Choco Mint Cake Mix Cookie Bars

It's St Patrick's Day and these mint Christmas M and M's are still here.  (I have no idea how chocolate has lasted this long in my house!)  Anyways, take the red ones out (I mean eat them of course and keep the green and white ones for this recipe.

1 box Swiss chocolate cake mix
1/4 - 1/2 cup all bran cereal
1 cup shredded coconut (reserve 4 or 5 tbsps)
1/2 - 1 cup chocolate chips
5 tbsps melted butter
2 eggs

1 cup green and white mint M and M's

Grease two 9 X 9" baking pans (8 X 8 if you want a thicker, cakier cookie which would just make it a bar I guess) 

Mix everything together except the reserved coconut and the M and M's.
Divide and spread the batter in 2 pans. Wetting your fingertips will make it easier to press it into place. Press the M and M's evenly on top, then sprinkle on the coconut.

Bake at 350F for 20 minutes, cool and cut.

Makes 40 cookie bars.

Eggplant Cream Cheese Rollatini

No meat, no pasta makes this a dish that's light and very easy to digest.  But not light on taste.  I changed up the usual ricotta for cream cheese. Not bad, not bad.

1 large eggplant
olive oil
4-6 roasted red peppers

1/2 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup parmesan
2 tbsps 10% cream
1  1/2 cups spinach, chopped
1 egg
3 cloves garlic, minced
2  1/2 cups shredded mozzarella (divided)
salt and pepper to taste

2 cups tomato sauce (divided)

Slice the eggplant into long thin pieces.  Brush with olive oil, place on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake in a 400 F oven for 5-6 minutes.

When they are cooked and cool enough to handle gently take each slice of eggplant and place a piece of roasted red pepper on top.  Next mix cream cheese, parmesan, cream, spinach, egg, garlic, 1  1/2 cups mozzarella, and salt and pepper to taste.  Divide equally and spread onto the eggplant slice topped with red pepper.  (I had 13 pieces of eggplant out of this large one).

Spread 1/2 cup tomato sauce on the bottom of a 13 X 9 casserole dish.
Roll up and place seam side down in the tomato sauce.

Top with remaining 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce and 1 cup mozzarella.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 F for 45 minutes.
Uncover and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes.

Broil if you like for a couple of minutes.

Serves 4-6 

Hot or Cold Good Stuff Granola

You can eat this granola in chunks for a snack, crumbled on top of your yogurt or ice cream or even use it as a great hot cereal. Check it out.

4 cups rolled oats
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1/2 cup ground flax
1/2 cup roughly chopped almonds

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

In a large bowl mix first 4 ingredients together, set aside.

In a saucepan mix brown sugar, honey and oil together and heat until sugar is dissolved. Pour over the dry stuff and mix together. Cutting through with 2 spoons works well.  

Spread out on a large parchment lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon and salt.
Press down with back of spoon.
Bake in a 250 F oven for 40-45 minutes.

Some of it will come out in chunks.  Good to pack for snacks. While the rest will be loose.  Just store it in a cookie tin or jar until ready to use.

For one serving of hot cereal just take 3/4 cup water and bring it to a boil. Stir in 1/3 cup of granola and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the water is absorbed.  Top it with dried cranberries, cacao nibs, raisins, coconut....just about anything your heart desires. And a little milk or cream doesn't hurt either.

And here it is with some coconut yogurt and cried cranberries.

Simple Sriracha Salmon

Mix up the sauce, a few minutes in the oven and you've got supper ready.  

4 salmon fillets
2 tsp lemon zest

2 tsp sriracha hot sauce
2 tsp lime juice
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp salt

Place the salmon fillets on a parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle the lemon zest on top.

Mix together the sriracha, lime juice, brown sugar and honey and spoon over the fillets.
Sprinkle with salt.

Bake in a 425 F oven for 13 - 15 minutes or until the salmon flakes easily with a fork.

Date and Apple Pie Bars

Instead of making individual hand pies, make a pie you can cut into squares.

1  lb pie dough (enough for 1 large pie)

3/4 cup chopped dates
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
5 medium apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Use your own favourite pastry recipe and divide the pie dough into 2 portions, one a bit larger than the other. Roll out the larger one and put it in a 10 X 6 pan.  Toss the dates, nuts and apples with vanilla. Mix the flour, 2 sugars and cinnamon together and toss with the apples. Fill the pie shell.

Roll out the other piece of dough to fit top.

Dampen the edges with water and put in place, pressing to seal. You can also cut decorative shapes out and wet with water to seal in place.

Make slits in top for air to escape and brush with milk. Sprinkle sugar over top and place in a 350F oven for 50-60 minutes.

Cool 1 hour before cutting.

Blueberry Apple Streusel Pie

There's no way of taking a good picture of an ugly pie.  But it does taste good.

A single pie shell
2 cups blueberries
1 medium apple,chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
pinch salt
1 tbsp butter

Streusel:
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsps. brown sugar
2 tbsps cream cheese
1 tbsp. oats

Mix berries, apple, sugar, flour  and salt together and put into pie shell.  Dot with butter.

Mix together the streusel topping using a pastry blender.

Sprinkle on top of pie.  Gently pat down.

Bake 400 F for 30 minutes.  You might want to broil it 2-3 minutes.

Let rest a couple of hours before cutting

See, it's kind of ugly.  Or should I say "rustic"?

Greek Inspired Meat Pie

This filling will make 2 pies.  I topped one with sliced potatoes and one was covered with pastry and frozen for later use. If you decide to cover both with potatoes, then you would only need 2  single pie crusts.

1  8"single pie crust
1  8" double pie crust
2 lbs ground beef
1  1/2 cups chopped spinach
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 carrot, shredded
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp. oregano
1 tbsp. fresh mint 
1 tsp EACH cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1-2 potatoes, sliced thinly
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 tsps lemon juice
oregano and salt to taste

Brown meat, then drain off some of the fat.  Add seasonings, garlic and onion.  Cook until meat is no longer pink and add spinach, green pepper and carrot.

Roll out the pie dough, folding it over to move from the counter to the pie plate, unfold and press lightly into place. Prick with a fork and trim the edge.  For the one topped with potatoes, blind bake single crust in a 450 F oven for 8 minutes with foil covering the edge.

Line second pie plate with pastry.
Fill both shells with meat filling.

Here's the second pie covered with pastry. I made a few air holes and flash froze it for about 1 hour then covered it with foil and labelled it before popping it in the freezer for later use.

On to the potato topping.  You will need enough potato slices to cover the top of your pie while overlapping slices slightly. You may even want them to come out past the edge of the pie more than I did as the potatoes will shrink.  So 1 large or 2 small potatoes, whatever it takes.
Slice potatoes thinly and place in a circle around the pie.  Mix olive oil and lemon juice and brush over top of potato slices.  Sprinkle with oregano and salt.

Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes.  Cool 5 minutes before cutting. Serve with a dollop of tzatziki.