Monday, September 14, 2015

Cinnamon Oatmeal Raisin Bars

These bars are tasty. They are similar to baked oatmeal, but hold together well. They are made with simple, healthy ingredients and it makes a large panful. I might try using honey or brown sugar in place of the maple syrup next time, but the maple syrup ones were delicious. I  haven't had great success with homemade granola bars, but I think these are a good substitute.


Cinnamon Raisin Snack Bars  from Real Food Real Deals via SunMaid

2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup applesauce
2/3 cup maple syrup
1 t. vanilla extract
3 cups rolled oats
2 t. baking powder
1.5 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 cup raisins (I didn't use Sun-Maid...gasp!)

Combine wet ingredients in one bowl and dry ingredients in another bowl, then combine. Stir in raisins, then transfer to a greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Cool for a few minutes before cutting into bars.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Fresh Tomato Spaghetti Sauce

I finally made a couple things worth sharing.  I'll start with this one since you may also be looking for a way to use your abundant tomatoes. We had a bowlful, so I broke one of my own cooking rules and made spaghetti sauce from scratch. It wasn't too bad to make and the sauce turned out pretty well. Lauren had thirds.

Since I had tomatoes and basil in the garden, I doled out the 99 cents for fresh parsley (by the way, what else do I make with fresh parsley?).  The recipe is from food.com, but I don't feel like looking for the link. I found it by doing a Bing search for spaghetti sauce with fresh tomatoes.


Fresh Tomato Spaghetti Sauce

4 lbs fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 medium onions, chopped (I'd peel them too)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
4 sprigs parsley
1 tablespoon sugar
grated parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in a large iron skillet or heavy saucepan. Add onion, basil, garlic, and salt; saute until onion is tender, 5-7  minutes. Add tomatoes, parsley, and sugar; heat to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for about 2 hours, stirring often, or until sauce has thickened. Remove parsley. (Edited to add: at this point, I used an immersion blender to mostly puree the sauce so it was smoother and more like jarred spaghetti sauce.) Serve over spaghetti or other Italian pasta and top with Parmesan cheese.

I read another recipe that said to add half a carrot to reduce the acidity of the tomatoes and add some sweetness, so I did that, and I thought the sauce was almost too sweet. If you do that, I would reduce the sugar a bit.