Sunday, October 14, 2007

LUNCH TREATS

No Tastykakes or Hostess for my boys!!

I love making different treats every week to pack in everyone's lunches. Doug and Andrew take a lunch every day to work and Billy and Tommy are both out of the house once or twice a week when they need a packed lunch. So, even though we are a homeschooling family, we have lunches to pack.

Andrew and Billy have been asking for this treat for a while, and I finally got to them today. They are individual pumpkin pies. I freeze them and by the time the boys are ready for lunch, the pies have thawed. I got the recipe from http://www.30daygourmet.com/ . You can find the recipe here .

Basically, you make a 2 crust recipe for pie crust. I use your basic 2 cups flour, 2/3 cup crisco, 1 tsp salt and enough water to make it come together.


The recipe calls for using a custard cup to cut out circles. I have cutters that I use to make english muffins, so I use them instead.



I got more crusts than I had filling for, so we used the extra for dessert tonight. I sliced apples in small pieces and sauteed them in a little butter with brown sugar and cinnamon. I filled the cooked crusts with the apple mixture, topped it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of homemade chocolate syrup. The syrup was Doug's idea and it was a big hit!


I froze them on a tray and then put them in a gallon baggie in the freezer so I can take them out one at a time.

Another lunch box favorite of ours is granola bars. These are really delicious. I wrap them individually in saran wrap so they are easy to just grab. Wrapping them individually also keeps them fresh longer, not that this has ever been a problem. They go pretty fast!

I got the recipe originally from a Gooseberry Patch cookbook, but I've changed it a bit to make it a little healthier.

1/2 cup butter (softened)

1 cup brown sugar

2 Tbls honey

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 cup oats

1 1/4 cup rice crispies

1/4 tsp salt

combine butter with sugar, honey, egg, and vanilla. Mix well.

stir in flour, oats, rice crispies, and salt

at this point, you can add whatever you like. I like to use a small handful of mini chocolate chips and a small handful of butterscotch chips. You can add coconut, raisins, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, nuts. You get the idea.

press mixture into a greased 9 x 13 pan (if you wet your hands with cold water and shake the water off, you can press it down without having it stick to your hands)

bake @ 350* for 20 minutes

Cool for a couple of minutes and then cut while still warm (not hot). I cut it once down the middle longways and then cut each half into 10 slices to get 20 granola bar looking shapes.


I hope you try these, they are really awesome!!

5 comments:

~Bren~ said...

2 incredible recipes...I will be trying both of these!

Peggy said...

I wish I had made these over the weekend for the grands! They could have helped make alot for my freezer.

Mary said...

How do you get the little pies out of the muffin pans? Do you just tip them over? Do you grease and flour first?

Thank you!
mary

ann said...

Mary,
I didn't grease the pan. They just come right out. They don't stick at all. I didn't turn them upside down, because I didn't want to wreck the filling. I just kind of tipped the pan up a bit and coaxed them out with a knife.

Thanks for visiting.

Anonymous said...

I had a sample pie today! Yum! Thanks for thinking of me!

Your Bro