Power Bars

Here's another good freezer recipe - that is, if you open my freezer at any given time you would find either muffins or these Power Bars from Canadian Living. I saw them made on Best Recipes Ever a few summers back, when I was watching lots of daytime TV, and thought they would make a great snack. These are definitely not dessert - despite being full of sugar they aren't very sweet. But they are perfect for a good hit of energy in the afternoon, or before a workout (that advice is from the TV hostess, not me, HAHA).

First the dry ingredients. Two cups whole wheat flour (I usually use 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup oats), 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup skim milk powder (this you have to buy at the bulk store, but could probably leave out, as it's just there for extra protein), 1/4 cup wheat germ (I don't usually have this, so I leave it out or throw in some ground flax) and 1 tsp baking powder. Then comes the fun part - mixing your choice of dried fruits, nuts and seeds. For this batch I used 1/2 cup each chopped dried apricot, dried cranberries, raisins and sunflower seeds.

The wet ingredients are particularly yummy - 2 eggs, 1/2 cup oil (I had to use olive oil because I was out of canola, oh well!), 1/2 cup molasses and 1/3 cup (natural, obvs, so it needs a few seconds in the microwave) peanut butter. Yes, I buy molasses pretty much solely for this recipe, and it's delicious. It tastes just like those cheap candies they used to give out at Halloween in the orange wrappers that no one liked at the time but I would totally eat now.

Now you give your arm a bit of a workout stirring all of this deliciousness together. It is super thick and sticky. I advise using parchment paper in the 8x8" pan for easy lifting once they're cooked. Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. And unlike brownies or cake, cut these into pretty small squares. The pan should yield about 20 at least. They're hefty little things. Not overly sweet, but with a rich molasses taste to them, and studded through with fruit and seeds. Way better than store-bought power bars or granola bars.

Potato Salad

Potato salad is one of those side dishes that I liked as a kid - though my parents rarely bought the grocery store deli counter or pre-packaged stuff. I just knew it was my pick over coleslaw (bleh). I don't know why I didn't think earlier to make it myself - perhaps the idea of potatoes and mayonnaise was too rich for every day cooking? Well, when I saw this recipe for Eggy Potato Salad with Pickles from Bon Appetit last summer I figured, what was I waiting for? It's summer and I want the pickles, the egg, everything!

First - potatoes. We don't really eat potatoes on a regular basis in this household - I think we both grew up with bland boiled potatoes as a side to chicken or steak or whatever. But now we do - the magic of summer picnic fare. I buy white mini potatoes and quarter them (they cook faster), then boil them until they're done. This time I used about 16.



Bon Appetit suggests you mix them with red onion and parsley, which sounds pretty good. This time I cut diced some red pepper - it's healthy and adds colour. I also diced two pickles and added them right in as well, because pickles are delicious. And don't forget two diced hard-boiled eggs. The magazine suggest only using the yolks - I don't want to be wasteful so I use the whites too.


The dressing, however, is the best part: 1/4 cup mayo, 1/8 cup pickle juice (right from the jar! So salty and sour!), 1 Tbsp Dijon for flavour, 1/2 tsp sugar, pepper and lots of paprika - any mix of sweet, hot and smoked, I have all three. But beware - I was a little too liberal this time and the salad took on a pinkish hue. Don't bother adding more salt - the pickles are salty enough.

And there you have it, the perfect side dish for (veggie) burgers! Be warned - this stuff is addictive. You won't be able to stop making it.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here it is, guys: the gold standard of cookies. Seriously. They are thick and chewy and sweet and amazing. I'm not a big cookie maker but I am so glad I found Michael Smith's (ie Chef at Home's) Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe because it's unbelievably good and totally fool-proof. Unfortunately I've not made many things from my (*ahem* signed) copy of The Best of Chef at Home but this page is definitely a little greasy. That and the pancake page.

I made them this time for Easter to have with the lime-coconut bars I've already written about. Instead of my usual milk-chocolate chips, I used cut-up mini eggs to be festive. Mmm chocolate and crunchy candy shell! First sift the dry ingredients: 1.5 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.




In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup butter with 1 cup brown sugar. I always do it by hand and it's not too difficult. Add 1 egg, 1 Tbsp corn syrup (I use honey), 1 tsp vanilla (I follow his own advice and double it). Stir in the flour mixture in three parts and then stir in 1 cup chocolate chips/M & M's/anything you want.

Roll the dough into balls and bake exactly as it says, @375 for 12 minutes for big, chewy, sugary cookies. It pretty consistently makes exactly 18 of them too. He's a genius!

Coconut-Spiked Squash Soup

This "elegant" butternut squash soup recipe comes from the awesome LCBO Food and Drink magazine (Holidays 2012). But if by "elegant" they mean ridiculously easy, well then, I agree! I chose this Coconut-Spiked Squash Soup recipe because I wanted to try out some of my new kitchen tools - my scale and immersion blender!

First up was weighing the ancient butternut squash I had lying around the kitchen floor. Good thing I had my trusty kitchen scale - turns out it was only about half the size as the recipe called for! Perhaps because it was on the wee side, or because it was so old the innards were a little shriveled. Either way I augmented the recipe with some turnips I had in the fridge.



In a large Dutch oven I melted 2 Tbsp butter, but also added 2 Tbsp olive oil - I find mixing the two works better. I threw in two chopped onions for about 5 minutes, then threw in the cubed/peeled/seeded butternut squash as well as three dicd turnips. The broth is made from one carton of chicken stock and one can of coconut milk (yummmm) so I added that and boiled it for about 20 minutes until everything was cooked.

So it's not the most complicated soup - no extra spices or anything. But it's rich and sweet. You can toast coconut flakes and sprinkle them on top for some texture and extra coconut flavour. And, if you're me, you can attempt to use your new immersion blender! It worked okay, I kept hitting the bottom of the pot and got a little worried, and there were still some big chunks left, but definitely easier than transferring hot soup to the blender and back. Less mess.