Homemade Granola Bars and a New Mission

I have a new calling at church: I am now the Second Counselor in Relief Society (Relief Society is the women’s organization in our church). This means that I am responsible for all of the meetings that are not Sunday meetings. Our big “optional” meeting is held once a month, and in our congregation it’s every third Thursday evening. Many years ago it was called “Homemaking Meeting”, then for awhile they called it “Enrichment Meeting”, now it is just called “Relief Society Meeting”. During these meetings we focus on a variety of areas: spiritual progress, homemaking skills, family relations, service projects, crafts, etc. The “Gan-Green Thumb” and I will be reporting on the worthwhile things we learn there and we will share our new knowledge with you.

Last night we had several things going on, but something of interest might be the cooking demonstration that was given for a recipe using oats. Here is the recipe that was given at the meeting:

Homemade Granola Bars
4-1/2 cups rolled oats (regular, not quick)
1 cup flour (I like to use whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

Optional: 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (raisins, dried cranberries, and other dried fruit, whatever you like!)

Combine all ingredients but the chocolate chips (or whatever optional ingredients you are putting in). Mix and then add the chocolate chips in and mix again. Press into a greased pan (Pam works great!). Bake at 325 degrees for 18-22 minutes. Enjoy!!

**This is a basic recipe. . . if you like other things, try putting them in and make it your own recipe! Nuts, seeds, coconut, peanut butter. . . the options are endless! Note that if you add a lot of optional ingredients, you might want to increase the butter and honey in order for the mixture to be cohesive and not too dry.**

So…How Ya Bean?

Dry beans are a great food storage item. When stored properly they have a long shelf life and they are a great source of protein. The food cannery that I utilize has pinto beans, white beans, black beans, and dehydrated refried beans. Since I do a little emergency preparedness/food storage newsletter for my group at church, I was on the prowl for some recipes using those items. I was surprised at how easy it was to find recipes using beans that are already cooked and then canned – those recipes are everywhere in abundance! But I was somewhat discouraged at how few recipes I could find using uncooked, dry beans.

The solution: I just needed to find a chart that would tell me how many dry beans equaled one of those cans of cooked beans so I could do a little “translating”. That was when I discovered that there is actually an agency that is devoted solely to dry beans! Can you believe that? Yes, it’s true – The U.S. Dry Bean Council is there to promote the consumption of dry beans, and they have a great website! On this website you will not only find some recipes, but you will find information on soaking beans, cooking beans, storing beans, and cooking with canned beans. And, yes, I was able to find what I was looking for; here is information from that website from an article they call “Counting Beans”:

One 15-ounce can of beans = one and one-half cups cooked beans, drained.
One pound dry beans = six cups cooked beans, drained.
One pound dry beans = two cups dry beans.
One cup dry beans = three cups cooked beans, drained.

There is a website for the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension in Lancaster County which also seems to find beans exciting. On this website you will find some recipes for beans, as well as articles with titles such as the following :

“What amount of beans should we eat to gain their health benefits?”
“Aren't dry beans considered an "incomplete" source of protein?”
“How do canned beans compare to dry-packaged beans?”
“How do you cook dry-packaged beans?”
“What can you do if dry beans give you “gas"?”
“Can one dry bean be substituted for another bean in recipes?”

So there you go…if you have wanted to have beans in your food storage, but weren’t quite sure what to do with them, there are resources, as well as a whole Council out there to help you! (If you really want to have some fun, type in “recipe for pinto bean fudge” into your internet search engine. You will be amazed at how many websites pop up!)