Kat's "in 5 minutes flat" meals...

Leftover Fritatta



It's been a rough week here, hence the radio silence from kat ate that. I'm knee deep in a stroppy toddler and an intense preschooler. Both have been challenging their Mummy beyond my capacities this week, not helped by my husband being out of town and some other perfect storm circumstances.

Nevertheless, we still haven't eaten junk food or prepackaged dinners or even eaten out. So, I thought, therein lies my blog topic. I've been pondering for some time, how to write about the meals that I pull together in a snap. Lets face it, there are some days when we just don't have the time or inclination to plan and prepare earlier in the day. So I thought it might be interesting to start a series of my "in 5 minutes flat" meals. This is not rocket science, but we all run out of ideas sometimes so I thought putting some of this down might help both me and any readers in a similar position.

My typical week of meals involves, maybe, 3 complete "from scratch" meals, and the rest of the week I will use some of the leftovers as a base for a different meal, make one of my "in 5 minutes flat" meals or defrost a tasty something I've made a few weeks before.

I tend to cook as though I'm feeding a family of 8; when I roast up vegetables I will fill my (tiny) oven to the brim and use the leftover vegetables the following lunch or evening for something. Same for any meat, then I'll chop up the leftovers in any number of ways the following night. I generally cook extra rice or other grains when I make them and use them the next day in some way.

So today I'm offering a couple of my most trusty "go to" meals; Tortilla Pizza and Leftovers Fritatta. The "pizza" below was served with edamame before as I had no suitable vegetables at the ready. My fritatta was composed of leftover potato, broccoli and a few last crumbles of low fat feta. Anything goes!

I'm somewhat embarrassed to write these up as a recipe, but here goes. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts and ideas. I'm all ears!

Tortilla Pizza



Tortilla Pizza is always well received by the munchkins



Ingredients

Wholewheat tortillas (or flatbread, naan bread or pitta bread)

Pizza sauce (I frequently use pesto, but have been known to use bruschetta topping, tapenade, or whatever I have left in the fridge needing used)

Cheese (I have used fresh mozzarella, goats cheese, feta, cheddar, whatever I have)

leftover veg (roasted broccoli, corn, zucchini)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F
2. Assemble the "pizzas" on a baking sheet
3. Cook for approx 8-10 minutes until crispy on the bottom.

If I have no suitable leftover vegetables I will serve either carrot sticks or edamame as an appetizer.

All good.

Leftovers Fritatta

Serves 4

Ingredients

4-5 eggs
1/4 cup of low fat or non fat greek yogurt or low fat sour cream
salt and pepper
2 cups leftovers (vegetables, potatoes, cooked meat)
1/4 cup feta cheese or cheese of your choice
chopped herbs of your choice

Directions

1. Beat the eggs and yogurt until combined well and season
2. Stir in the other ingredients
3. Preheat a small ovenproof skillet on medium and add a little oil
4. Pour in the egg mixture and move around in the pan for a few minutes until the fritatta starts to set
5. When the fritatta is well cooked on the bottom transfer the skillet to the broiler and broil until the top of the fritatta is fully cooked also.
6. Serve with a salad or any other leftover vegetables

Enjoy!

A Risotto that hits all the right spots

Can you tell what's different?

We're still both tantalising close and yet months away from warm weather here; Spring in the Northeast can be a cruel, hope crusher. Last week, we donned shorts and teeshirts, slapped on some suncream and even trotted out the patio furniture. This week, we've already had snow and more is in the forecast for tomorrow. Humph.

All this leaves me very confused as to what to buy in my weekly supermarket sweep, and then what to cook on any given day. One day I feel like a salad and grilled food, the next, risotto. Today, with snow on the horizon again, it's the latter. I've intended on posting a version of this for a while; Mark Bittman turned the light on for me that, brown rice can also be used for risotto. Until I realised that, eating risotto for me was a guilty pleasure, but not now. I love the texture and nutty flavor the brown rice lends to risotto; it's a different dish for sure, but equally tasty and significantlt more nutritious.

