Date Bars

I've been trying to write a blog post all week. Then stopping, deleting what I wrote or abandoning it altogether. And coming back to it later, only to repeat the entire cycle.

To be perfectly honest with you, I haven't much to say. I've had a lot of worrisome stuff on my mind these past several days. Initially I was going to throw in a funny story about my kids and a pair of Goldfish called 'Sparky' and 'Dolphin'. But I'm just not inspired enough today to tell that story. Maybe later. 

 

For now, here's a recipe for Date Bars that will fill your kitchen with an irresistible, buttery, toffee-like smell. Go on, you know you want to try them out.

Date Bars

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 stick butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup, roughly chopped dates

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease the bottom only of an 8" x 11" dish.

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in the vanilla extract and egg. 

Fold in the flour and mix well. Add chopped dates and nuts, if using. 

Pour into prepared baking dish. Bake 30 - 35 minutes. 

Let cool completely before cutting into bars. 

Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie

Did I mention that I'm moving? 

I've been knee-deep in chaos the past several days; telling myself off for my pack-rat tendencies. I used to be able to justify it, but there's nothing like a move to make you face your shortcomings.

While I try to sort, minimize, containerize and finally move; I'll keep up with blogging by posting simple recipes that don't require a lot of time to fix. I don't have time for any serious cooking or baking till at least the end of this month, but I do want to keep blogging so as not to break the momentum or get sidetracked. 

I thought I'd catch a break today and made myself a Banana Smoothie. I never did actually get to it because our cookie-monster-in-residence a.k.a my daughter got to it first. All I had time for was a few quick photos:  (yes, the child with the chocolate-smeared face and shirt belongs to me)

 

 
 

  

Banana Smoothie

(all ingredients are approximate since I didn't measure)

2 medium bananas, sliced

1 cup milk

1/4 cup low-fat yogurt 

1 tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp wheatgerm

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Place everything in a blender and process till smooth and frothy. 

 

Spinach Mushroom Tortilla Pizza

 

I needed to make something simple and fast for the after-school snack/lunch today. 

It's been a busy day & I'd been out all morning. Once I was home, I hadn't the time or the desire to fix anything that required much effort or several dirty dishes. 

Pizza always fits the bill - especially if you have prepared pizza dough on hand. 

Which I didn't, but I saw the recipe for Spinach Mushroom Pizza on Bread + Butter yesterday and adapted it to suit my own needs. 

My version is a cross between a pizza and an enchilada. My son loves button mushrooms and I had all the other fixings so I got going as soon as we got home and had it ready in 15 mins. 

My son is going through a picky phase and is averse to anything green - so I improvised: I placed one jalapeno & cilantro tortilla (those are the ones I had) on a lightly sprayed foil-lined cookie sheet. Sprinkled about 1/4 cup of mozzarella, dotted with a little marinara sauce and layered torn, fresh spinach leaves all over. 

Covered with another tortilla. Sprinkled around 1/4 cup of mozzarella evenly, covered with a thin layer of marinara sauce .. added canned sliced button mushrooms . . a few spinach leaves ... a handful of parmesan cheese and another 1/4 cup mozzarella. 

Baked at 400F for 12 minutes. 

 

The cheese between the layers of tortillas melted and helped stick them together  which is all good, since it made the spinach invisible to my fussy child. On the surface it looked like a regular pizza with very crispy edges. 

And it was so good, I made one for myself (sans extra tortilla and button mushrooms)  with lots of spinach and a lot more parmesan. Yum.