CHOCOLATE COCONUT GRANOLA BARS: National Granola Bar Day!

Today is National Granola Bar Day! Yes, there's always a food holiday to celebrate! I've posted recipes for Granola Bars in the past (Chocolate Cranberry Granola Bars, and Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars), but here's one for Chocolate Coconut Granola Bars. Don't be overwhelmed by the number of steps. These bars are really quite quick to make, but I suggest you have all your ingredients ready before you go to work! The following Chocolate Coconut Granola Bar recipe produces terrific, tasty, and healthy bars that are great in the kids' lunchboxes or as a pick-me-up for you! This is a 'copycat' Kashi recipe. No time to make this today? Then buy yourself a Kashi Chocolate Coconut Granola Bar.

CHOCOLATE COCONUT GRANOLA BARS

Ingredients 

Bars 
1 cup whole almonds, divided
1 cup walnuts, divided
1 1/2 cup old fashion oats, divided
1/4 cup ground flax
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp almond butter

Chocolate Glaze 
1 Tbsp coconut oil
10 ounces dark chocolate (about 1 1/2 cups chopped)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chopped coconut flakes

Directions 
In food processor, add 1/2 cup of almonds, 1/2cup of walnuts, and 3/4 cup of oats. Process until  turns into fine powder, about 1 minute. (Do not over process)
Chop remaining almonds and walnuts. Add to large bowl along with remaining 3/4 cup oats and processed powder. Add to bowl: ground flax, chia seeds, and coconut flakes. Toss together.
Heat small pan on stove over medium heat. Add honey, coconut oil, vanilla bean paste, cinnamon, and almond butter. Stir constantly until fully melted and begins to foam. Allow to foam and bubble for about a minute before immediately pouring over nuts and oats mixture.
Using rubber spatula, stir everything together until evenly distributed.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 13 x 6’’ pan with parchment paper, enough to hang over two of the sides.
Pour granola mixture into pan and spread evenly. Using metal spatula, begin pressing down really hard all along edges and through middle. (Tip: If you don’t press down tightly, they will fall apart when cut)
Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes, until firm. Remove and allow to cool completely.

Chocolate glaze:
Melt 1 Tbsp coconut oil in small saucepan over medium-low heat.
Add chopped chocolate. Stir until you have smooth glaze.
Pour over Baked mixture and using spatula, spread to edges and even out.
Sprinkle top with additional walnuts and coconut flakes.
Allow top to set (several hours)
Once totally set, pick up both sides of overhanging parchment paper and remove from pan.
Cut into small rectangles.

Dark Chocolate Cherry Almond Granola Bars: National Granola Bar Day

National Granola Bar Day. Granola is such a great treat on a hike, in your lunchbox, or a mid-day snack and bars make it so much easier to carry. Here's a great quick recipe for Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars. So easy and delicious.

Dark Chocolate Cherry Almond  Granola Bars 

Ingredients 
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour)
3/4 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup dried cherries (I like Chukar's Cherries)
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup shredded coconut
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 9 x 9 inch glass baking dishes with parchment paper. Mix flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, dried cherries, slivered almonds, coconut, and chocolate chips together in a bowl.
 In a separate bowl mix butter, honey, and vanilla.
Split mixture into baking dishes and use your hands to pat it into the square of the pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. 
Cool and cut into bars

National Barbie Day: History, Dolls, Recipe & Cookbooks

Today is National Barbie Day. If the truth be told, I fancied myself too old for Barbie Dolls, so I never had any or played with them. Nevertheless, I secretly admired the dolls for their clothes. I often designed clothes for my paperdolls, and I could easily have seen myself designing for Barbie. Alas, that was another career not fulfilled.(If you're looking for some really outstanding Barbie outfits with impeccable tailoring, design, and details, don't miss my friend Kathleen Taylor's Etsy shop - KathleenTaylorsStuff)

However, since I collect 'theme' cookbooks, and I love to cook and bake, I have several Barbie CookBooks in my collection. My favorite is the first one (1964) Barbie's Easy-As-Pie Cookbook. There have been many more since, but this is the gold standard in my opinion.  Scroll down to see a few of the Cookbooks. I've also posted a recipe from one of the cookbooks for a 'healthier' choice of snack: Granola Bars with White Chocolate Drizzle.

Want to know more about Barbie? From the History Channel: 

On March 9, 1959, the first Barbie doll goes on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City.