I have to say, I've been a touch intimidated regarding the posting of a risotto. In my family, there are a number of foodies; to name a couple, my brother is "in the business" and knows his way around a kitchen in a more expert way than I for sure (check him out: http://thecoffeeboys.com/blog/).

My cousin, of guest post fame, is no slouch in the kitchen either; they recently told me of their plan for a "risotto off". The basic premise; both contestants feel very sure that no-one can surpass their "epic" risottos, so they'll cook them on the same night and have some "impartial" tasters rate them. They love a good bit of competition; I do not, so I immediately withdrew my interest and went quiet on my recipe.

A little time has passed and I had some asparagus and baby bella mushrooms waiting patiently to be put to good use and what better than a wholesome brown rice risotto. Ok, I'll enter the family risotto arena I thought. Here goes:

Brown Rice Risotto

Brown Rice Risotto

Ingredients

2 cups/400g short grain rice
approx 1quart/1 litre chicken broth
1 cup/ 250 ml white wine
2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
1 small onion chopped finely
1 clove garlic, finely chopped or minced
roasted veg of your choice (I used asparagus and baby bella mushrooms, chopped into bitesize pieces)
2 oz/ 50g finely grated parmesan
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoon finely chopped herbs of your choice (I used thyme and sage)

Directions

1. Bring a medium pot of water up to the boil, add the rice and boil for 12 minutes.
2. Drain the rice and set aside (I often do this part earlier in the day and refrigerate the rice until ready to assemble the risotto)
3. Place the vegetables you are using on a rasting pan, drizzle with olive oil, season and roast at 400°C for approx 15 minutes.
4. Remove and set aside.
5. Heat the butter or oil on medium high, in a large heavy bottomed pot, and fry the onions until softened; 2-3 minutes. Then  add the garlic and cook a further 1 minute
6. Meanwhile heat the broth and wine together in a medium pot
7. Add the rice to the onions mixture and stir around for a few minutes until coated with the oils and flavors.
8. Turn the heat down to low and add enough of the warmed liquid to just cover the rice.
9. Stir until the liquid is all absorbed, then do the same again. Stir stir stir...
10. This process will take approx 35 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed. Add more if it needs it.
11. When the rice is cooked, add the roasted vegetables, cheese and herbs.
12. Stir to combine and serve immediately.

A couple of notes on the recipe:

• great vegetable substitutes are roasted butternut squash and sage or pea and mint or basil. Anything goes really.
• As I was stirring tonight (a rare 30 undisturbed minutes for me, thanks to Tigger and Poo), I actually really enjoyed the simple pleasure of standing at the stove. However, I'm under no illusion that many of us can't commit that time to a risotto on a week night, so I got out my Delia Smith cookbooks. Delia has a couple of fantastic risotto recipes in her "How to Cook" books which are oven baked. If it works with arborio rice I strongly suspect it will work with the precooked brown, so I''ll test that and post an add on to this if it is worth doing.
• Oh and my 4 year old ate this (after a gentle nudge), the 2 year old ate only 1 bite.  I won't give up trying!

Update: 8/7/2013

Smoked Salmon Lemony Zucchini Risotto (Totally Yummy!)

I tried an awesome new version tonight, loosely based on Mark Bittman's Lemony Zucchini Risotto. 

Here's how it goes:

After 15 mins of stirring, add 2 yellow squash, grated. These will cook down and evaporate just like the broth, then continue adding broth and stirring until the rice is cooked. 

I also added smoked salmon, right at the end with a whole lemon, zested and juiced and about 3/4 cup of pecorino. Really, really good.

Enjoy!

A versatile and tasty Quinoa Paella



It's been a tricky week for my food blog inspiration. As I publicly proclaimed in my last post, I've had it up to here with being just slightly over my "fighting weight". Actually the bits that are over are my love handles on my jeans.

Anyway, this week also coincided with St. Patricks Day (for those of you who live in a bubble), so I instantly fell off the wagon and made Irish Tea Bread. I blame my Mum; she emailed my the recipe just in time. Plus, I couldn't send my daughter to school on St. Patrick's day with an all American muffin or granola bar; just not traditional Irish enough. So off she went with her tea bread, fully prepped to educate her teachers and class on what it was called, how it was made (she helped me).

