Homemade Bagels Bites

Yeah, I'm aware it's slightly crazy to make your own friggin bagels... but you know, it was one of those things I just "had" to try. It wasn't even as scary as it seems! It takes about 4 hours of work spaced out over 2 days but they were actually rather simple!

It's  basically just a combination of yeast, water and bread flour. Then after that rises, you add in white or wheat flour and more yeast. Then rise. Get the picture? It's a lot of adding, waiting, and rising.

Once it's risen doubled, you make the dough into golf ball size balls. Then let that rise. Then you make the little hole in the middle. Then you let that rise. :) Then you cover and refrigerate over night to let it rise more.... 

The next morning you put them in a skillet of boiling water and baking soda and cook 1 min on each side. Ignore the lumpiness of my bagels - I wasn't able to find diastic malt powder. Apparently the 1 tbsp of malt powder is what "smoothes and shines" the outside of the bagels. They don't look as pretty but they taste exactly the same. Then you bake all the bagels for 9-10 minutes and let them cool and you hopefully end up with this...

I need to work on my circles ;)

Here's a wheat batch.

Line up and cover with pizza sauce, oregano, parmesean and then a mixture of pepperoni and mozarella cheese (that has been run through the food processor).

I need more natural light in my kitchen....

Then either freeze for up to 3 months or cook and eat! Yummmmmm.....

Oh and for 8 bagel bites at the store it's about $1.50. I made fourty-eight for about $5, with the cheese being the most expensive part. That makes them 10 cents a piece... which is about half the price of the ones in the store. Sweetness.

Freezer Cooking

That's the name of the game this weekend. Or the PLAN, anyway...

In addition to 15-20 hours of work a week, I start grad school next week.... needless to say, my free time is about to become a precious commodity for me. So, I'm planning on stocking up my freezer with yumminess because A.) school makes me unable to focus on anything other than school so cooking, cleaning, etc always falls behind and B.) because even though it's going to take a full day of my weekend, it will be worth it to me to just go from freezer, to fridge for thawing, and then to oven for the next few weeks.

So here's what's on the list:

Entrees:
Baked Mac-n-Cheese
Mexican Lasagna
Manacotti
Pizza Dough
Mini Meatloaf
Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas
Roasted Maple Chicken with Sweet Potato

Breakfasts:
Individual Smoothies (fruit, PB, etc in snack size ziplocs)
Apple Oatmeal Streusel Muffins

Sides:
Cornbread Muffins
Rosemary Roasties (carrots, sweet potato, potato, parsnips roasted...)
Eggplant Parmesean
Twice Baked Baked Potatoes

Desserts:
Plum Crisp
Chocolate Chip Cookies

That should tide me over for a few weeks or even a month hopefully!

Now to just follow through... lol

Homemade 10-minute Granola Bars

Ok, so if you're anything like me, you have fallen prey to the marketing of granola bar companies such as these:

Or these:

Or even these:

However, the amount of sugar and other junky stuff in them is amazing for something that's supposed to be a "health" food. The ones in stores are more of desserts than healthy food that will fill you up and sustain you without a sugar high.

So, the solution for me, is now.... 10 minute homemade granola bars. 

See? They even look just like the store-bought ones... dont be afraid of some of the 'hippie-ish' ingredients that go in them... nothing to be afraid of. :)

Dry Ingredients: 2 cups brown rice cereal, 2 cups rolled oats, 1/4 cup ground flax seed (can leave out or even sub with wheat germ), 1/2 cup cranberries (can use any dried fruit, and more or less of it depending on your tastes), 1 tsp of salt

Wet Ingredients: 1/2 cup honey, 2-3 tbsp agave nectar (can use lite maple syrup too if you'd like), 1/2  cup nut butter (peanut, almond, hazelnut, etc), 1 tbsp canola oil, 1/4 cup brown sugar, a little vanilla (maybe a tsp or 2), 1 tsp cinnamon. Let everything melt together over medium low heat and stir into dry ingredients. 

Once everything's mixed together, pour into a 9x13 pan and press down reeeeallly hard so that it all gets compacted (it will making cutting into bars easier!) Put in the fridge for 30 minutes to "set"... and then dive in. Cut into bars and wrap individually in plastic cling wrap. 

For storage you can keep them in the fridge for 1-2 weeks, or in the freezer for 2 months!

These are SO YUMMY and easy to make. I'm definitely never going back to store bought ones.