HOMEMADE RAW GRANOLA BARS

Granola is great, but what better than Granola in bar form. On a quest for the ultimate Granola Bar recipe I tripped over RAW (the company) granola bars at Starbucks (quick energy boost before a location recording gig...). I realized what I had been missing - millet!!! Toasted millet is the jam! So good. So I got on my trusty iPhone, yes - admittedly, at the gig... and found a recipe mimicking this vegan awesome courtesy of Multiply Delicious. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

note: some of these may vary, as I only used almonds, pumpkin seeds and even threw in some flax seeds. also, my second time around with this I only had a 1/2c worth so I threw in some raisins - diversify!

2c old fashioned rolled oats 1/2c millet (where it's at!) 1/3c pecans, chopped

1/3c unsalted almonds 1/3c pumpkin seeds

1/2c dried cranberries 1/2c mini chocolate chips 3/4 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp cloves

1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp salt

1/3c maple syrup

1/4c honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1c medjool dates, pitted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a big mixing bowl combine oats, millet, nuts, seeds, cranberries and chocolate chips.

In a food processor, pulse dates, maple syrup, honey and vanilla until roughly chopped and incorporated. Then add spices and puree. Pour the 'binding' mixture into mixing bowl and combine until the mixture is sticky. This is not as wet of a coating as granola - it will be a bit stickier. If you need to get more binding with the dry ingredients, add a tbsp at a time Maple Syrup. I had to add just one additional tbsp.

Place in the oven for about 25 minutes. Let cool completely. Once cooled to room temperature, I placed mine in the fridge for 30 minutes before cutting into bars.

Enjoy!

BABY FOOD

Baby Food, a very hot topic among parents. For our kiddo - I thought, what the heck, lets make some baby food. We were already 'granola-ing' it up with cloth diapers and breastfeeding, let's just take it that obnoxious step further?!

No, really though, kidding aside - after our experiences with nutrition, Rick and I both felt a sincere obligation to feed our budding son 'good' food. So, thus started the research, how can we do this to the furthest extent possible? First - our food.

During the pregnancy, we BOTH made some pretty big diet changes. We were already farmer's market fans, but we started using a grocery service here in town that really accessed local produced - Green BEAN Delivery. We started cutting more and more meat out of our diet (now vegetarian and bean/legume fanatics!) and began the search for the obscure, strange...vegetable. Well, some anyway. I soon became a huge collard green fan and Rick and I found ourselves bingeing on spinach and chopped carrots like potato chips!

Then Soren was born and the first five months of grocery shopping was easy, well almost, as some of you may know how much I loathe my pump. But I love nursing - and has been well worth the bouts of mastitis, plugged ducts, bite marks, pink milk and chapping. So worth it. Well - then came the drool and our first set of teeth. Soren was sitting upright and grabbing for food - it was time.

First up, bananas (well pureed!), then avocado, then sweet potato. From there, winter squashes, carrots, and so on. The list of vegetables this child has tried (steamed, baked and raw) is astounding! I have discovered new foods from just making baby food alone, an absolute win/win for this family.​

So making the food - that's a pretty simple task. Steam, bake or raw - puree to baby's ability to chew and water down to desired consistancy with either purified water, breast milk or in our case - water used in the steaming process (to preserve as much of the nutrition as possible). Then to storage - we found these AWESOME ice cube trays at Bed, Bath and Beyond with covers over top so I could label what was inside the trays and the date they were frozen. Then the cubes went from being a serving a piece to 6-8 cubes in a single meal! A great way to store food. Then we moved on to his breast milk containers from Avent for storage and at 15 months - he's on table food. I still make his applesauce though ;).

I aboslutely loved making baby food - and honestly miss a bit of it, but am delighted to see our little eater always up for trying something at least once and eating full servings of Kale and Whole-Wheat noodle Alfredo or asking me for another Portabello mushroom melt sandwich.

Not being an aboslute about the baby food, we have had our instances when we needed quick food on the go and food that would stay in any temperature scenario (like our visits to Coney Island). Here are few that worked wonders for us and Soren still eats to this day for snacks:

Ella's Kitchen
Peter Rabbit Organics
Plum Organics
Bebo Naturals (my favorite - but temperature sensative)

I also understand - sometimes breastfeeding doesn't work out with baby (there was a point with Soren I myself was prepared to make formula) and you need to supplement or use formula. Finicky stomachs, from what I understand like a few of these. I am not an expert on this, but just in case - these might be worth looking into:

Earth's Best Nature's One

These are just a couple - and I am no expert, so if anyone else has any other suggestions please note! Also, you can even make your own formula, there is even a recipe and how-to in the the Super Baby Food Book, which is
an absolute must!!! Even if you don't make your own baby food, this is a great guide into the toddler years and even healthy habits to start with your family (and it's never too late to start!). I even started making Soren's own baby wipes!

We move to gardening in the spring - so on with our foodie adventures! 

APPLESAUCE (RICE COOKER STYLE)

Applesauce in a rice cooker?! Awe, do not be dismayed friends, it can, it WILL, it MUST be done! This is the best recipe for applesauce I have yet to find and with a few modifications has become a household relic. Since I sadistically miss making Soren's baby food, this is how I hold onto his wee infancy - through applesauce. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

6-8 medium size apples (we use Honeycrisp or Pink Lady - Macintosh also makes for a great applesauce) peeled and cored

1/4c apple juice (unsweetened)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp unsalted butter

Place peeled and cored apples into rice cooker bowl. I fill all the way to the top. Cut butter into four pieces and place on top of apples. Sprinkle cinnamon on top

and pour apple juice in. Place lid on and hit cook button on rice cooker. And wait! (or go play with the kiddos since you now DO NOT have to watch a pot full of boiling apples!) Mine takes about 30 minutes give or take, depending on how juicy the apples are. Depending on the cooker, they may caramelize a little bit on the bottom - but that just adds flavor to the sauce. After they are done, either mash roughly for chunky applesauce, or in our case - puree in blender/food processor. Refrigerate and enjoy! Really that simple.​

CINCY VISITS!

As usual, I ♥ my familial 'Cincy' visits. But this past weekend, I especially loved. My niece, Miss Avery, my sis-in-law, Arica and the kid's wonderful

Grandmother came in town this weekend. It was filled with Mexican Train Dominoes, good wine and cheese, Dewey's pizza, a packed Findlay Market detour, King Arthur's Toys, treats and goodies, Charlie Brown (and of course Snoopy for Soren), and most importantly - a Swing! for my dear Aves. Thanks so much to Rick for being an amazing host and my wonderful family for coming in town from the Lou. I miss you all and send lots of hugs and kisses your way!

a perfect grandma and sweet angel aves, miss you baby girl​

COLUMBIA TUSCULUM

As Jim and I are very quickly finding out - there is MUCH more to this neighborhood than hwy 50 and old homes. But speaking of old homes - did you know Columbia Tusculum is perhaps the oldest neighborhood in Cincinnati?! I know I didn't - and that there is an Irish Heritage Center - that is beautiful by the way, fully equipped with both a pub - for crazy Irish shenanigans and a hospitable tea room for a quant meeting. There are also great places to grab some grub like Allyn's featuring New Orleans cuisine and Green Dog Cafe sporting local produce and 'good for you' food full of flavor. Or how about calming down with some Moksha yoga or checking out Snow White at the Ballet Theatre Midwest. Yep - Columbia Tusculum is home to all of this and more! Find out on next month's Local Exposure published March 1st!​

​tea anyone? or are you the Guinness type?