However, sorry to disappoint, but I just can't bring myself to post that recipe yet. I need to be true to my word and give you the healthy options only; at least for the next week or 2 anyway! And I honestly didn't eat that much of the tea bread!

So, I am continuing to love love love Lorna Sass's fabulous book; Wholegrains for Busy People. Honestly, I can't find a recipe in there that does not appeal to me. Lorna manages to make cooking with wholegrains both appetizing and attainable without using a lot of obscure "healthy" ingredients.

So I've been working on a tweak of one of her recipes; a one pot quinoa dish based loosely on paella. It started with me looking for a reason to use smoked paprika. I dream about that spice! I just love it's complexity; when I add it to a dish it tastes like I've blended a whole bunch of spices in a fancy chef like way!

Notes on the recipe:

I'm presenting this recipe as I cooked it last night, but feel free to add more or less peas or substitute with another crunchy green vegetable such as broccoli, green beans or even seasonal (did I mention it's Spring!) asparagus. You could use fresh or roasted red peppers, and more or less chorizo. I'm sure you get my drift; it's a flexible recipe.

Quinoa Paella

Serves 6-8 (plenty for leftover lunch the next day)

Ingredients

1 lb/450g chicken or shrimp (chicken cut into approx 1" pieces)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons smoked spanish paprika

2 garlic cloves (minced or finely chopped)

pinch of red pepper flakes (or more to taste)

11/2 quarts/ 1500ml chicken broth

1 rounded tablespoon tomato paste

3 cups/ 18 oz/ 510g quinoa

1 1/2 cups/ 6oz/ 170g chopped chorizo

2 cups/ 8oz/ 225g frozen peas

1 cup/ 8oz/ 225g roasted red peppers (chopped)

1 teaspoon sweet chili sauce (or more to taste)

Directions

1. Heat a large deep pan or skillet, on medium high and add the olive oil. When hot add the chicken or shrimp.
2. Cook for about 2-3 minutes (or until cooked through) then remove
3. Add the chorizo, paprika, garlic and red pepper flakes and cook a further 2-3 minutes
4. Add the chicken broth, stir up the bottom to release the tasty bits, then add the tomato paste
5. Add the quinoa and simmer for approx 12 minutes
6. Add the chicken or shrimp and cook a further 2 minutes
7. Finally add the peas and peppers
8. Serve

This is the double whammy; healthy comfort food.

A last hurrah for overindulgence...

ahhh...chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies



I've come to the conclusion, after years and years of trying to lose a few pounds after the holidays, that it's impossible to address tubbiness, until March at the earliest. I find myself firmly in comfort mode until the first signs of Spring.

Well woo hoo, Spring has sprung in the north east of America. We have sightings of crocus (-i?) in our front garden, all the snow is gone and finally we seem both alarmingly and tantalizingly close to the skimpy clothes of summer time. Skimpy is all relative mind you; I am 40 now after all!

Speaking of which, this past weekend was the official celebration of my husband's and my 40th! We're like The Queen, you know, we have a real birthday and an official birthday (to celebrate with the masses). So some of our oldest friends and family kindly came over/up/across to help us celebrate. Such fun! Enough said; no details required! If you read my cousin's guest post at the weekend, you'll know there were good food and drinks involved (and a babysitter!)

So time to get serious with the healthy eating to really make a difference to the scales. I publicly declared last night that I'd had enough with the extra 5-7 lbs which have been hanging around like a bad smell for the last year. Huh? You're wondering; doesn't she always make healthy food? Mostly yes, but my love of food makes portion control difficult and I have a borderline addiction to chocolate and ice cream! Actually these pesky pounds mostly crept on, in a monumentally greedy 6 weeks over a year ago. I've just not been disciplined enough with my portion control since then, to kick them to touch.

So here's my last hurrah from the weekend past, then the decadence of the winter must be put in check.

