Wheat Berry Fruit Jar Salads

 Shonna just keeps coming up with great ideas for these Jar Salads.  She is so inventive and creative.  This one sounds delicious.  Make them one day each week, store them in the fridge, and eat one each day for a week of delicious, healthy lunches. 

Wheat Berry Fruit Jar Salads

Layer in each of 7 quart Mason jars:

Bottom Layer: 1/4 cup cauliflower rice

2L: 1/2 cup wheat berries

3L: 1/2 apple, diced

4L: 1/3 orange, leave in a big chunk and cut up when you eat

5L: Apple juice sweetened craisins ( a handful)

Greens:  Top with spinach to fill the jar- 1 1/2 - 2 cups

Toppings when served: toasted pecans and crumbled feta cheese

Dressing (times this by 3 or 4 for 7 salads)

3 T. extra virgin olive oil

3 T. honey

1 T. apple cider vinegar

1 T. freshly squeezed lemon

1/8 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

OR

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

4 heaping T Dijon

6 T honey or agave

3/4 cup orange juice

zest from 1 orange

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Blend all in a blender, then slowly stream in 1/2 cup olive oil.

Salt and pepper

Or you can just make a big salad and the dressing and serve it to your family.  Michelle did a combination of those ideas.  She served it to her family, then stored the rest in the fridge.  She said this salad was absolutely delicious.  Everyone liked it.  She made the top dressing (above) and loved it.

Plastic containers work too.  

Pazookies

This dessert was introduced to us by a friend (who got it from a restaurant) and has become a family favorite. It has 3 super simple parts:

• Half baked chocolate chip cookie dough, still hot - You can use refrigerated cookie dough or your own favorite cookie dough recipe. I use this oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough for mine.
• Vanilla Ice Cream
• Fudge Sauce - My favorite recipe is here: http://hungryhintons.blogspot.com/2010/10/hot-fudge-sauce.html

Fill 4 (or one for each person are serving) greased ramekins with cookie dough. Bake at 350 until the outside is cooked and the inside is warm and doughy. Remove from oven and let cool for 3-5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat fudge sauce. Scrape sides of ramekin to release cookie and turn cookie onto serving plate. Top with ice cream and hot fudge sauce. Serve immediately.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love this recipe! And the wheat flour and wheat germ make me feel that it is at least a little more healthy without giving up taste.

3 c. flour (I use 1 1/2 cup wheat flour and 1 1/2 cup white flour)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. soda
2 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
2 c. packed brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
3 1/2 c. oats
1/2 c. wheat germ (Optional. Add an extra 1/2 cup of oats if you don't use this.)
1 package chocolate chips

Make dry mixture of flour, salt and soda in a bowl and set aside. Beat shortening, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla together well. Add 4 eggs; beat until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Add oats and wheat germ. Stir in 1 package chocolate chips. Drop batter onto cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Cool on sheets for 2 minutes before placing on wire rack.

Makes 7 dozen. That is a little too much for my family at one time. So I roll the extra cookie dough into balls and place on a cookie sheet. I put the whole cookie sheet in the freezer for about 2 hours, until frozen through. Then I place the cookie dough balls into a gallon size Ziplock bag and store them in the freezer. When ready to use, put as many balls as desired onto greased cookie sheet, let thaw 30 minutes and cook as directed above (Let's be honest. Most the time I pop them in the oven frozen and they taste great.). A quick and easy treat...perfect to use for pazookies.

Best Ever Whole Wheat Pancakes

Today we are celebrating Nathan's 5th birthday. He wanted pancakes for breakfast so I went online searching for a Betty Crocker whole wheat pancake recipe that a friend had told me about. I couldn't find hers (it only had 4 or 5 ingredients), so I tried the recipe found here: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/whole-wheat-buttermilk-pancakes/db6a5c2a-fe7d-49f7-bd7f-af1700c284fe instead. Oh man, were they good. The were crispy on the outside, sweet and delicious in the middle. In fact, they were so good on their own that I skipped the syrup all together. I dipped one bite in the delicious maple goodness and decided that the syrup definitely ruined the pancake...and that isn't like me to say! I usually love pancakes with good homemade maple syrup. I even crave them sometimes. Anyway, this recipe calls for 2 cups buttermilk, which I didn't have on hand, so I substituted 1 cup vanilla yogurt and 1 cup of milk. Delish. They were a little finicky to flip. I had to make sure they were fully cooked and then carefully coax them off the griddle from each side before flipping, but they were worth it. The best part is, with freshly ground whole wheat flour and no syrup they were quite filling (I was surprised with how quickly my kids announced they were full) and a pretty healthy way to start the day. Enjoy!

