Cowboy Bark

Quickly running into Trader Joe's one day, I had a moment of weakness at the register. As I came up to pay for my healthy fruits and veggies, there at the display right before the check out was what can only be described as chocolate crack. At Trader Joe's it goes by the name of Ruggedly Awesome Cowboy Bark. Sucked in by dark chocolate studded with sandwich cookie pieces, pretzels, peanuts, almonds and toffee bits, I bought a bag. Then I immediately got in the car, opened the bag and indulged. Holy crap this stuff is good. I may have hid the bag in the car and never told Dave about it, just selfishly nibbling a piece to make the commute home that much more bearable. And possibly a second bag was purchased without my husband's knowledge until I realized this stuff would be far cheaper to make myself. So the last crumbs and pieces made their way into the kitchen (and Dave was introduced) so I could mimic this delicious sweet, salty, chocolatey treat. Besides being cheaper to make yourself, this recipe makes way more than you'd get in the package from TJ's, making it an even better value. But really, the important thing is that you can whip this up in no time, particularly helpful when you don't have time to get to Trader Joe's. This is a crave-able candy, and you're going to want it often.

Almond Joy Krispies Treats

Happy 4th!  Need a quick treat for today's BBQ or fireworks later tonight?  Now, you know I'm not a huge coconut fan, but the flavor is growing on me.  I incorporated some lovely Almond Joy Pieces candy bits which added coconut and almond infused chocolate to the cereal laced with more shredded coconut and sliced almonds.  These treats are light and airy with a slight tropical feel and just enough sweetness to be a great summer dessert.  I took this batch to work to share with the researchers and they got rave reviews.  A pretty nice way to interrupt the work day, don't you think?

Flax Glowballs

A little chocolatey, a little coconut, and little almond combined with ground flax and oatmeal to make a truffle like energy snack that's both healthy and, I believe, vegan.  (Please let me know if I'm mistaken, and which ingredients make it not vegan.  I'm not well versed in vegan cooking.)  Unfortunately, I didn't actually taste these treats.  See, I meant to make them before giving up chocolate for Lent, but unfortunately I ran out of time and ended up making them on Ash Wednesday, so no taste-testing for me.  But them smelled amazing and I think the combination of cocoa, coconut and almost, with the added nuttiness of the oatmeal and the flax, would be quite decadent.  I don't believe the banana adds too much flavor, but I imagine you could swap that for applesauce if you think banana would be too much.  Dave wouldn't try these (I think he's afraid of flax), but I really do think I'll make these again for myself.

Trail Mix Rice Krispies Treats with Salted Caramel Swirl

It was bound to happen, huh?  Eventually I would get on the salted caramel kick (just in time for some new trend to hit the foodie blog world).  It's not that I resisted on purpose, I just haven't had salted caramel that made the craze make sense to me.  Dave and I visited Portland earlier this summer and I had a cupcake supposedly topped with salted caramel buttercream frosting.  I was less than impressed.  It barely tasted like caramel, let alone a heavenly salted version.  And I've just always had other things I wanted to try.  Not that it doesn't sound like a good idea--gooey salty and sweet treats--and I've certainly pinned, marked, and otherwise saved my fair share of salted caramel concoctions.  And now, I've got to make them because these treats are a perfect ambassador for the trend.  First off, it's a Rice Krispies treat, which gets lots of love from me to begin with.  And the caramel just makes them that much gooier (wow, I didn't actually think that was a word, but spell check is unfazed).  Add in the sweet and salty trail mix from M&M's that I didn't even know existed, which in and of itself is a perfect treat, and there's double deliciousness in the form of my favorite candy.  Plus, this salted caramel shines perfectly against the sweet and salty trail mix and the crunch of the cereal provides the perfect canvas for all that's going on here.  Simply put: yum.

My friend Mere had a birthday last month, but a couple weeks before her birthday, I was going to meet up with her before she caught a flight from Boston after spending a week on a business trip in Vermont.  So I decided a little early birthday baking never hurt anyone and took to searching for something portable for the plane and a little different.  I looked through some of my pins and some of my favorite blogs and noticed this amazing recipe from Shelly at Cookies & Cups and thought, "where has my grocery store been hiding that trail mix?", printed the recipe and hit the store on my way home.

Applesauce Granola

Okay, just because I like granola doesn't mean I'm crunchy.  In fact, granola is often laden with as much fat and sugar as some of my cookie recipes!  How can that possibly be good for you?  But this granola is different.  It's actually pretty good for you what with the healthy fats and low sugar.  Plus, you can customize it a little, using your favorite nuts, adding or omitting dried fruits as you please, and there are lots of ways to serve it (I'll share one way with you on Friday).  It's tasty, has a lovely nutty flavor from baking slowly, and the sweetness is perfect for eating plain, but doesn't overwhelm anything you might serve it with, like mixed into yogurt.  A hearty breakfast is just around the corner.  I made this twice in two days, once plain to use as an ingredient in another recipe and again with dried cranberries mixed in to serve as my "breakfast batch."

Scouring the interwebs for a granola recipe that wouldn't make glazed doughnuts look like health food comparatively, I found this recipe at Fake Ginger. You remember Amanda, right?  I was paired with her for the Secret Recipe Club when I made those lovely Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Well, Amanda came through again with another winning recipe, fairly simple and one of the more "accessible" granola recipes out there to boot.  I've said it before--I do like to eat more healthfully for meals and such because I do enjoy my sweets so much.  But I hate the idea of having to shell out big bucks for ingredients I've never heard of or don't know how to use otherwise because they are healthy.  There's plenty of food in my kitchen that's already good for me--I just have to learn how to put it together properly.  So Amanda took me on that journey for granola.  And it turned out beautifully.  I opted to use part walnuts and part almonds in my first batch, then used pecans in my second batch (which were perfect with the dried cranberries).  A delicious addition to breakfast, whip this up and enjoy!

Cinnamon Spiced Almonds

My father-in-law loves almonds.  He also loves to shop Costco.  One day, several months ago, he was wandering around Costco and spied a deal on almonds. So the bargain deal made its way into the cart and that was that. Pleased with his purchase, when he got home he dug into his bag of almonds.  And then proceeded to tell my mother-in-law that the giant bag of almonds he got such a deal on tasted terrible.  When my mother-in-law looked at the bag, she asked him where in the store he found them.  Apparently the deal was in the baking aisle.  That's when my mother-in-law explained that they were raw almonds, not the roasted ones he was used to finding in the snack aisle.  And then she packed them into a zip top bag and held them for me when I stopped by a few days later, figuring that I could use them in baking.  Since then, the almonds have had a home in my freezer, and while I've used a few now and then, I really hoped to find a way to use them up in one sweet treat.  After seeing candied almonds in a local store for the holidays, my wheels started turning.  These are excellent, slightly sweet with a little cinnamon and spice to balance the nuttiness of the toasted almonds.  And so super easy to make.  You'll wonder why you've never done it before.

This recipe came from Sarah and Dulcie at Two Tarts and I really liked how they used a few different spices to create a seasonal sweet flavor to pair with the almonds.  Alternatively, you could include a variety of nuts such as almonds, walnuts or pecans to make a nice selection of flavors.  Packaged up in little bags, these would make great hostess gifts.