Veggies, Granola, Roasted Chicken and Tomoato in a White Wine Sauce, and World Peace Cookies

So I haven't updated in two weeks. Sorry it has been crazy at work and Joel was up again this past weekend, which meant food adventures in DC! But let me start from last week and go in chronological order.

The weekend before this past one was a new adventure for me. I made my own granola! It was really easy and exciting, and an adventure I look forward to trying again with different ingredients (dried pumpkin, dried strawberries, gingersnaps, etc.) Inspired partly by my cousin Bev and the fact that I love granola and whole foods granola is totally over priced I thought I would venture into making my own. With great success I made about 8 cups and have already gone through it all. So this weekend will be making another batch. Now if I can only start making my own yogurt. I found a recipe so I can make it in my crockpot but Joel is a bit skeptical of the whole idea. I think I need to prove him wrong. Anyway, see below for the granola recipe Bev shared with me. To reduce to the calorie count, and because real maple syrup and honey is a bit out of my weekly budget for the amount I needed, I used apple sauce and regular pancake syrup (e.g. high fructose corn syrup). Can't wait till I'm bringing in the big bucks to afford real honey and maple syrup for my granola.

Unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the granola, but I have some in the oven right now and will post them when I blog about my homemade strawberry liquor, kahlua, spinach stuffed pork chops and world piece cookies!

In addition to making granola a couple of weekends ago I was inspire to make some ratatouille. I looked at a few different recipes and adapted them to my own taste and I was pretty happy with the results. The recipe below is my version. My ambition to make ratatouille however led to me buying more squash and eggplant then I needed. So for dinner I did a squash and eggplant Parmesan.

But the real highlight was last weekend Joel came up again and we did this roasted chicken thighs with heirloom tomatoes in white wine. It was simple and easy. And though I am not a fan of tomatoes the heirloom tomatoes that I got at the farmers market were delicious. I just may have to start eating tomatoes.

Granola Recipe:
4 heaping cups of old fashioned oatmeal
1 tsp of cinnamon (or more)+1tsp of apple pie or pumpkin pie spice
Pinch of salt

3 oz of apple sauce
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Mix first group into a large bowl. Add second group into a measuring cup. I suggest measuring out the oil first and then the honey. Combine the wet ingredients into the bowl. Transfer to a jelly roll pan or cake pan. Distribute the mixture evenly on the pan.

Bake at 310 degrees. I bake for 60 minutes - every 15 minutes I stir the mixture and then distribute evenly.

Ratatouille:
4 zucchinis
4 small eggplants (approximately the same size as zucchinis)
1 big + 1 small red onion
1 small tomato
1 clove garlic
olive oil
dried herbs: rosemary, thyme, parsley, chives, marjoram
sea salt
ground black pepper

Slice zucchinis, eggplants, larger onion and peppers as thin as possible. Line them in concentric circles on an oiled round baking pan in the following order: eggplant, zucchini, and onion. Place de seeded and sliced tomatoes on top with slices of red onion. Continue until you have the ingredients. Dimension of the pan depends on the amount of vegetables. Pour oil over. Sprinkle with herbs, salt and black pepper and pour very little water so the vegetables don't burn inside the oven. Bake in a preheated oven on 220°C for about 15-20 minutes. This time is for very thinly sliced vegetables, if you slice them thicker, you should probably bake it a bit more, until the eggplants are done.

Roasted Chicken Thighs w/Tomatoes in White Wine:

• 1 1/2 pounds combo of chicken drumsticks and thighs
• 1 tomato (or more if you want)
  
• 4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 tablespoons dry white wine

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Rinse and pat dry the chicken.
3. Place chicken in a baking dish. Place tomatoes around chicken. Sprinkle with chopped garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and white wine. Cook for 45 – minutes or until chicken is cooked through. If it starts to brown too much place foil on top to prevent burning.
4. Serve.