Mimi's Cafe Honey Bran Muffins

Have you been to Mimi's Cafe and had the Honey Bran Muffin?.  Oh, my, they are good. They are very moist and are delicious, sweet, and ooey -gooey.  Man, they're good.  Did I already say that?  When I saw a recipe on Pinterest that claimed to taste like them, I had to try it.  That recipe was an adaptation of another one, so I went to that link, too.  They are very similar, and I've made my own adaptation of both.  I have no idea if this is really how Mimi makes her muffins, but they taste very much like them.  The great thing is that they get better and better for a few days if stored in a plastic container or ziplock.  They just keep getting gooey-er.  So they are the perfect make ahead for a special breakfast or brunch or they're great with a summer salad or soup dinner.

Mimi's Honey Bran Muffins

1 cup bran (all bran buds)

1/3 cup raisins

1 cup water

Glaze:

3 T. white sugar

3 T. brown sugar, packed

4 T. softened butter

3 T. honey

2 tsp. water

1 cup flour

4 tsp. dry milk powder

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/3 cup brown sugar, tightly packed

 1/4 cup honey

2 T. molasses

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

 1 tsp. (or less) grated orange zest, opt.

In a small saucepan, combine the water, raisins and bran.  Bring to a full rolling boil.  Turn off the heat and let set until somewhat cooled.  

While it cools, make the glaze:  Mix together the sugar, 3 T. brown sugar, butter, 3 T. honey and 2 tsp. water.  Divide the glaze evenly between the 12 muffin cups in a regular sized muffin tin.  Put 1/12 of the mixture in each of the (sprayed) cups.  Use a brush or your fingers to bring some of the glaze up the sides of the cups and spread as evenly as you can.  It doesn't have to be perfect.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, milk, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Make a "well" in the center of the dry mixture and set aside.

Put the raisin/bran mixture in a blender or food processor.  Add the 1/4 cup honey, 1/3 cup brown sugar,molasses, oil, egg, and zest to the blender.  Blend all together.  Scoop the mixture into the well in the dry ingredients and mix just until blended.  Don't overmix.  

Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups.  Bake at 350 for about 18-20 minutes until toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean.  Immediately invert onto a cooling rack or waxed paper to cool.  Store in a tightly sealed container or ziplock bag.

Crazy Whole Wheat Muffins

Moist, sweet, and decidedly delightful, this muffin is more like a cupcake.  Our small family consumed three batches within the past two weeks; that's how good they are.  It whips up in no time with only 6 ingredients to throw in your bowl.  These are the perfect healthy, sweet snack if you ask me.

Crazy Whole Wheat Muffins

1/2 cup oil

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup applesauce

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Mix ingredients together and pour into muffin tins.  Bake for 20 minutes (8 minutes for mini muffins).

Recipe source:  "The Essential Food Storage Cookbook" by Tami Girsbirger and Carol Peterson, one of the most useful, practical, cookbooks that I own.  I recently told my husband that I really ought to start at the beginning and try every recipe in there, since we have really enjoyed every recipe we've tried from it.  

Perfect Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

This is a great recipe. Really, really yummy, sliceable bread. You can use all wheat, all white flour, or a mixture. You can make anything out of this recipe: loaves, rolls, cinnamon rolls, pizza crust, etc. It has a strange ingredient: soy lecithin. It's good for you- it's made from soy beans. I got it at the store where I bought my Bosch mixer, but I think you can get it in health food stores and maybe even grocery stores. It's worth it. It really makes good bread. If you can't find it, you can substitute vegetable oil.

I like to make 3 loaves of bread using all whole wheat flour except 1 cup of white. With the other 1/4 of the dough, I like to make a dozen rolls. I roll them into rolls, put them on a cookie sheet, and freeze them. When they're frozen, put them in a quart bag. Thaw and bake at 350 when double in size. They bake for about 15 minutes. This recipe makes delicious, light rolls. I've also used this recipe for pizza crust and cinnamon rolls.

Bread

Makes 4 loaves

10 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 T. salt

3 T. yeast

Mix these dry ingredients in a bread mixer or by hand in a very large bowl.

Add:

3 T. Lecithin

4 cups hot water

Knead for 5-10 minutes (I do this in my bosch)

Shape into 4 loaves and place into pans.

Allow to rise for 25 minutes.

Bake 25 minutes in a 350 oven.