Millet Granola with Currants and Dates

I may have stopped writing about food but I haven't stopped cooking and eating.  I'll never stop eating.  For a while I stockpiled photos on my computer with the plan of one day becoming a regular blogger but hey, let's face it.  I didn't.  I deleted all those photos because I don't write down recipes and I didn't even know what half of them were.  Now I suppose it's time to start fresh.  I have new good intentions and hopefully enough motivation to actually do this.  Time to follow through.

My mom made a lot of granola for us when I was growing up.  I didn't like it.  There was something about the flavor or texture or who knows what that somewhat repulsed me.  I've never been one for cereal or granola but lately I've come to love Trader Joe's Cashew Ginger Granola with some good ol' plain non-fat yogurt.  The plain yogurt cuts the sweet granola (I tasted the granola alone and thought it was much too sweet), the chunks of ginger add a pleasant zing, and overall it's healthy and filling and easy to bring to work.  That's what got me started on granola.  Since then I've bought a few kinds and posted a number of recipes on Pinterest.  But now it's time to follow through (my new theme of sorts).  Time to make my own.

My friend Jessica introduced me to granola made with millet and now I think of it as a crispy crunchy granola staple.  It adds one more dimension of deliciousness.  My favorite thing about granola is that the options are endless.  I'm a huge proponent of throwing everything one can find into whatever one is cooking.  And that's exactly what I plan on doing with my granola.  Tonight's creation: classic oats and millet with what I found in the pantry: almonds, dried currants, and dried dates.

Millet Granola with Almonds, Currants, and Dates

 3-4 cups old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup millet

1/2 cup (a good handful) slivered almonds

1 Tbsp flax seeds

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup mixture of honey, molasses, and orange juice 

(other options include: agave nectar, different juice flavors {or get creative and try things like coffee or rum}, corn syrup {only if you're nasty}, or maple syrup)

a good handful of dried currants

a good handful of chopped dates

Step A: Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  

Step B: Mix together all your dry ingredients 

(excluding the currants and dates- though I'm not sure if they would be considered dry or sticky)

Step C: Whisk together the sticky ingredients.  

Step D: Drizzle the sticky stuff over the dry ingredients and mix well.  

Step E: Spread your granola on a cookie sheet and bake for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  

Step F: Mix in the dried fruits and return to the oven for a few more minutes.  Basically until everything is lovely and golden brown.  

It's so easy.  It's so good.  And super cost effective because all of the ingreds are pretty reasonable and store bought granola is expensiver than cereal.  So please always make your own.  Love, Rachel

Banana Oat Cookies

November and December were cookie months in my household.  With the thought of Christmas coming and a lot of time on my hands, I decided it'd be a good idea to try out as many cookie recipes as I could handle.  So I went to the library and got Betty Crocker's cookie cookbook.  There were dozens of wonderful sounding recipes but my budget, schedule, and stomach couldn't accommodate all the ones I wanted to try.  There's always an abundance of frozen rotten bananas in our freezer so I decided to make cookies using them rather than the standard banana bread way of getting rid of them.

I forgot to take pictures of the entire process but hey, they're cookies; nothing very epic. 

1 cup sugar

1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 medium)

¾ cup butter or margarine, softened

1 egg

2 ½ cups quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats

1 cup AP flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground allspice         

Heat oven to 350 F. Grease cookie sheet. Beat sugar, bananas, butter, and egg in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed or with a spoon. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Drop by rounded tbsp about 2 inches apart onto cookie sheet (or make balls). Bake 10 minutes. Cool 1 to 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost with vanilla frosting.

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 ½ tsp vanilla

2 to 5 tbsp milk

Mix all ingredients until smooth and spreadable. 

Frosting note: You could probably get away with only making half a batch depending on how badly you want diabetes.  I also used a can/jar of store bought frosting the second time I made these and it worked well also.  I wouldn't recommend store buying when you can make your own but it saves some time.

These are (I think I can safely add 'easily' here) my favorite cookies ever.  I love a good oatmeal cookie and these are just that.  Throw in a little banana for a slightly more complex flavor and also a potassium punch and top with extra sugar; you can't go wrong with these little gems!  These cookies were such a hit with everyone who tried them.  The second time I made them I added some chocolate chips to half of the batch.  I'm not a chocolate fan so I don't know how they were but my friends liked them a lot.