This recipe, to be honest, is the first recipe I thought of putting on my blog. Every time I bake these cookies, they are eaten with such gusto and lip smacking that, without fail, the recipe is asked for. The recipe is a Martha Stewart one and largely unchanged. All I've added are a few extra tips as they can be a little bit tricky at times.They really are so worth the attention to detail though. Read on...

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

adapted from http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chewy-chocolate-gingerbread-cookies

makes approx 20 cookies

Ingredients

7 oz bittersweet chocolate chips (I use ghirardelli 60%)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup/ 4 oz) unsalted butter, softened

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
2. Sift together the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cocoa, in a medium bowl
3. Using an electric mixer, with the paddle attached, beat the butter and grated ginger until they turn a light cream color.
4. Add the brown sugar, beat to combine and then add the molasses. Beat again until combined
5. Combine the baking soda with 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water and stir to dissolve. Mine never dissolves completely so don't worry.
6. With the mixer on low, add half of the flour mixture, then mix slowly to combine.
7. Then add the baking soda mixture, mix again.
8. Then add the remainder of the flour and mix again until combined.
9. Finally add the chocolate and mix one last time until just combined.
10. At any of these points only mix until combined. Over mixing will produce a tough cookie.
11. Scrape the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disc approx 2" thick.
12. Wrap up and place in the refrigerator for approx 2 hours or until firm. Sometimes I throw it in the freezer to speed up this process.
13. Heat the oven to 325°F
14. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll into balls of approx 1 1/2"
15. Place them on a cookie sheet and cool again in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
16. Put the sugar in a cereal sized bowl and roll the balls in it until completely covered.
17. Put them in the oven as soon as quickly as possible; if the dough is too warm it will spread and burn more easily.
18. Bake for approx 11 minutes or until the surface just begins to crack. They will still be very soft when you take them out of the oven.
19. Let them cool on the baking tray for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. If you move them too quickly they will fall apart.
20. Watch these cookies closely; they burn easily due to the molasses and dark brown sugar. It's 2 minutes between a perfectly baked cookie and a burnt bottom.

We made ice cream sandwiches with these last weekend, using vanilla ice cream. They were obscenely good!!

A couple more notes:

• I keep my fresh ginger in the freezer and grate it frozen. If you're doing that, add more than a tablespoon of ginger as it seems to grate up with more volume when frozen.
• Measure your molasses and boiling water very carefully for this recipe; if you overdo either your cookie will spread too much and burn easily.
• I use the Barefoot Contessa's (http://www.barefootcontessa.com/) method of measuring flour usually; I stir up the flour to lighten it and then scoop out the necessary amount. I use the handle of my spoon to scrape off the excess.

Enjoy!

A little bit of visiting Irish appetizer and an apperitif



Hi everyone, this is kat ate that's cousin and friend, visiting the U S of A all the way from Northern Ireland (best place in the world for anyone who's never visited and that's not just because I'm paid to say that - check it out for yourself http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/). 

Anyway, with a little coercion, I've persuaded kat to allow me to guest blog (am very excited) and share with you all my pre dinner concoctions from last night (a specified pre-trip kat instruction - no such thing as a free holiday anymore). 

I'd also like to take the opportunity to introduce you to Delia Smith - the godmother of British celebrity chefs - all great recipes start with a touch of Delia and in my experience following her recipes you can never go wrong.  My version of Frijolemole is based on one of Delia's recipes; its a variation on a hummus type dip and in the spirit of "kat ate that" I have:

a) tried to be healthy-ish (go easy on the chips); and,
b) improvised (which to be fair wasn't actually by choice; "she" didn't buy me all my ingredients)

So here goes....

My Frijolemole

based on (http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/exotic/mexican/frijolemole.html),

Ingredients

1 tin chickpeas/ garbanzo beans (440g)

1 medium white onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

juice of 1 lime

1 fresh chilli

a few drops of tobasco sauce

fresh chopped coriander (cilantro for you American readers)

2 tablespoons soured cream (low fat

salt and pepper

1 red pepper finely diced

Directions

1. Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil for about 10 minutes until soft (do not brown)
2. Drain the tin of chickpeas and put in the food processor with some salt and pepper
3. Add the fried onion and garlic and the juice of the lime and blend to a smoothish paste (yesterday I added a splash of milk and a drizzle of olive oil while blending to soften)
4. Empty the puree into a bowl and add the chilli, tobasco, coriander, sour cream and salt and pepper to taste
5. Finally add the red pepper (the original recipe does not include red pepper but adds a chopped fresh tomato and 3 spring onions - however, as I said kat didn't shop properly so I improvised with a red pepper which actually was very tasty)

Serve with warm pitta bread (for health) and corn chips (for tastiness) - de-licious!

