Awesome Easy Super Yummy Energy Bars

This past weekend I was looking for an easy, yummy and of course healthy energy bar recipe.  The energy bars or cereal bars or granola bars you buy at the grocery store are always loaded with sugar, chemicals, preservatives, and junk that I hate buying them and feeding them to my family. 

I found this awesome recipe and I wish it was mine but it was not.  This recipe is courtesy of Nuturing Naturally.  You can better believe that I will check out their website for other ideas.  Here is the best energy bar recipe every!  Just try and not eat the whole batch at once.

Energy Bars
1 C all natural peanut butter (just peanuts and salt - nothing else)
1 C raw honey
1 C old-fashioned oats
1 C chopped dried fruit (cranberries, blueberries, apricots, raisins, etc) (I used cranberries.)
1/2 C chopped walnuts
1/2 C chopped almonds

Combine peanut butter and honey in a pot and heat until runny.  Mix in oats, fruit and nuts.  Stir until well coated.  Line 9×9 inch pan with waxed paper.  Press into pan and let cool.  Cut into squares and enjoy.

Best Brownies EVER

The other night Joe wanted dessert so I went online and I found this brownie recipe from Kelly the Kitchen Kop.  I also made her homemade hot fudge sauce to go with the brownies.  These brownies were so wonderful I cannot tell you how good they were and NOTHING came from a box!  Check out her recipes and her blog.  She is also offering an online Real Food For Rookies Class if you are interested in eating more real food and less processed food.

Farmer's Cheese and Yogurt and Spelt Crackers

Joe and I have started making lots of things from scratch.  No more rice mixes, pasta mixes, store bought yogurt or even bread.  We have also started purchasing raw milk from a local farm.  The raw milk has so many more nutrients that pasturiezed milk no longer has because it has been heated to high temperatures.  We have been thinking about buying raw milk for a while but after viewing this blogpost, by the Cheeseslave, we decided that we had to start buying raw milk. 

My friend, Jen, is the creator of Nourished Kitchen.  Her food philosphy and the Cheeseslaves' is based off of Weston Price Foundation.  By Jen following this food philosphy she has helped her herself and her husband cure mental illness, chronic pain, Celiac Disease, PCOS, and Autoimmune Thyroid Disease.  Take a minute to read their stories - they are amazing.  Jen's story is here and her husband Kevin is here.

I have been helping Jen with her website and let me tell you - she has a TON of amazing recipes on there.  She also has been hosting online cooking classes.  Her current series is Get Cultured:  Learn How to Ferment Anything.  By fermenting your foods you make it easier on your body to get all of the nutrients out of your food. 

I have been making yogurt from scratch for quite a while now.  Here is my original recipe for yogurt.  After taking Jen's class I made homemade raw milk yogurt.  With that yogurt I made spelt crackers.  Those are the crackers you see posted above.  This weekend I also made raw milk Farmer's Cheese with fresh herbs.  That is the cheese in the picture above.  Here are the two recipes.

Yogurt and Spelt Crackers

serves: 6

time: 5 mins (active), 12 - 24 hrs (soaking), 10 mins (baking for each batch)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups whole grain spelt flour

• 1 teaspoon unrefined sea salt

• 1 cup yogurt

• Fresh Rosemary, fresh thyme, and fresh chives

• 1/4 cup butter, softened

Method:

1. Stir three cups whole grain spelt flour and one teaspoon unrefined sea salt, one cup full fat yogurt and fresh herbs in the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with a dough hook.  Continue to process until the dough forms a

smooth ball.

2. Place the dough in a mixing bowl and cover it with a tea cloth. Leave the dough to rest at room temperature overnight and up to twenty four hours.

3. Once the dough has rested overnight or up to a full day, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. Knead one-half cup softened butter into the dough, then divide the it into four separate

balls to make rolling it more manageable.

5. Flour your working surface and your rolling pin, place one ball of dough into the center of your work surface and roll it to 1/8-inch. Cut the dough into rounds with a biscuit cutter, or into triangles or squares with a pizza cutter or sharp knife.

6. Prick with the tines of a fork to prevent puffing and bake in an oven preheated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit until brown and crispy, about six or seven minutes.  I don't know why but mine took about 11 minutes to bake.

Farmer's Cheese with Fresh Herbs

Ingredients:

• 2 qts milk

• 1/4 cup white vinegar

• fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, and chives)

• salt

Method:

1. Bring milk to a gently boil over a moderate flame and add white vinegar gradually as you stir continuously.

2. The curd will separate from the whey, and you can turn off the heat.

3. Once the milk solids have separated from the liquid whey, drain the cheese in through a sieve lined with cheesecloth.

4. Wrap the cheese well and rinse it under cold running water.

5. Squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can and press the cheese beneath two heavy

plates.

6.  Add the fresh herbs and a dash of salt to the cheese.

7. Serve as you normally would any cheese and reserve the whey for soaking beans, legumes,

nuts and seeds.

If you sigh up for Jen's class, here, you can see a video of this process.  It makes it a lot easier to understand.