Granola Bars

I have seen lots of homemade granola bar recipes on lots of different sites. Some look way too hard and have too many specialty ingredients so it really wouldn't be saving me any money, but there are a few that look really promising. This is one of them. I got it from Safely Gathered In, a great website dedicated to food storage and preparedness. This recipe is great because it uses only food storage items.

What you will need:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Karo syrup
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups quick oats
2 1/2 cups rice krispys
Optional: chocolate chips, almonds, raisins

What you do:

Add brown sugar and Karo syrup to a heavy bottom pan. Cook over medium heat until mixture continues to boil even when stirred. Take off heat. Add peanut butter and vanilla until all melted in. Add oats and rice cereal. Stir until all coated evenly. Let cool before adding any optional add ins.

I added mini semi sweet chocolate chips and did it before it cooled enough so they melted. It still tasted delicious! This is a very economical and fast recipe. I don't see myself buying store bought granola bars again.

Blender Wheat Pancakes

I found this amazing site dedicated to foodstorage. We tried the blender wheat pancake recipe this morning. Granted, it isn't as delicious as the other whole wheat pancake recipe that I posted, but this is made from whole wheat kernels straight from your food storage (before they have been ground into flour) and you grind them up straight in your blender. This recipe is super fast and easy and you get a little heartier pancake.

What you will need:

1 Cup Milk
1 Cup Wheat Kernels, whole & uncooked
2 Eggs
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tlbs. Oil
2 Tlbs. Honey or Sugar

What you do:

Put milk and wheat kernels in blender. Blend on highest speed for 4 or 5 minutes or until batter is smooth.

Add eggs, oil, baking powder, salt and honey or sugar to above batter. Blend on low.

Pour out batter into pancakes from the actual blender jar (only one thing to wash!) onto a hot greased or Pam prepared griddle or large frying pan. Cook; flipping pancakes when bubbles pop and create holes.

Note: I used the waffle version of this which adds a little more oil (1/4 cup) and a little less salt(1/2 tsp). I also used brown sugar instead of white.

This is probably going to be our new standard waffle recipe!