Homemade Pita Chips

About a week ago, Jonathan and I had a date planned. We had a babysitter coming over around naptime, and then we would be headed out to have some fun on the town, eat some supper at a local B'ham restaurant, grab some dessert, and head home. Well, much to our dismay, our babysitter wasn't able to make it, due to some unforeseen circumstances...BUMMER! Instead we stayed at the house, made some pizza, and then took the kids out for ice cream. Not the same as an afternoon by ourselves, but we still had fun. I say all of this to say that while we were out, we stopped by this neat little Mediterranean restaurant called Dodiyós. Not to eat mind you. We'd already done that. Now you ask, why would you go into a restaurant if you weren't going to eat anything? Well, at this nifty place, they had a little market in the back! This is where we found some awesome pita chips! They were the best chips I'd ever put in my mouth! Seriously! The only drawback...price. Thus began my search for a recipe, for I knew these wouldn't be recurring in our household too often unless they were homemade! Using the pita chips from Dodiyós as a guide, I found a recipe and made some changes. With no further ado, here it is.

Preheat oven to 400°

Ingredients:

-Pita bread

-Extra-virgin olive oil

-1 teaspoon garlic salt

-1/2 teaspoon black pepper

-1/2 teaspoon dried basil

-1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Take your pita bread (I only used three pieces, since that's all that would fit on my baking pans at one time) and one piece at a time cut them along the outside edge to make two separate circles. Then cut each one of these circles into eight pie pieces. Repeat for each pita until you get the amount that you want. Grease your baking pans with olive oil. I use the spray. If you don't have this, you can just pour a little bit of olive oil onto the pans and spread it around with a paper towel. Now lay your triangle pieces with the part of the pita that was inside facing up. Pour some olive oil into a bowl and brush the tops of the pita with it. I then combined the garlic salt, black pepper, basil, and oregano in a little bowl and stirred them around really well. I used my fingers and sprinkled the mixture onto the top of each triangle. Now place them in the oven for about 5 minutes or until they're lightly brown and crispy. Keep and eye on them. They tend to burn easily! Enjoy your wonderfully good homemade pita chips! They'd go great with some homemade hummus!

Homemade Granola Bars...Easy and Tasty!

Recently I've been on the search for products that don't have HFCS (High-fructose corn syrup) in them. There have been a lot of debates about whether or not the stuff is harmful for you and let's face it...I'd rather not gamble with my family's health. It's linked with obesity and some researchers say that it tricks your brain into thinking your still hungry, when you're not! So, in my search, you know what I found? It's in EVERYTHING! Well, at least in the majority of processed foods...soft drinks (we don't keep these around anyway), cereal, crackers, syrup, yogurt, ketchup, and the list goes on. You can find some these same foods without HFCS, but it isn't easy. Hunt's recently started making their ketchup with no HFCS and says so on the front of their label and Log Cabin is the only syrup that I've been able to find (at Walmart) that doesn't have HFCS in it. Needless to say, I figured the easiest way to ensure there isn't any junk in our food was to make it myself (plus it's usually cheaper)! Thus began my search of recipes. I found this recipe at JoyfulAbode and tried it out just the other day. I must say...we love it! I had to do a little tweaking since I didn't have all the dried fruit and nuts she had. Maybe I'll try a little something different next time.

Preheat oven to 400℉

Ingredients:

-2 cups oats

-3/4 cup wheat germ

-3/4 cup sunflower seeds

-1 cup peanuts, crushed (I didn't have these, so I just added another cup of oats instead)

-2/3 cup brown sugar

-1/2 cup honey

-4 tbsp butter

-2 tsp vanilla extract

-1/2 tsp salt

-8 oz dried fruit (if you want)

Combine the oats, wheat germ, and nuts in a baking dish with sides. Toast them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes so they don't burn. While your grains and nuts are toasting, line another baking dish (I used a 9x13) with wax paper (about double the length of the dish) and spray lightly with nonstick spray.

Put the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. You basically just want it all good and melted. Your grains and nuts should now be toasted. Stir your grains and nuts, brown sugar mixture, and dried fruit (if you included this) together in a large bowl. Make sure it's mixed really well.

Pour the mixture into your wax paper lined dish.

Now fold over the sides of your wax paper and press hard. You want to make sure it doesn't fall apart when you cut it. Just beware when I made mine, I think I pressed too hard. They were really hard to cut and bite into, but they didn't fall apart! Haha! Next time I make them, I won't press SO hard!

Wait until the granola has completely cooled (about 2-3 hours) then carefully turn it out onto a cutting board and peel back the wax paper.

Get out a big knife and cut the granola into bars, pressing firmly but not sawing. And voila! There you have your tasty, all-natural granola bars!

Long Time Coming

I've been thinking about blogging for a while. I think I always knew I would eventually do it. It was just the question of when. Lately I've been experimenting with making different things at home. Things such as...lotion, deodorant, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, crackers, granola bars, fruit bars, etc. There is just so much junk that goes into food and body products these days and I prefer to control what goes in and on my family's body. Not to mention it's cheaper! I've had several people ask for my recipes, so I figured why not put all of my thoughts and such in one place! This blog will be full of recipes, thoughts, things going on in our life, and of course my adorable kiddos. I hope you find at least a small percentage of my posts somewhat enjoyable or informative! :)