School Bake-cation Week

Like any teacher, I take advantage of school vacation weeks to rest, relax, sleep in, and completely detach from any responsibility.

Oh, wait.

I have children.

And pretty much no teacher does that anyway.

I am making the most out of this week, though, by finding as many easy recipes as possible that we can make throughout the week so that we can have yummy, healthful meals and convenient snacks.

Here are some of our favorite recipes from the week:

Snacks

Granola Bars (adapted from Minimalist Baker)

1.5c rolled oats
1c chopped cashews (or any nuts)
1/2c coconut (optional)
1c pitted dates
1/4c honey (or maple syrup, or other liquid sweetener)
1/4c peanut butter (or any nut butter)

You can really add anything else you want - chocolate chips, raisins, or other dried fruit. I can see myself making lots of different variations on these.

Preheat the oven to 350. Toast the oats, nuts, and coconut for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Process the dates in the food processor until they come together in a ball. Put the toasted mixture in a bowl with the dates. Heat the honey and peanut butter on the stovetop, then pour it over the top of the rest of the ingredients. Get your hands in there and mix it up really well. Press it into a parchment-lined pan and chill.

Sweet & Salty Crackers (adapted from Against All Grain)

1 cup almond flour
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons cold water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons dried apricots
3 teaspoons roasted salted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Preheat the oven to 350 and mix everything but the last tablespoon of pepitas in a food processor until a moist, slightly chunky dough forms. It probably won't come all the way together into a ball. This probably took about a minute. Add the rest of the pepitas and process until you're satisfied with the consistency.

Remove the dough, make it into a ball, and place it between 2 sheets of parchment paper to roll out. Make it pretty thin - I did 1/16-1/8". Cut as desired, top with salt if you wish, and bake on 350 until desired crispiness is reached, about 5 minutes for the thinner ones and 8-9 minutes for the thicker ones.

Paleo Sandwich Bread

We used this recipe from Against All Grain. It didn't rise or really turn out looking anything like the photo on the site; more like a nutty banana or zucchini loaf. It's great with some salted butter, but I'm not sure I'd be able to eat anything sandwich-y on it. Munchkin loved it!

Then we used this recipe from Elana's Pantry. We are waiting to try this one, but I'm excited for it!

Chocolate. Wow.

OK Maybe I just made this for myself. ButterBeliever has a great recipe for coconut oil chocolate. I sweetened with honey. (Some say pretty much no honey is corn-safe, but I have used it in many recipes.) I also added Madagascar vanilla, because I decided the Ghirardelli cocoa powder had so many declared cross-contaminants, it was bound to have corn - so Baby Bear doesn't get any. The chocolate came out melt-in-your-mouth fudgy and it will not last long in my fridge!

In the future I will use safe cocoa, safe-as-I-can-find honey, and homemade vanilla. And I bet it'll be even better.

Entrees

Slow-Cooker Fajita Chicken

Butterfly a chicken breast and rub it with taco seasoning. Place it in the slow cooker with 1/2c water and fresh salsa, peppers and onions. Cook 6-8 hours. Serve with super-simple rice and beans, which you can find here. This time I added some lime juice. I wanted to add cilantro as well, but since it was glistening in the produce section, I presumed it had been sprayed with something corny and stayed away from it.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

We are going to use the same recipe we used here, but since we are trying to use fewer grains we tried almond and coconut flour instead of wheat flour. Almond was the winner!

Ravioli with Meatballs

This was truly a labor of love. The ravioli recipe from Taste of Home is great, but very time-consuming. It is next to impossible to get the pasta sheets thin enough with a mere rolling pin. Before I attempt this recipe again, I will be investing in either a pasta roller or a ravioli filler for our stand mixer. The meatballs and sauce are a family recipe, so I won't be sharing those here!

Bacon Wrapped Apple Chicken

From Wellness Mama. Stupid easy and SO tasty. At this point we had pretty much given up on the idea of Baby Bear eating anything we went to the trouble of making, so we just used the barbecue sauce we had. But, I am pretty sure we could whip up a homemade corn-free barbecue sauce for this.