Selfish Mom

Granola For Non-Health Nuts

Jan 23, 2013 Cooking & Baking

I love granola. I could eat it all day. I have eaten it all day, every time I make it. I like it plain, I like it mixed into vanilla yogurt, I like it with milk, I like it sprinkled on peanut butter and banana.

But what I don’t like are most granola recipes. For one thing, I’m not crazy about honey, and they all seem to use honey. For another, I don’t like dried fruit, and a lot of recipes use that as well. Basically, I like a sweet, crunchy granola that’s mostly oats and coconut with some nuts. So over the years I’ve developed my own recipe. It’s not healthy. It’s a calorie bomb. But it’s so worth it.

A few key things: 1) You have to use rolled oats. These are the old-fashioned, not quick-cooking kind of oats. 2) You have to resist the urge to overcook the granola. It will not be totally crunchy when you take it out of the oven, but it will get completely crunchy as it cools. 3) If you substitute honey, reduce the oil, add dried fruit, or do anything else to make this recipe healthier, I don’t want to hear about it. :-)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped raw almonds
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar (packed)
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 6 tablespoons maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees and line a couple of rimmed cookie sheets with parchment paper (I use these reusable sheets – they can be cut to the size of your pans!)
• Put all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well, making sure to break up any lumps of sugar
• Heat the maple syrup, vegetable oil, and vanilla in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thin (only takes a couple of minutes)
• Add syrup mixture to oat mixture and mix well until all of the oat mixture is moist
• Spread mixture onto the cookie sheets and put in oven
• After fifteen minutes, carefully stir granola and switch the pans to the opposite oven racks, so that the one that was on the top is on the bottom and vice versa
• Bake for another fifteen minutes, for a total of thirty minutes. Granola should be starting to brown.
• Remove granola from oven and put cookie sheets on cooling racks, stirring every ten minutes or so while the granola cools
• Once the granola is completely cool, store in an airtight container; keeps for about a week

Tags: Food, Recipes

Win $20K in cash AND a $50K cafeteria makeover!

Feb 21, 2012 Contest

My kids are home with me this week. There’s this weird thing in New York City Public Schools that I did not have growing up in Buffalo, called February break. My kids still have Christmas break in December, and then Spring Break in April, so I think this whole February break thing is overkill. Couldn’t they have a week off when the weather doesn’t stink?

So, indoor projects are always good. We play Kinect, we watch movies, and today, we’ll be cooking a rice dish and videotaping it to enter an amazing Uncle Ben’s contest.

Ben’s Beginners is giving away a huge grand prize: $20,000, an appearance on The Rachael Ray Show, and a $50,000 make-over for the winner’s school cafeteria! I can’t tell you how much that would mean to my kids’ school.

Entering is really easy. It involves making a short video of you and your kid making a rice dish. BUT, here’s the catch: the deadline is in five days. I meant to post about this a few weeks ago and forgot. And, frankly, I don’t know why I’m lessening my chances of winning by sharing this with all of you anyway, except that I really love the people at Uncle Ben’s (they hosted my daughter’s class for a cooking project with Angie Harmon and Chef Cricket Azima last month, and it was a ton of fun).

I strongly suggest that you check out the FAQ page and official rules on the contest facebook page, because it gives some specific guidelines and good tips for making your video.

And now, I’m off to cook with Fiona! We’re still trying to decide what our recipe will be. I wanted to make one of the dishes that we made at the event, Sweet & Sticky Rice Salad. But Fiona absolutely loves chicken and rice soup and is pushing for it. While I’d rather make something I can eat (I’m a vegetarian) I’ll probably let her win this one, since I’ve made the Sweet & Sticky Rice Salad already. Plus, I’m going to make her do most of the work. :-)

Here’s the recipe for the rice salad though, it’s a good one. It keeps for several days and since it’s best served room temp, it’s a great dish to bring to parties and pot-lucks. I leave out the raisins, because I don’t like them, and I only make half – the recipe as written is really big. Enjoy!