And then flavour with........

Boozeberry Fizz



Last week at home I was introduced to Boozeberries Irish Liquer - I will never look back and therefore feel is my duty to convert as many boozeberries virgins as possible - http://www.boozeberries.com/.

I (kindly) brought a bottle of the wild cranberry flavour with me under my oxter*. Last night we combined it with prosecco to create a (new to me) taste sensation (Joyce, you'd love it!).  Clearly, no recipe required.

Enjoy!

* colloquial Northern Irish for armpit

Real Food for St. Patrick's Day

I have something to get off my chest about St. Patrick's Day in America. We Irish people do not eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patricks Day, or any other day for that matter. Nor was it a tradition to do so in years gone by. One of the most traditional meals eaten is "bacon and cabbage" but the corned beef was substituted when the Irish emigrated to America and (like me) could not readily locate or afford back bacon.

And another thing; the soda bread masquerading in your local Supermarket as Irish, is nothing like real soda bread. To me it tastes like a huge, stale, oversweetened scone. Eucchh! Real soda bread is not sweet and rarely has raisins in it. It's a simple bread made of flour, baking soda, buttermilk and salt. Thats it!  There, I feel better now!

So, in honor of these facts, I am offering a few alternatives that really are Irish. I have been poring over Darina Allen's book, Irish Traditional Cooking and Malachi McCormick's, Irish Country cooking.  Straight bacon and cabbage is just not my favorite, but if you want a good authentic recipe here's a great link to the Winner of the Best Irish Food Blog 2010; Donal Skehan and his version of the classic:

http://www.donalskehan.com/beta/2010/03/good-auld-bacon-and-cabbage/

I also would encourage you to refer to my posts on Iris's Wheaten Bread or Irish Lasagna .

As usual my obsession with baking got the better of me, so my contribution to your St. Patrick's Day, is a Brown Soda Bread recipe. I just couldn't bring myself to use all white flour or all purpose flour so I made the wholegrain or brown soda bread. I should add though, that the brown soda bread is equally authentic. I also learned from Darina Allen, that traditionally the bread would have been cooked in a pot oven, called a bastible, beside an open fire.

I realise, after researching the food of Ireland a little more, that my love of simple, unpretentious food is in my genes. I hadn't thought of it this way before, but Irish food relies on good quality, fresh ingredients. Historically, however, there was not a huge variety of ingredients available. Sometimes too, basics were scarce; even flour at times was scarce. Hence the love of the versatile potato; making it into breads, soups and everything in between.

Anyway, this bread is a prime example of simplicity. 4 ingredients and 10 minutes are all that is needed to get a tasty wholesome bread in the oven. Be warned, do not over handle this dough; it needs a light hand and as soon as it pulls together, get it in the oven. Overworking it will surely give you a tough bread.

Brown Soda Bread

adapted from Darina Allen's book Irish Traditional Cooking

random note: notice our snow is finally almost gone!!! It's been over 2 months since we've seen grass here. This week, the girls and I have been searching the garden, for evidence of the Spring fairy, in vain yet.

The recipe yields 2 loaves as seen.

Ingredients

4 cups wholewheat flour
4 cups all purpose flour
3 heaping teaspoons salt
2 heaping teaspoons baking soda
3- 3 1/4 cups sour milk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
3. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Make a well in the center and add most of the buttermilk.
5. With clean hands, mix the dough together, starting from the center.
6. Add more milk as needed to achieve a dough that is soft but not sticky.
7. On a floured board or using cleaned, then floured hands, form the dough into 2 flattened discs about 2" thick. Don't be too concerned if it's not completely mixed together; if you overhandle it the result will be tough bread. Just blob it together and plop on the cookie sheet.
8. Place the dough on the cookie sheet with a little space between them for growing
9. Take a large knife and cut a cross almost through to the bottom of the dough
10. Place in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes then reduce the heat to 400°F for a further 25 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
11. Enjoy this bread warm with butter and jam; ours was gobbled up at snacktime today by 2 hungry monsters and their parents.



