Grape Nuts Bars

I love grape nuts and somehow this came up in conversation with a co-worker. He showed up the next day with a 4 pound box that was about 3/4 full! I didn't want to be eating grape nuts for the rest of my life so I decided to try a recipe on the back. It honestly took 5 minutes to make and they are really chewy and tasty and have tons of grains and fiber! Even my roommate who doesn't like grape nuts thought they were pretty good.

Grape Nuts Bars
1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup peanut butter
4 cups grape nuts cereal

Combine sugar, corn syrup and peanut butter in bowl and microwave for two minutes, stirring after each minute. Add cereal and stir in. But in a foil lined, greased 9 x 13 pan. Allow to cool completely. Then lift bars out on foil and cut into 30 pieces. Each piece had something like 140 calories and 2.5 grams of fat...give or take a bit!

I brought half of them for my co worker, we decided they would be good with chocolate, nuts, coconut, etc to make them like a granola bar!

Super Soft Bread

This bread was amazing right out of the oven and stayed soft for the next week! I found it...I got the recipe off of a blog I stalk: www.mymuffinthursdays.blogspot.com . Its my friend Ben's sister-in-law Emily whom I have never met but she has some pretty good recipes! I don't usually make bread, it seems to never turn out but this was super easy. Try it!!

Super Soft Wheat Bread

4 c warm water

1/4 c honey

1/4 c sugar (you can use all honey if you want)

1 1/2 T yeast

1/3 cup canola oil

5 tsp salt

8 or more cups flour (I started out with 6 wheat and 2 white but added quite a bit to get it unsticky)

Dissolve honey, sugar and yeast in warm water. Let this sit for a few minutes until everything is dissolved and there are bubbles forming on the top. Pour into mixer bowl, add canola oil, salt and 4 cups flour. Mix for 2-3 minutes.

Add 4 c flour and mix until dough pulls away from the side. You can either put flour on your counter, pull out the dough and knead by hand till it is smooth and elastic or you can do like I do and let the kitchen aid mixer do all the work.

Jamie's note here: There is an easy way to test when the dough is ready, you pull off a chunk and slowly stretch it between your hands. If it rips then its not ready, if it stays together and becomes really thin then you have enough gluten and its perfect. One of these days I will remember to take a picture of this step and show you!

Place in a large bowl, cover and let rise for an hour or until doubled. Its ready when you make an indentation in it with your finger and it stays indented.

Divide dough into 3 equal portions. Shape each loaf and place in sprayed bread pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until tops are browned. Or if you have a food thermometer stick it in and when the temp is 190 degrees and rising its done.

Allow to cool in pans for a few minutes and then pull them out. Enjoy!!