Sweet & Sticky Rice Salad

by Cricket Azima

Ingredients:

For salad

• 1 1/2 cups Uncle Ben’s Rice, uncooked
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1/2 yellow pepper, diced
• 1 15.5-oz. can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 cup frozen peas, defrosted
• Salt & pepper to taste

For dressing

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp dried mint, or to taste
• Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

(everything after the rice is a kid-friendly step)

1. Cook rice according to package directions and let cool. Place in large bowl
2. Add carrots, yellow peppers, red kidney beans, raisins, and peas
3. Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir to combine
4. In a separate bowl, combine dressing ingredients and whisk together
5. Pour dressing over rice and gently stir
6. Serve chilled or room temperature

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1, 8, & 17. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: Contest, Food, Recipes, Uncle Ben's

Hidden Valley and my big salads

Jan 25, 2012 Paid/Sponsored Post

[The following post was written as part of my paid ambassadorship with Hidden Valley.]

I’ve been on a weight-loss kick lately. I started out by losing ten pounds with Slim Fast, then moved to a diet that I devised myself, and I’ve lost an additional twelve pounds in the last six weeks, for a total of twenty-two since October. I’m now officially one-third of the way to my goal of weighing 140 by the time I turn 40! More importantly, I’m still going strong. There were a couple of days last week when I really wanted to quit, but I didn’t.

One of the keys to my success has been eating salad. I eat salads whether I’m trying to lose weight or not because I love them, but they’re totally different salads. Before, the lettuce was only an excuse for hardboiled eggs, cheese, croutons, and half a cup of dressing. Now, I make absolutely delicious and filling salads for around 100 calories each.

Today is going to be a two-salad day. Why? Because I had a salad for lunch, and while making that I packed another one to eat at tonight’s PTA meeting. I will not be tempted by the pizza they serve at PTA meetings!

I’m really excited to be working with Hidden Valley again this year as part of their Love Your Veggies program. They recently sent me a couple of their new Farmhouse Originals dressings to try, so today I cracked open the Italian with Herbs. Despite only using a tablespoon, it made my salad taste fantastic!

So besides great dressing, what’s my secret to a delicious salad that doesn’t bust my calorie bank? I make it a chopped salad. I don’t know what it is about chopped salads, but they taste totally different than the same ingredients in big pieces. And because it’s easier to distribute the dressing in a chopped salad, I can use less while still getting lots of flavor. I use one of these to chop most of the ingredients.

The salad that I packed for tonight has Hidden Valley Light Ranch Dressing in this very cool Glad-To-Go container that I found in a gift bag at some point, I don’t even know when. I love these containers – your dressing is right there, without having to take a separate container, because the little dressing bowl fits right into the big lid. And since you don’t have to mix the salad ahead of time, it won’t get soggy!

Amy’s 100 Calorie Chopped Salad

• 3 1/2 ounces green leaf lettuce
• 1/2 ounce shredded carrot
• 1/2 ounce onion
• 1 ounce tomato
• 1/8 cup chick peas
• 1 TBSP Hidden Valley Ranch Farmhouse Originals Italian with Herbs Dressing

Chop all of the veggies into tiny pieces, then toss well with the dressing. The flavors will all mix together so well in every bite, you won’t believe that this big salad is only 100 calories!

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 (Glad containers) and 14 (Hidden Valley). Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: Hidden Valley, Recipes, Weight Loss

Week 4 weigh-in: a little stumble, & a great recipe

Nov 13, 2011 Weight Loss

So this week I only lost half a pound. That’s not bad itself – down is better than up – but this is where my motivation starts to falter. If I don’t see great results I have a hard time justifying the effort.

My eating was fine this week, although I did eat 1,800 calories a couple of days, instead of the 1,200-1,400 I’m aiming for (I ease up a little on calories on the days when I exercise). Not a huge deal. Those days probably didn’t hurt me at all, but they didn’t help either. What did hurt me was that I only exercised once this week, as apposed to six times last week.

Why the big difference? Last week I was home almost the entire week. I had plenty of time to head downstairs to the treadmill before getting a shower. But I had to work out of the house a lot this week, and wasn’t willing to get up early and exercise before starting my day. And frankly, if I haven’t done it before lunch time there’s very little chance I’ll do it.

I’m hoping to hop on the treadmill today, to at least make it twice for this week. Next week I’m just going to do the entire week two workout over.

Also, this week the kids had two days off from school. When I’m with the kids, preparing food for them all day, I’m way more tempted to eat. Slim-Fast keeps me out of the kitchen, but the kids being home gets me right back into the kitchen.

Oddly enough, the one thing that didn’t affect me this week was baking for and working at a big bake sale at my kids’ school on election day. I made brownies and didn’t eat any, and didn’t eat any of the other yummy-looking sweets at the bake sale. That’s not the stuff that tempts me. It’s chips, bread pasta – food, not desserts – that I tend to binge on. I can bake all day without eating any, thank goodness, because I love to bake.

