Mmmm, Goodie

Our local grocery store finally had some rhubarb, and even though it was $4 a pound, I purchased enough for 2 rhubarb dream desserts (half of it I chopped and froze). I used the Habegger recipe, but skimped and used only half the crust (since a whole stick of butter seemed outlandish for a dessert that would be eaten by 2 adults in 2 days - I also subbed some of the butter for applesauce, which seemed to work alright). I think next time I will use more rhubarb and a little less sugar, which is always a tad risky with rhubarb since it is so tart.
I hope that my grandmother and aunt K don't mind if I post the recipe here! (Let me know if you object, and I will remove it.)

Crust: 1 cup flour, 5 Tbsp powdered sugar, 1/2 cup margarine (I used butter, since I haven't used margarine in years.)

Pat this into a pan (the recipe called for a 7x11 pan - but I used a 9x9) and bake 15 minutes at 350.

Filling: 2 cups rhubarb, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup flour, 3/4 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 cups sugar. Pour it in and bake another 30-35 minutes.

And the recipe for granola:

5 cups rolled oats (I also mixed in some mixed grain hot cereal that had other grains), 3/4 cup brown sugar, 3/4 cup applesauce, 1/3 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup honey. 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. ginger, 1 tsp. salt, 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil and the nuts from a package of cashews, almonds and cranberries from Trader Joe's. Mix together, bake in a large cookie sheet with raised edges for 12 minutes at 300 degrees, stir, bake again, and repeat until the granola is nice and toasty and brown, about 1 hour. After cool, stir in the cranberries and store in the fridge.

(This time I also added some flax seed meal, about 2 Tbsp. I think I might add more next time and see if it makes a difference. Flax seeds might be even better, but I happened to have the ground seeds in the fridge for baking.)

Hmmm, the package of nuts said that it had 14 or 15 servings in it. I guess I need to do a better job of portion control, because one batch of this granola only lasts about 6 days, and some days I am the only one eating it. It is really tasty with yogurt and almond milk. (And no, the kiddo doesn't eat this. He likes his own cereal mix: Panda Puffs, Strawberry Yogurt Cheerios (or generic Trader Joe strawberry O's) and Kashi cereal that looks like little people, the name of which I seem to have forgotten. We just pour all three in a big plastic container, mix it up, and he eats this with milk, yogurt and berries six days a week. Thus, we buy a lot of frozen berries. The fresh berries I save for his lunches, dinners and snacks. And those disappear quickly.

Since Citymama posted about groceries and such, I have been mulling over how much money we spend on groceries. However, I will have to get back to you on that, since I need to get to bed. For some reason, I was tired all day. I took a nap in the car after I dropped JT off at German school and after we came home, he and I took a little nap on the couch as well. And tomorrow we have to get up early to get to his parent-teacher conference. Should be interesting.