anna cooks - homemade granola bars

A few years ago I made this recipe for Banana Chocolate Breakfast Bars from the blog Chocolate and Zucchini. They came out very well, but I then totally forgot about the recipe until this past week. I was going to visit my boyfriend for the weekend, and since he is trying to loose a few pounds after his summer in Brussels, I decided to bring him these granola bars, instead of my usual cookies or brownies.

This time I added dried cherries - I love the combination of cherries and chocolate - as well as more shredded coconut to the recipe. They came out so well that I made them two days in a row! Easy, delicious, and healthy, this is a must try recipe.

Oh, and this recipe is vegan! No butter or honey, etc.

Vegan* Chocolate, Cherry Granola Bars 

Adapted from Banana Chocolate Breakfast Bars on Chocolate and Zucchini, which adapted its recipe from Nikki's Healthy Cookie Recipe on Heidi's 101 Cookbooks.

*As long as the chocolate you use is vegan!

- 2 cups rolled oats
- 2/3 cup ground almonds (I ground mine in a food processer)
- 1/2 cup dried, unsweetened grated coconut
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 very ripe, medium bananas
- 1/2 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup slightly warmed coconut oil (may substitute whole almond butter or olive oil)
- About 3 1/2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (may substitute with a darker chocolate)
- About 1/4 cup dried, sweetened cherries chopped (about in quarters)**

**You can add any type of dried fruit you'd like - cranberries, blueberries, pineapple, etc. It is a very flexible recipe.  

Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease an 8x8 baking dish with vegetable oil.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oats, ground almonds, coconut, and salt. Set aside.

In another medium mixing bowl, combine the bananas, vanilla, and coconut oil, and mash together using a potato masher. Add the oats mixture and mix well. Fold the chocolate and cherries in gently.

Pour into the prepared baking dish, level the surface, and put into the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the top is set and the edges are golden-brown. Let cool completely before slicing.

Cut into bars of your preferred size and wrap in wax paper or saran wrap. Decorate with stickers.

anna eats - narragansett creamery

I was so excited to see that the Whole Foods near me sells Narragansett Creamery cheeses. I used to get it in Rhode Island while in college. The ricotta is perfect with a bowl of pasta.

On their website, Narragansett Creamery has recipes to try with their products. This Honey Drizzled Ricotta with Shortbread recipe is so simple, but I'm sure it would be amazing:

Honey Drizzled Ricotta with Shortbread - recipe taken from Narragansett Creamery (http://www.richeeses.com/recipes.html)

Ingredients
1 cup Renaissance ricotta
2 tablespoons local honey + more for drizzling
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 to 3 drops pure almond extract
Fresh berries of your choice
Scottish shortbread

Place ricotta, honey, lemon zest and almond extract in a blender and blend on medium speed until smooth. Refrigerate for 1 hour, then spoon into small dessert cups. Top with berries and a stick of shortbread. Drizzle with honey and serve.

Narragansett Creamery also sells gift boxes on their website if you want to try them but don't live in the area. Click here to check the gift boxes out!

anna cooks - going vegan and not

My roommate and I had some friends over for dinner last Sunday. One of our guests was Yifan Luo, the author of the vegan food/ fitness blog, vegandurance. As you may have guessed from her blog, Yifan is a practicing vegan.

As a host cooking for a mixed crowd of vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters, deciding what to cook was even harder than usual. I ended up going with a vegetarian main-course that could be served vegan or not, depending on if you added cheese.

Since I had been craving pasta, I turned to an old Giada De Laurentiis family favorite: Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree. The recipe is available on the Food Network website, and is very easy to follow. 

I paired the pasta with a coleslaw I made using a light dressing of (vegan version) white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, olive oil, and (added only to not vegan version) a little mayonnaise.

The dinner was lots of fun, and I'm excited to try out some new vegan recipes in the future! I might start with Yifan's recipe for Raw Kale Fuel Bars (did I mention she is a triathlete!) on the blog Yum Universe.

anna cooks - dessert

Last night my friend Alyssa had my roommate and I over for dinner and an episode of Downton Abbey. I offered to bring dessert, and ended up making a twist on Ina Garten's Peach and Blueberry Crumble. I love this recipe, because you can swap the fruit depending on what is in season. For this crumble, I decided to use peaches, strawberries, and rhubarb. The result was a cute pink dessert that was perfect for our girls' night.

Peach, Strawberry, Rhubarb Crumble - A Photo Recipe.

The exact ingredients and measurements can be found here.

Step 1: Mix the fruit with lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, and flour.

Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients until the butter is the size of peas. 

Step 3: Put the fruit mixture into ramekins and top with the crumble -- add more crumble than you think you need, because it fall down into the ramekin during baking. 

Step 4: Bake with a lined baking sheet under the ramekins at 350F for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.  

Step 5: Top with heavy cream and enjoy!

anna cooks - lunch

What's for lunch? A Photo Recipe.

Spaghettini Aglio Olio with Last Night's Broccoli

What you need:

What you do:

What you eat:

Yum.

anna cooks - grandma's cookies

For a special Easter edition of anna knits, etc., I wanted to share my Grandma's butter cookies recipe. These roll outs are great for holidays, because you can cut them into any shape you want. Below is a handwritten copy my Aunt Joanne shared with me for the butter cookies.

Grandma DeSimone's Butter Cookies
- 1 cup butter
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- 3 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add vanilla to butter mixture.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, to the butter mixture.
4. Add flour and salt to butter mixture. Mix until dough forms.
5. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (overnight preferred).
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
6. Cut the dough into a manageable piece (fourths works well), and roll out the dough until they are pretty thin (a little less than 1/8 inch).
7. Cut dough into desired shape.
8. Place cookies on an un-greased baking sheet.
9. Bake for 10 minutes or until light brown edges form.

Icing
- Confectioners sugar
- Milk or cream
- Vanilla
- Sprinkles

1. Warm a few tablespoons of the milk or cream.
2. Add a splash of vanilla to the milk.
3. Slowly add the milk mixture to the confectioners sugar until a paste is formed.
4. Ice cooled cookies and decorate with sprinkles.

Ta-da!

The recipe makes a lot of cookies, so I just baked up a half recipe and put the other half in the freezer for later. 

For a more intense look, try covering the cookie in sprinkles. While they are not in keeping with Grandma DeSimone's aesthetic, I think these Valentine's Day butter cookies from The Yvestown Blog came out super cute!

Rainbow dots have also been making their way into the fashion world this season. Check out this felted rainbow bobble bag via the blog a pair and a spare.

Felting wool is something I have never explored, but hope to try it this spring. It is a great way to bring your knitting into the warmer months. 

Happy Easter!