What else went right this week? I made this recipe for baked zucchini sticks a couple of times. They’re super easy and yummy. So yummy, in fact, I keep forgetting to take a picture of them while there’s still a big plate.

I dip mine in light ranch dressing. A couple of changes I made to the recipe? I added a teaspoon of garlic salt (my husband’s suggestion, and a good one) and halved everything else. The recipe makes way too much flour coating, and you just end up wasting most of it. Half is plenty.

I also used all wheat flour, instead of half white half wheat. Tasted exactly the same. Be careful about the cooking spray though: even though the package says no calories, that’s for a tiny spray. I weigh the can before using it, then weigh it again when I’m done, and figure out how many calories I’ve used. Taking into account the fact that some of the spray ends up on the pan, I estimate it adds about 50 calories per serving.

So what’s up for the next week? I’m going to make exercise a priority. You’re all my witnesses. And I’m going to remind myself that for the past year, I was gaining about half a pound a week. So I know for a fact what a half pound a week difference can make. It doesn’t have the motivating power of two pounds a week, but it’s still a move in the right direction.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Shop Amazon and I might make a little cash

Tags: exercise, Food, Recipes, Slim-Fast

Today’s Agenda: More Slim-Fast edition

Oct 31, 2011 Today's Agenda

So I’m pumped. I said last week that this week would be the true test of my Slim-Fast experiment, since I always lose a lot of water the first week on any diet. And I’m happy to say that I weighed in this morning, and have lost a little over two pounds this week! I’m now done with the free samples and coupons that Slim-Fast had sent me, but I’m happy to go forward on my own. Let’s see how long I can ride this.

Today I’m getting back on the treadmill. I’ve been having trouble with my right foot for months, and with the help of Dr. Google I diagnosed it as a stress fracture. So, after re-injuring it several times on the treadmill I decided to give myself a solid month off to let it heal. Then, last week it started to hurt again, and I hadn’t been exercising! I’d been careful not to wear any pumps or heels for that month, or flip-flops, or anything unsupportive, so I give up. I’m starting the walking program I’ve been having false starts with for months and if my foot becomes unbearable I will drag myself to the doctor.

And, of course, today is Halloween. I hate trick-or-treating. I really detest it. Especially in our neighborhood, where people go all out and I just end up feeling lame. And I hate crowds, which doesn’t help my mood. And it looked for a while like this year was the beginning of the end, with only one kid wanting to dress up. But Jake has had a change of heart, and is dressing up as that killer from Scream (a movie he’s never seen). So we’ll be hitting the crowded streets today. Joy.

On GMA this morning Rocco DiSpirito presented a recipe for Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes that has me scratching my head. It uses egg substitute and egg whites, fat-free cream cheese, agave nectar, gluten-free flour, and black beans! And while he claims that the cupcakes are only 55 calories each, they’re tiny. Frankly I think I’d rather have three Hershey’s Air Delight Kisses for the same amount of calories. Plus, the cupcakes look like a lot of trouble. With the kisses all I have to do is unwrap.

But I may make them at some point to see if they’re worth it. If I do I’ll be sure to let you know.

Have a great Monday! I’m off to the treadmill as soon as I post this.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1 (Slim-Fast shakes and bars). Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Shop Amazon and I might make a little cash

Tags: costumes, exercise, Food, Halloween, Recipes, Slim-Fast

Finally, a great biscuit recipe that’s also lightening quick!

Oct 14, 2011 Cooking & Baking

I’ve tried about a half dozen biscuit recipes over the years, trying to find a good one. In order to be a good one in my mind the biscuits don’t just have to taste good, they also have to be easy, relatively quick, and use only ingredients I commonly have on hand. Because I’m not making a turkey and stuffing here, these are biscuits. Like, Oh my God we’re out of frozen bagels what will I put the scrambled eggs and American cheese on. I have to be able to whip them up quick.

So I put out a call to twitter and of course my friend Jennifer Perillo came to my rescue. She recommended this recipe by Dorie Greenspan. I just made them and wow. First of all, from the moment I started to the moment I was spreading butter on one and popping it into my mouth, slightly less than 30 minutes had passed. Second, they used very few dishes and measuring spoons and only a little counter space. Third – which I haven’t tried yet – Dorie says you can cut the dough then freeze it before baking, and pop a few into the oven whenever you need them.

Delicious.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.