Chocolate Granola Bars

Here’s what you need:

• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
• 1/3 cup local honey
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup oats (not quick oats)
• 2 tablespoons wheat germ
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (Mini work best, but it doesn’t really matter.)

What to do:

1. Melt the butter, peanut butter and honey in a pot over medium to low heat, stirring constantly. Turn off the burner when melted.

2. Pour in the cup of oats and the wheat germ. Stir til combined.

3. Wait til it cools and stir in the coconut and chocolate chips. Or, if you’re impatient with things like this, like I am, go ahead and dump it all right in. The result will be a more uniform chocolate taste.

4. Pour into foil-lined 8 X 8 pan and stick in the fridge.

5. Once cooled, flip out (the bars….not you) onto cutting board and cut to the size you like.

I pulled this recipe from a website. -Tressia

Pumpkin Muffins

mix together
2 c white wheat flour
1/3 c sugar
1 T baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1 t ginger
1/2 t salt
In a blender combine:
3/4 c pumpkin puree
1 egg
2/3 c milk
3 T oil
1 t vanilla
Mix wet and dry ingredients until just moistened
stir in 1/2 c chocolate chips
makes 12 average size muffins
bake at 350 for 15 min.

Applesauce Cookies

Another of Grandma Knapp's recipes with a few alterations by me

measure 2 c applesauce and place 2 t baking soda on top
in mixer cream:
3/4 c. canola oil
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
add applesauce and
1 t each - cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg
6 c flour
2 c chocolate chips

bake at 400, 10 min.

Cinnamon Orange Carrot Muffins

I stole this from the blog simplepeasantfood.blogspot.com, a really fun blog! I haven't tried these, but they sound really good!

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (use hard white wheat. trust me.)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt 
1 heaping Tbs corn starch (omit if using white flour)

sift together and add: 

1 1/2 cups  pureed carrot (2-3 large carrots)
2 Tbs orange juice concentrate (undiluted)
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs

A good tip: put all the wet ingredients into the blender or food processor, see how much it measures, then add chunks of carrot and puree until you have 1 1/2 cups more.  Most blenders have measurements on the side, so it's easy to figure out how much carrot to add.

Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups (I like to use the cupcake liners) and bake at 350 for about 17 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I like to mix a little orange juice with powdered sugar and a pinch of salt to make a quick glaze for these muffins, but plain old butter works too. Or jam. Or both. Mmmmm.