Dense, Chewy Granola Bars V. 2

I had another go at making a new batch of granola bars for my hubby’s lunch.  The alterations I had made to the original recipe went over well, but I knew that I could make them even healthier.

Enter Version 2.

The raisin bar had over 220 calories per bar.

The new, healthier bar has just about 180 calories.  I think that’s rather good, don’t you?

This bar is just as yummy as the raisin version.  I asked hubby what he wanted in his bars this time around and he said cherries, milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate and almonds.

His wish is my command.

To cut down the fat and calories just a bit, I subbed half the oil for applesauce.  I used one of those little snack-sized cups (4 oz) and it worked out just fine!  I also cut down on the honey, but kept the other quantities the same.

I love how versatile and forgiving this recipe is to changes.  I think I’ll try tweaking it some more next time just to see what I can get away with!

Tart Cherry Chewy Granola Bars with Chocolate Chips

(Note: The original recipe by My Baking Addiction can be found here.  My first attempt to lighten them can be found here.  My alterations to the recipe are in red.)

Ingredients

• 2 cups oats
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons packed Splenda brown sugar
• 1/2 cup wheat bran
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• dash salt
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 4 ounce container of unsweetened apple sauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup dried tart cherries (I cut them in half since mine were large-ish)
• 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I cut these in half as well)
• 2 tbsp milk chocolate chips (that’s all I had!)
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9×13 inch baking pan with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat bran, cinnamon, flour, and salt. Make a well in the center.
3. In a measuring cup, measure honey, egg, oil and vanilla and stir together.  Pour into well in dry ingredients.
4. Mix well with spoon, add in drained raisins, chocolate chips and almonds. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
5. Bake for 30 minutes until the bars begin to turn golden around the edges.
6. Cool on wire rack for about 15 minutes before cutting. Do not allow the bars to cool completely or they will crumble when you try to cut them.

Makes 18 bars

Tea for two – Sally Lunn Bread and My 100

I love bread.

I love a lot of different kinds of breads, biscuits, and rolls.  It might even be more accurate if I said I loved carbs, but that sounds less rustic and exciting.

I love baked goodies.

(There, that covers everything!)

When I traveled to Britain the first time in 2003 to visit my now-hubby, baked goods were at the top of my list for things to eat.  As we dashed from trains and scampered into museums to seek shelter from the rain, we never once happened across a tea shop.  Oddly enough, you’d think you’d be hard pressed NOT to stumble across one tucked into a nook on a side street.

We even stopped by Bath, the home of the famous Sally Lunn bakery and walked right passed (we were running late, again, and it seemed awfully expensive for our meager budget).  Alas, no buns.

Isn't it cute? At least we stopped to take a quick pic.

In later trips, we rectified the no tea dilemma and had many a wonderful tea at kitschy little shops.  I would dollop on thick clotted cream and spread the jam liberally over dense scones.  I indulged in strong, caffeinated teas with cream and sugar.  Luckily for my tummy, we didn’t stay for too long!

Not Sally Lunn's, but this was delicious even though all of the ingredients were ones you could buy yourself.

So, I was quite happy when I came across Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for Sally Lunn Bread.

It was a no-knead bread so it was a chance to tackle another item on MY100 list.  It also contained the bare-minimum in ingredients so I knew that this would be a delicious and easy bread to try out.

Plus, it let me imagine what the bun at Sally Lunn’s might have tasted like if we had only stopped.

This bread is definitely a keeper.  It’s delicious with a slightly cakey crumb.

Apologies for the bad lighting - I took the pic once the sun had set since I do my baking and cooking in the evenings.

It’s a perfect base for jams and spreads and in fact, I had two slices this morning for breakfast – one with Nutella and one with my Spicy Fig Orange Jam.  Both were fantastic!  The bread toasted up rather well, too.  I wasn’t sure if it would hold together since this isn’t really a “sandwich” bread by any means.  It’s more of a dessert bread or a breakfast bread.  Whatever you choose to do with it, it will become a staple in your repetoire.  I know that I’ll be baking this again soon.

Now that I’ve tackled a no-knead bread, I’m looking forward to other no-knead recipes!

Sally Lunn Bread

(Note:  You can find the original recipe at Smitten Kitchen’s site here.  I followed it pretty much exactly as is except for a few alterations.  These alterations will be in red below.)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/8 teaspoon (1/2 packet) active dry yeast (I used the rapid rise variety and followed her directions and it came out just fine)
3/4 cup skim milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk

Directions

• In a large bowl, mix 3/4 cup flour, sugar, salt and dry yeast by hand or with an electric mixer.

• In a saucepan, heat the milk and butter together until the mixture is warm (105 to 110 degrees); don’t worry if thebutter isn’t completely melted. Gradually pour the warm ingredients into the dry mixture and mix with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Add the egg, yolk and another 1/2 cup flour and beat again for 2 minutes by machine. Add the last of the flour and stir with a spoon until smooth.

• Scrape down bowl and cover the top with plastic wrap. Let rise for one hour or until doubled.

It was much hotter outside so I set mine on my porch to rise.

• Meanwhile line 9×5×3-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Once the dough has doubled, scrape it into the prepared pan. Cover with non-stick sprayed plastic wrap and let rise for a total of 30 minutes. After 15 minutes, however, remove the plastic and preheat your oven to 375°F.

• Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. (I only had to bake it for 25 minutes or so and it was done.) The bread should make a hollow sound if tapped with your fingertips.

• Cool in pan for 5 minutes then turn out onto a rack to cool.

Tip:  I cut a few slices to have the next morning and wrapped them in plastic wrap before putting them in an air-tight container.  The rest I sliced and wrapped in plastic wrap and foil before placing them into a freezer bag and popping them in the freezer.  Now when I want a slice, I just have to take one out and heat it up!  It’s the best way to keep bread “fresh” if you aren’t going to eat it all at once.

Eat. Live. Be. for a Better 2011 – iChallenge 30

It’s almost appropriate that this challenge starts a new number cycle – for there are changes afoot!

As I stated in my last ELB challenge post, the women who came up with this wonderful idea and compiled a list of weekly topics have found that it was time for a shake-up.  The community was faltering and many members, while enthusiastic to begin with, began to fall to the wayside.  ELB truly became a “New Year’s Resolution”.

I’ve taken the idea a bit to heart and have stuck with it since January.  I started this year with a new mindset and a new outlook to life, health and beauty that I wanted to cultivate.  I didn’t want to just progress, but grow into a new woman that was ready to tackle life with slightly more wisdom than the naive 20-something I had been up to this point.

Certainly I was tired of being so negative and self-deprecating.

So, I extracted myself from a job that caused me to see myself in a spectrum of negativity, changed my health habits and sought out more of what made me happy.

The ELB weekly challenge topics are now moving to once a month affairs.  This is alright by me, although I believe I’ll stick with my weekly posts.  I find them fulfilling even if all I do is reaffirm that I have been “keeping on” through the previous week with set goals.

To differentiate between my own topics and those set by the group, I’ll be posting my topics as iChallenges. Not only is this a cute use of my name (one can’t skip on that opportunity!), but it reflects the inner me that I want to dig into and find.

So, with that all said, here’s my first ichallenge.

iChallenge 30 Topic: Loving myself – the beginning.

I’m a subscriber to Whole Living magazine. I love the thoughtful articles, the advice on living well and living healthy without being spiritual or fanatic.  I dislike its association with Martha Stewart, but luckily this can be ignored since the magazine doesn’t dwell on that connection.

I was reading an article in the June issue titled “Weightless” by Suzan Colón (page 109).  It was a painful piece about losing a friend to cancer and subsequently losing oneself to a coping mechanism that resulted in an infatuation with health and losing weight.  Another term might be orthoexia – a fixation with healthy eating. (Pollan writes about it in his two books In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma.)

I was moved by her story.  Even though I had started on this road to become healthier and happier, I was finding myself becoming almost paranoid and overly-critical of things that never used to bother me.

Suddenly, looking down at my body was not only a physical action but a figurative one.  I noticed that I felt my best right when I woke up and put on my exercise gear.  It was in the evening when all of my negativity came out and I would find myself gazing at my thighs or at my stomach with a mixture of grim determination and defeat.

One of my original challenges to myself at the start of ELB was to be kinder to myself – to see myself as beautiful and be less critical.   And while I’ve been able to do the more physical goals I had listed, the mental goal was lagging pretty far behind.

That’s where I was when I came across a technique listed in the article called “Loving Kindness Meditation.”

The excerpt in the magazine didn’t describe it very well (it simply stated that to exercise loving kindness, one only had to think positive thoughts about oneself for 10-15 minutes), so I did some searching online and put together the meditative exercise below that I will be practicing every night for 5 – 10 minutes for the first month or so.  I hope to then progress in my exercise beyond this introductory phase, but seeing as how I’ve never mediated before and I want to do this right, I’m going slow.

I did my first session tonight following the practice below and it left me both exhausted and refreshed.  It was an odd state.  I wasn’t quite able to settle the mind except for a few fleeting seconds at a time, but I allowed my breathing to bring me back to myself and my, for a lack of a better word, mantra.  I did yawn a couple of times, though, but it felt cleansing to do so.    I can’t say that I feel all positive and beautiful after my session, but my mind did feel quieter and more sated than before.

I’m looking forward to logging my practice here.

Loving Kindness Meditation Practice

(Note: I cobbled together the exercise below after reading the information found on the Buddhanet.net and Wildmind.org sites.  I’m not a practicing Buddhist by any means nor do I have any training.   Go read the sites for a more structured exercise and for more information.)

• Sit down on a soft carpet on the floor with back supported and legs crossed.
• Place hands gently on legs and close eyes. (Keep head upright but don’t be afraid to let it relax slightly if the body desires it.)
• Begin breathing in slowly yet deeply.  Expand the chest and then breathe out completely.  Keep breathing while thoughts begin scattering across your mind.  Let them, but also recognize them as distractions and try to let them go (this is HARD and I wasn’t really successful, but I tried).
• After a while, begin reciting the following (I took this from the Buddhanet.net site here.)

May I be free from enmity.

May I be free from mental suffering.

May I be free from physical suffering.

May I take care of myself happily.

• Between each phrase, pause for a few breaths before beginning the next.  Allow yourself to absorb the phrase.
• Repeat the entire thing twice.
• Slowly lift the head, adjust the shoulders and open eyes.