A more healthful Bite

I love the little oatcakes that are commonly called Aussie Bites, but the sugar and butter calories are pretty daunting for those of us watching our weight, or our sugar and fat intake. 

So here's my attempt to make some with no cholesterol (although it does have saturated fat) and far less sugar. 

I made them in a mini-muffin tin that has 24 indentions; the batter makes 4 dozen, and it keeps well for several days in the refrigerator.

Lori K’s Aussie Bites

Makes about 4 dozen

Ingredients

½ cup coconut oil

½ cup honey

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups rolled oats, uncooked

1½ cups flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup raisins

¾ cup sliced almonds or chopped nuts

Instructions

Mix the first four ingredients until smooth. Add the rest a little at a time until everything is well mixed. Press into mini-muffin cups (24) and bake until golden, 13-15 minutes.

Oats on the go

Oatmeal is good for you, whole-grain goodness in a bowl. But hot cereal isn't all that appealing until the temperatures go down. In the meantime, you can get the same benefit from energy bars that list oats as their primary ingredient, but at a dollar or more per bar, the costs can add up. And even if oats is listed first, are you really getting a full serving of the grain, or are the other ingredients cutting into that?

You can make your own at home, using the microwave. To form them, use a sheet of aluminum foil sprayed or brushed with olive oil, or if you have a silicon cookie sheet liner, use that to be even more green.

Lori K's energy bar

Ingredients
1/3 cup of oats (5-minute rolled oats work best)
2 tablespoons chopped peanuts, pecans or walnuts, or raisins or chopped dried fruits, or a combination of these
2 tablespoons honey
Salt to taste (optional)
1 tablespoon of powdered sugar

Instructions
Put the oats, nuts and/or fruit in a microwave-safe bowl. Drizzle with honey. Put in the microwave and cook for 1 minute. Take out and stir with a metal spoon (plastic will melt). Put back in the microwave for 20 seconds. (If you see smoke, remove immediately.) Turn out on a sheet of aluminum foil coated with olive oil, or a silicone cookie sheet liner; do not touch the mixture as it will burn your fingers. Let cool for a minute or two, then fold the sheet over the mixture, and compress it into a roll. Pretend like the mixture is tobacco and the sheet is rolling papers; you want the mixture to be nice and tight. Unroll, push in the ends, then fold the sheet over again and compress as tightly as possible. Cool, then unwrap. Sprinkle on the powdered sugar and roll to coat.

Makes one bar.

This bar is low fat and high in whole grains. If you want more of a protein bar, try this one.

Baking tips

Note to readers: Baking is not my strong suit. If you have any tips you'd like to share, leave a comment below, or e-mail me at lori.korleski.richardson@gmail.com.

• Sprinkle pie crust scraps with cinnamon and sugar, and bake like cookies.
• If your cake recipe calls for nuts, heat them first in the oven, then dust with flour before adding to the batter to keep them from settling to the bottom of the pan.
• When measuring honey, coat the measuring cup with non-stick cooking spray or vegetable oil before adding the honey. The honey will slide right out.
• Sift flour as it is being emptied into the container. As most recipes call for sifted flour, this will save much time.
• Save butter wrappers in the freezer to use for greasing pans when baking. Keep your butter in the freezer and grate just what you need over toast or in recipes that call for a tablespoon or less.
• Use unflavored dental floss to cut all kinds of soft foods: soft cheese, rolled dough, layered cake and cheesecake.
• For a disposable pastry bag: Take a heavy-duty zipper-seal plastic bag and snip off one corner, making a slightly curved cut. Using a standard two-piece plastic coupler (available wherever cake decorating supplies are sold), insert the larger piece into the hole. Choose a tip and secure it with the coupler's ring. Fill the bag and zip the top closed. Decorate away, then remove the coupler/tip assembly and toss the bag. No messy cleanup!

Chewy on this!

Inspired by a conversation with a vegan last night, I'm making some oatmeal chewies. They aren't quite vegan, however, since I wasn't sure what to sub for the honey. Since there's no egg involved, feel free to lick the spoon - guaranteed to keep you happy for the full 15 minutes until the real thing comes out of the oven. These are the best cookies I've ever made that didn't have butter in them.

Also, I didn't want to waste the energy to cook a half-dozen cookies, so I put the remainder in a tart shell and baked it for the same amount of time next to one of the cookie sheets. Let it cool, push it out, put it on a dessert plate. Put a scoop of ice cream on it and enjoy.

Lori K's oatmeal chewies
Makes 2 1/2 dozen

Ingredients

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1 small very ripe banana
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups uncooked rolled oats
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
Finely grated peel from 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (not powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup currents or raisins
1/2 cup cocoa coated almonds, chopped
Instructions
Blend sugar, oil, honey, banana and vanilla until fluffy (I used a food processor, but a blender or mixer would probably work as well). Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix it all well. Make pingpong-size balls and slightly flatten them on an ungreased cookie sheet. (They will not spread much while baking.) Bake for 15 minutes; do not overcook. Remove sheet from oven and flatten cookies with a flat-bottom glass. Cool for a minute or two on the sheet, then remove them to a cooling rack. They will be very chewy warm, and will get more crunchy with a chewy middle when they cool.

Goat cheese - baaa?

If you think you don't like goat cheese, you might if it's done this way:

Take a toasted piece of rustic bread or a bagel, spread goat cheese on it, drizzle it with honey and top with sliced dried figs.

This could also be served with a salad of baby greens, just to give the rabbit food another dimension.

Click on the video for a look at some unusual goats.