars.

Here's what I threw into mine....however you can play around with ingredients, this is just what I had in the house. To make it even healthier, you could omit the butter and use Kashi or another healthier cereal instead of the rice krispies. Any kind of nut would also be a good addition.

Peanut Butter Oat Bars
based on this recipe from suite101.com

3 1/2 cups puffed rice cereal
3 c quick-cooking oats
3 oz raisins
1/4 c toasted pumpkin seeds
1/4 c craisins
1/2 c almond butter
1/2 c peanut butter
1/4 c maple syrup
1/4 c honey
2 TB butter

Spray a 13 x 9 pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Mix puffed rice cereal, oats, raisins, craisins, and pumpkin seeds. Heat peanut butter, maple syrup, honey and butter on medium-low heat for a few minutes, until melted. Stir. Pour over cereal mixture. Stir to coat. Press mixture into prepared pan using your hands. Freeze 30 minutes. Cut into bars. Keep refrigerated.

Makes 16 bars, 235 calories each.

Frozen yogurt and chile relleno casserole

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt from David Lebovitz
1/2 c for 127 calories

Chile Relleno Casserole from Peertrainer.com
6 servings for 288 calories each

I first tasted Pinkberry frozen yogurt when my family visited Hollywood two summers ago. Since then we have tried to find a frozen yogurt that is comparable. The frozen yogurt with berries at Central Market comes pretty close. Well then I found this recipe, and this is the closest thing yet.

I will definitely make this again, and double it, because there was not enough to go around with 7 people. I will use a little less sugar next time. We topped ours with white chocolate chips, but pretty much any fruit, nut, or chocolate topping will taste good with this yogurt.

The chile relleno casserole was a recipe that I found randomly, when I was looking for tips on how to make a low-calorie chile relleno. (Although it's made from a very large chile, at Mexican restaurants it's usually stuffed brimming, overflowing with cheese....and usually has at least 600 calories.) I've never heard of peertrainer.com but this recipe was good, so I might look to see if they have other tantalizing recipes.

Mango mousse

Mango Mousse from About.com

This is a pretty healthy dessert, definitely a good alternative to ice cream. I'm going through a mango phase, so I wanted to try a mango dessert.

I can't remember exactly how many calories are in this, but you can get a large portion for about 200 calories I think. I would say the key to success is to get very ripe mangoes. Ours weren't quite ripe enough, so the mousse turned out a little sour. If you use very ripe mangoes, then you could use less of the confectioner's sugar. One other note is that I used low-fat whipped topping instead of the whipping cream, so that cuts down the calories as well. Sprinkle some nutmeg or cinnamon on top.

Spinach soup and sourdough

Spinach & Zucchini Soup from 101 Cookbooks

Finally got around to making this soup... It was different than I expected. I mean, it was good, but I guess I expected it to be creamier....even though it doesn't have cream in it. I don't know, ok!? But it was very good, and I added some red pepper flakes and jalapeno to give it some oomph. Sourdough slices were dusted with olive oil and Italian spices and broiled.

The recipe makes 6 servings, with about 90 calories a piece. (Awesome!)

Roasted Grape salad / Eggplant sandwich

Grape Salad from Myrecipes


Eggplant Sandwich from Allrecipes


You know when you don't eat grapes in time, and they lose their crunchiness? Well yesterday I had a bagful of such grapes. They just weren't fit to eat by themselves. I have really been into roasting vegetables lately, and I thought...why not roast grapes?

Well, I googled it and sure enough, there were directions. I knew it wasn't crazy. Toss the grapes in a little olive oil and a pinch of salt, and bake on 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes. I tasted one right after they came out of the oven - they taste surprisingly like a cherry cobbler.

I found the above recipe for a grape salad, and I simply omitted the chicken and used the roasted grapes instead of fresh.
If you use these on a salad, though, be careful because they retain a lot of juice. To avoid a soggy salad, you'd probably do best to add them on top of each salad portion, instead of mixing them into the bowl.

My sister made the eggplant, and it was yummmmy. I ate mine in a pita instead of the bun.

Breakfast Pita pocket

This is kind of a homemade version of a breakfast lean pocket, if you've ever tried one. I used to make these at the dorm cafeteria all the time, and it's really easy. Actually, I feel a little silly even explaining it, it's that easy.


Take half a pita and line it with the cheese.
Scramble an egg and heat up the sausage
(You can also use turkey bacon instead of sausage.
You can make this vegetarian by using veggie sausage links,
doubling the cheese or using veggies...potatoes, onions
and/or tomatoes come to mind.)
Put the egg in the pita.
Chop up the sausage.
Put it in the pita.
EASY.

I also grilled mine on the George Foreman to make it extra crispy.

Pepper and goat cheese frittata

I decided to make another frittata using this for general instructions. As you can tell, this frittata isn't quite as purple as the other one. ;)

This time I used sauteed onions and green bell pepper, green chiles, red pepper flakes, roasted cherry tomatoes, and a "spring" mixture of lettuces (romaine, swiss chard, etc).


I also added more goat cheese than last time (a hard, "drunken" goat cheese, and also a soft, pepper goat cheese).


Topped it with some toasted pine nuts and it was done.

This is a great recipe to experiment with. The egg base is easy to make, and you can add whatever toppings you're in the mood for.