Eleven inches tall, with a waterfall of blond hair, Barbie was the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features. The woman behind Barbie was Ruth Handler, who co-founded Mattel, Inc. with her husband in 1945. After seeing her young daughter ignore her baby dolls to play make-believe with paper dolls of adult women, Handler realized there was an important niche in the market for a toy that allowed little girls to imagine the future.

Barbie’s appearance was modeled on a doll named Lilli, based on a German comic strip character. Originally marketed as a racy gag gift to adult men in tobacco shops, the Lilli doll later became extremely popular with children. Mattel bought the rights to Lilli and made its own version, which Handler named after her daughter, Barbara. With its sponsorship of the “Mickey Mouse Club” TV program in 1955, Mattel became one of the first toy companies to broadcast commercials to children. They used this medium to promote their new toy, and by 1961, the enormous consumer demand for the doll led Mattel to release a boyfriend for Barbie. Handler named him Ken, after her son. Barbie’s best friend, Midge, came out in 1963; her little sister, Skipper, debuted the following year.

Over the years, Barbie generated huge sales—and a lot of controversy. On the positive side, many women saw Barbie as providing an alternative to traditional 1950s gender roles. She has had a series of different jobs, from airline stewardess, doctor, pilot and astronaut to Olympic athlete and even U.S. presidential candidate. Others thought Barbie’s never-ending supply of designer outfits, cars and “Dream Houses” encouraged kids to be materialistic. It was Barbie’s appearance that caused the most controversy, however. Her tiny waist and enormous breasts–it was estimated that if she were a real woman, her measurements would be 36-18-38–led many to claim that Barbie provided little girls with an unrealistic and harmful example and fostered negative body image.

Despite the criticism, sales of Barbie-related merchandise continued to soar, topping 1 billion dollars annually by 1993. Since 1959, over one billion dolls in the Barbie family have been sold around the world and Barbie is now a bona fide global icon.

Read Barbie Through the Ages Here. 

And, you know Barbie is a chocolaholic. She is very partial to See's Candies, as am I. So I finally got my first Barbie doll when I did a special event for the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. The "I Left my Heart in San Francisco" Barbie.  The other See's Candies dolls are dolls that sell at See's. See photos below.

CHOCOLATE COCONUT GRANOLA BARS: National Granola Bar Day!

Today is National Granola Bar Day! Yes, always a holiday to celebrate! I've posted recipes for Granola Bars in the past (Chocolate Cranberry Granola Bars, and Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars), but here's one for Chocolate Coconut Granola Bars. Don't be overwhelmed by the number of steps. These bars are really quite quick to make, but I suggest you have all your ingredients ready before you go to work! The following Chocolate Coconut Granola Bar recipe produces terrific, tasty, and healthy bars that are great in the kids' lunchboxes or as a pick-me-up for you! This is a 'copycat' Kashi recipe. No time to make this today? Then buy yourself a Kashi Chocolate Coconut Granola Bar.

CHOCOLATE COCONUT GRANOLA BARS

Ingredients 

Bars 
1 cup whole almonds, divided
1 cup walnuts, divided
1 1/2 cup old fashion oats, divided
1/4 cup ground flax
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp almond butter

Chocolate Glaze 
1 Tbsp coconut oil
10 ounces dark chocolate (about 1 1/2 cups chopped)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chopped coconut flakes

Directions 
In food processor, add 1/2 cup of almonds, 1/2cup of walnuts, and 3/4 cup of oats. Process until  turns into fine powder, about 1 minute. (Do not over process)
Chop remaining almonds and walnuts. Add to large bowl along with remaining 3/4 cup oats and processed powder. Add to bowl: ground flax, chia seeds, and coconut flakes. Toss together.
Heat small pan on stove over medium heat. Add honey, coconut oil, vanilla bean paste, cinnamon, and almond butter. Stir constantly until fully melted and begins to foam. Allow to foam and bubble for about a minute before immediately pouring over nuts and oats mixture.
Using rubber spatula, stir everything together until evenly distributed.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 13 x 6’’ pan with parchment paper, enough to hang over two of the sides.
Pour granola mixture into pan and spread evenly. Using metal spatula, begin pressing down really hard all along edges and through middle. (Tip: If you don’t press down tightly, they will fall apart when cut)
Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes, until firm. Remove and allow to cool completely.

Chocolate glaze:
Melt 1 Tbsp coconut oil in small saucepan over medium-low heat.
Add chopped chocolate. Stir until you have smooth glaze.
Pour over Baked mixture and using spatula, spread to edges and even out.
Sprinkle top with additional walnuts and coconut flakes.
Allow top to set (several hours)
Once totally set, pick up both sides of overhanging parchment paper and remove from pan.
Cut into small rectangles.