Magic Raspberry Cookie Bars

Call me an aunty, but I love pecans! From butter pecan ice cream to desserts with pecans to salads topped with pecans, I think it makes (almost) anything taste delicious. The pecans and coconut flakes make this the ultimate uncle/aunty dessert.

Ingredients:

2 cups keebler graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup margarine or 1/2 cup butter, melted

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/4 cups red raspberry preserves

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

1 cup chopped pecans or 1 cup walnuts

1. In a small bowl, combine crumbs and sugar. Add butter, Toss until combined. Press onto bottom of 13x9" baking pan.

2. Evenly drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over crumbs. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. 

3. Spoon preserves over top. The original recipe calls for seedless raspberry preserves, but I couldn't find seedless at the store. I think the seeds added a nice texture and crunch to the bars.

4. Sprinkle evenly with coconuts and pecans. 

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until lightly brown.

6. Cool completely and cut into bars. Store, loosely covered, at room temperature.

(Recipe was taken from the back of Keebler's graham cracker crumbs box.)

Peanut Butter and Nutella Bars

The original recipe from Ina Garten is called Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars. But I don't even like PB & J sandwiches. So I thought, what goes really well with peanut butter? Chocolate! And what's the perfect gooey chocolate spread that I can use for the center of my bars? Nutella!

Ingredients:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (you can buy imitation vanilla extract without alcohol)
2 extra-large eggs
2 cups (18 ounces) creamy peanut butter (recommended: Skippy)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups (18 ounces) Nutella
2-3 Heath Bars


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. I couldn't find the electric mixer attachment to my hand held mixer, so I just used the blender attachment.

4. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

5. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, and baking powder. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

6. Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom with a knife or offset spatula.

7. Spread the Nutella evenly over the dough.

8. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the Nutella. Don't worry if all the Nutella isn't covered; it will spread in the oven.

9. Sprinkle with crumbled Heath bars and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.

Sweet and Spicy Green Beans

These Chinese style green beans have a secret ingredient: honey. We know the importance of honey in the Sunnah; the Prophet (s) loved honey, and he used it to cure many ailments including stomach illness. He advised a man who had stomach issues to take honey. The man returned to him and told him that his stomach was still hurting, and the Prophet was so confident in the healing power of honey that he told the man that his stomach was lying to him. I was also told that eating local honey (honey made from bees in your local area) is a great way to build your immune system against local allergens. I try to eat a teaspoon of honey everyday. I really feel the difference when I eat it consistently. I use honey instead of syrup on my waffles, and I sometimes put honey in my tea. When I have a sore throat, I take a spoon full of honey with a couple drops of lemon juice and sprinkle a little black pepper on top. My brother unpeels a whole banana, puts it on a plate, and drizzles it with honey and eats it with a fork!

My husband, on the other hand, still needs to warm up to honey. When he was sick, I used to have to shove the spoon in his mouth in order for him to take honey. I got the Sue Bee Pure Clover honey from Sam's club and he seems to like it a lot better. The texture is not as thick and viscous as other honey. If you don't like the taste or texture of honey, this is a great way to hide it in your food, and it adds a nice flavor!

Ingredients:

Green beans, washed
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsps honey
2 tbsps soy sauce
2 tbsps of your favorite hot sauce (I used chili garlic sauce)
2 tbsps olive oil
1/2 tbsp garlic ginger paste

1. Set a pot of water to boil. Cut the stems off the green beans and cut them in half. Boil green beans for 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a medium pot or frying pan. Fry garlic and ginger paste and onions until onions are translucent.

3. Drain green beans and add to onions. Add in the other sauces and honey and cook on medium for another 10 minutes, or until green beans are tender. I don't like to cook green beans until they are too soft and mushy, I like them to have some firmness to them.

Pesto Chicken Pasta

I love basil! Basil has such a strong aroma and adds an amazing kick to anything you put it in. You can add it to salads, put it in paninis, and garnish pasta. This was my first time making pesto chicken pasta and I just knew that I would fall in love with it because this recipe uses basil as one of the main ingredients for the pasta sauce.

Ingredients:

1 pound of grilled chicken cubes, from previous post

2 cups rinsed basil

1/2 to 1 cup pine nuts (or walnuts)

4-5 cloves garlic

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3/4 tbsp salt 

2 cups olive oil

1 box Penne pasta, whole grain
optional: 2 green chillies and some red chili powder

The night before:

1. Grill 1 lb boneless chicken and cut into small cubes if you haven't done so already from the previous recipe. While the chicken is grilling, move on to the next step.

2. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and lightly toast the pine nuts until they are golden. Pine nuts are expensive, so you may also use walnuts, although I've never tried it. Stir frequently. Don't walk away from the nuts while they are toasting. I always make that mistake and I end up burning them. 

3. Blend together basil, pine nuts, and garlic cloves in a food processor. The basil already adds a zesty flavor to the sauce, but for an extra kick, blend in 2 green chillies and 1/2 tsp red chili powder. Don't worry, it doesn't make the sauce too spicy.

4. Add the Parmesan cheese, salt, and some of the olive oil; blend well. Keep adding the olive oil little by little and blending to the consistency you like. If you want a thinner sauce, add more oil. You shouldn't have to use the entire 2 cups, I used only about 1 cup.

5. Save chicken and pesto sauce in separate containers and place in the refrigerator overnight.



After work:

6. Boil the *whole grain* Penne pasta, following the directions on the box. If you haven't tried whole grain pasta, you can barely taste the difference from white-flour pasta. I used Barilla whole grain pasta. Higher in fiber, lower in carbs.

7. In a pot over the stove, mix pasta with pesto sauce, adding only a little at a time until pasta is well covered in sauce. Warm up chicken and mix in to the pasta. Serve warm and enjoy!

8. You should have plenty of pesto sauce left over. You can save it in the refrigerator for later on in the week, or keep it in the freezer for next month. I used less than half of the sauce that was made with this recipe.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

I grilled about 2 pounds of boneless chicken cubes on my grill pan. I just marinated it in olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice before putting it on the grill pan. You can use this chicken all week to make different lunch meals. 

You can boil some pasta, top with spaghetti sauce and mix in the chicken. Or, you can make a nice big salad with baby spinach, carrots, bell peppers, cucumbers, toasted sesame seeds, pecans, craisins, and feta cheese, and toss in the chicken pieces. Yes, I go all out with my salads and I love it. Make sure you pack the grilled chicken separately so that you can warm it up before mixing it into your salad. I could eat it for dinner too, but that probably wouldn't fly with the husband.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound grilled chicken, dice into smaller pieces

2 stalks celery, chopped

1/2 cup mayonnaise 

1 tbs honey Dijon mustard (make sure there is no white whine in the ingredients)

salt and pepper, to taste

slices of your favorite bread, I use honey wheat bread

lettuce

1. Mix the chopped chicken, celery, honey Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper, and mayonnaise in a large bowl. Add the mayonnaise last and mix in little by little until you get the consistency of your liking.

2. Lightly toast the bread in a toaster oven. I do this to keep the bread from becoming soggy overnight and the next day before lunch. You can always slap on the chicken salad mixture on the bread in the morning, but I'm not a morning person and I like to grab all my things and run out the door.

3. Spread a generous amount of chicken salad one slice of bread. Top with lettuce, cut sandwich diagonally, and wrap tightly in aluminum foil. 

4. Refrigerate over night. 

You can make a larger amount of chicken salad and save the rest to make sandwiches one or two days later. Perfect for lunches and picnics!