A couple of notes:

• This is a very flexible recipe; traditional wholewheat flour in Ireland is coarser than ours in the US so feel free to add a bit more fiber; perhaps wheat germ, bran, oat bran, or ground flax seed.
• You could also make these into scones by simply patting the discs to 1" and cutting out wedges. Bake for less time.

Enjoy!





The Best Granola Bars Ever

At last I've cracked it! With the help of "the wholegrain gourmet", I have found a recipe for granola bars that doesn't taste like it's good for you. What I'm trying to say if these granola bars are super tasty. As you may have read before, I've been searching and testing granola bar recipes for a while. I object to buying granola bars filled with unpronounceable ingredients that aren't good for us, not to mention the expense.

The wholegrain gourmet website has a lot of good recipes; well worth a look at. This recipe is a adaptation of their Coconut Almond Granola Bar recipe. I like it because it has minimal sweeteners, lots and lots of wholegrains, for a longer energy boost and it uses coconut oil (but not much) as the fat. This could be replaced by canola oil if you don't have.

I tested my latest attempt on a few friends, as well as the family and they got a resounding 2 thumbs up. The only refuser is my 4 year old on the grounds of visible nuts. "I'll soon fix that" I thought. Grind them longer in the food processor or in fact leaving them out altogether is a possibility too.

These really are easy to prepare; I recommend making a double batch and freezing what you can't eat in 3 days. Wrap them in plastic wrap and then into a freezer bag. They really freeze beautifully. 

The Best Granola Bars Ever

adapted from http://www.wholegraingourmet.com/recipes/57/52.html

Yields one 9x13" pan

Ingredients

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup 10 grain cereal (I used Bob's red mill but any multigrain cereal for making into hot cereal would do)

1/2 cup wheat germ (or oat bran, wheat bran or ground flax seeds)

1 1/2 cups almonds 

1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds

1/2 cup honey or 1/3 cup agave nectar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil (usually solid when you purchase it)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup dried fruit of your choice (I used apricots and cherries)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup shredded coconut (I used sweetened, if you have unsweetened, increase the honey a little)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Lightly grease the pan with coconut oil
3. Place the almonds in the food processor and pulse until the size you like. Be careful not to over pulse or you will have almond butter!
4. Remove the almonds and place the dried fruit in the processor. Pulse until finely chopped.
5. In a large bowl, mix the oats, cereal, wheat germ, almonds, sesame seeds and shredded coconut. Then place this mixture on a large rimmed baking sheet and put in the oven for approx 15 minutes to toast up. Stir 2 or 3 times during the toasting time.
6. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, combine the coconut oil, honey/ agave, vanilla and salt and warm on a medium low heat until melted and combined; for about 5 minutes. 
7. Remove the cereal mixture from the oven, reduce the heat to 300°F and mix the cereal with the honey/oil mixture. Stir to combine well and add the dried fruit. Stir to combine and finally add the chocolate. Stir quickly as the chocolate will melt.
8. Working quickly, pour the mixture into the baking pan and press firmly down using the back of a spatula (or your clean hands) 
9. Bake for 25 minutes.
10. Slice the granola bars after 5 minutes cooling in the pan. Then leave to cool completely in the pan
11. You will need to slice again and be careful not to break up the bars as you slice. I held down the mixture with one hand and sliced with the other. I also cut mine into squares as it seemed easier not to break them up by doing that (not to mention they look more like cookies that way!)
12. If you are going to freeze them make sure they are completely cool before doing so

Enjoy!

A couple of notes:

I haven't yet tried the nut free version for my 4 year old, but I plan on increasing the rest of the dry ingredients to replace the lost volume of nuts. When I test this I will add a comment to this recipe.