Homemade Larabars!

I am kind of obsessed with Larabars.  But they are way too expensive.  More than a dollar for one bar?  No thanks.  With the help of the bulk food section of my grocery store, I've set out to make my own Larabars.  I Googled the proportions and off I went.  It seems like in general you want 50% of your bars to be dates, with the other 50% comprising of whatever flavor you are striving for.  1 cup of "stuff" should make roughly 3 bars.

My first flavor I tried to duplicate was peanut butter and jelly, which are my all time favorite Larabars.  My recipe (this made 5 bars, but if I made them a little thinner this easily could have been 6):
1 cup dates
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 cup raisins (I wanted cherries, but they were sold out of dried cherries)
1 spoonful of creamy peanut butter
Pinch of kosher salt

The uncut product

Using my food processor, I mixed the dates, raisins, peanut butter, and salt until it formed a sticky ball, which I then transferred to a piece of plastic wrap.  I then chopped up the peanuts in the food processor, and added those to the plastic wrap.  I folded the plastic wrap over and smushed everything together, then flattened it out.  The result looked surprisingly like Larabars!

I then just cut up the mixture, individually wrapped them in plastic wrap and refrigerated them.  They taste....like Larabars!  These turned out fairly peanutty, so I think next time I might cut back on the amount of peanuts, but still pretty darn good. 

I also bought some dried mango and papaya, so tropical bars are next!

Pantry Turkey Chili

The best thing about experimenting with recipes is that I am gradually becoming more confident in my abilities to cook without a recipe.  I haven't been to the grocery store in several weeks, so tonight I decided to throw together a chili with what I had on hand, and it turned out great, in part because of my willingness to go big with spices.   So here's my recipe!  Warning, many amounts are approximate.  The best part of cooking is playing around with ingredients some.

Pantry Turkey Chili

Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
3 cans beans - whatever you have!  I had two cans of pinto beans and one of red beans.
1 red pepper
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced
2 cans diced tomato
1 can tomato paste
1 can green chilis
1 cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp cumin
1-2 tsp white pepper, to taste
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground mustard
1 Tbsp powdered garlic
1 Tbsp powdered onion
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
1.[Optional] Char your red pepper.  This isn't totally necessary, but it adds a bit of depth of flavor.  You can do this directly on your gas burner, or by popping it into the oven under your broiler for a couple of minutes.  Once your pepper is charred, let it cool slightly, remove the charred skin, de-seed and dice.

2. Saute your onion and garlic with a tiny bit of cooking oil of your choice.  If you plan on cooking your chili for several hours, you can actually skip this step, as it will cook in the chili.  Put your onions in your chili pot.

3. Cook your ground turkey in the same pan.  Season with the chili powder and salt & pepper to taste.  Drain grease and add to onions.

4.  Add all of the other ingredients to chili pot; make sure you drain your beans well.  If you prefer a thicker chili, reduce the amount of chicken broth by half.

5.  Cook on high until your chili begins to gently boil.  Reduce heat and cover.  Let the chili simmer for at least a half an hour, stirring occasionally.  The longer it cooks, the better it will taste!

6. Nom with corn chips.