Apricot Power Bars

When I visit your blogs and see all your healthy recipes with fresh, low fat ingredients, I think I must do better.

Inspired by Finsmom at Latest Addictions, I went out and to see if I could buy hemp seed, not expecting to find it in our little city. However, I was proven wrong because in our downtown health food store, it was there ~ $10.00 for a little bag. I hemmed and hawed over the purchase and finally just went with it.

I knew how I wanted to use the hemp seed as I had found these Apricot Power Bars a while back and had dismissed them; they were just a little too earthy crunchy for this sugar and carb girl. Little did I know I would be revisiting them, preparing them, and liking them a lot!

I wouldn't say these bars have a big flavor; I think the recipe, for my taste, needs more cinnamon. However, that hasn't stopped me from snitching off pieces as I walk by them. The bars are chewy, nutty, and not too sweet. They are quite satisfying, and surprise, they are filling. They probably won't replace my favorite cookies, but I am very happy to be able to balance my sweets with a treat that has some true food value.

Apricot Power Bars

1 cup dried apricots
1 cup pecans (I used 1/2 cup pecans and 1/2 cup hemp seed)
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup flour (I used 1/3 cup all purpose white flour and 1/3 cup organic whole wheat)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
apricot nectar (or apple juice)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Chop apricots and nuts. Add remaining ingredients except the apricot nectar. Stir to combine and then add enough juice (2 to 4 tablespoons) to form thick batter.

Press firmly into an 8x8-inch square greased pan. Bake 30 minutes or until firm.

Cut into 12 bars and let cool in the pan. Prepared bars can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 weeks or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

I may as well confide to you. While I was out buying hemp seed, I also bought an herbal face cream, guaranteed to plump out even my deepest wrinkles. I figure if I'm eating healthier for my insides, I may as well go for that youthful glowing skin for my outside. Ole Sweetie-Pi is still laughing.

Apricot Chicken

I was at Border's bookstore a little while back. Ole Sweetie-Pi headed to the Transportation section (he's a train brain, crazy mad over model and prototype steam trains) and naturally I head to the cookbook section. We have an agreement. I don't mention how many train related items he has and he doesn't breath one word about my cookbooks. It seems to work. Grins.

Anyway, I also checked out the discount section, and I saw a spinning rack of $2.99 cookbooks. My heart thumped wildly at the possibilities. There were maybe 10 different titles, soft covered, about the size and thickness of a high quality magazine. One that caught my eye was Chicken Recipes Step by Step , no author listed, but published by Bay Publishers in Australia. I open the covers, peruse the pictures first (do you do that, too?) and then scanned the ingredient list of half a dozen recipes to make sure the recipes didn't contain ingredients that I'd never find in my little city. A quick scan revealed that the recipes were not gourmet quality but every single recipe seemed simple enough to do on a hectic work night and tasty enough to be satisfying. Home cooking at its simple best, I decided.

And that's when I noticed that the weights were all in metric. I have never been good at math, and metrics just throw me off entirely. But this is cooking (as opposed to baking which must have precise measurement conversion for the baked good to come out well), so I bought the books and did the best I could with the math.

Apricot Chicken

1.5 kg chicken thighs (a little over 3 pounds)
1 tablespoon oil
120 g dried apricots (about 1/4 pound, or 1/2 cup) cut into strips **
1 1/2 cups apricot nectar (12 oz can)
40 g packet French onion soup mix (I just used a Lipton's packet, didn't measure)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley

Trim the chicken of excess fat and sinew.

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Heat the oil in a good sized pan and add the chicken. Cook the chicken, in batches if necessary, over medium high head until the chicken is browned. Remove chicken from pan and drain on paper towels. Discard any remaining oil or fat.

Return the chicken to the pan and all the remaining ingredients except the parsley. Mix well, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally until the chicken is tender and cooked through and the sauce is slightly thickened.

Remove pan from heat and stir in the parsley.

**You can also use a large can of apricots in heavy syrup if you like.

This dish does not have what I would classify as a "big, in-your-mouth" flavor, but it's simple, very easy and delicious. I added a couple of sprinkles of dehydrated garlic pieces, and that was a nice addition, I think. You could probably add a little green or red pepper, but beyond that I probably won't tinker too much with the recipe. Sweetie-Pi made yummy noises, got seconds.

This one goes in our keeper file.

Apricot Bars

This has to be among the most elegant cookies that I make. Apricot goodness just fills your mouth with sunshine! Beautiful and delicious! These would be perfect for a shower or tea with the girls.

Since returning to my cookbooks for inspiration, I am rediscovering so many gems. I had completely forgotten all about this one until I saw it again in my Heartland Baking cookbook. I'm glad I found it and I just can't wait to share it with you!



Apricot Bars

For the crust
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sifted flour
6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, diced

For the topping
1 cup dried apricots
1 cup water
grated rind of 1 lemon
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

You're going to be doing a little multi-tasking here, so read through the directions first.

Grate the lemon, set aside. Finely chop the walnuts, set aside. (Make them wait for you until you need them.)

Preheat your oven to 350F. You'll need an 8 x 8 baking dish, ungreased.

In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and flour. Add the butter and using a pastry blender, cut the butter in the mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Turn the mixture into the baking dish and press it, forming an even layer. Bake the crust for 15 minutes and then remove it from the oven. Leave the oven on.

While the crust is baking, combine the apricots and water in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook until the apricots are soft, about 10 minutes.

Strain the liquid, reserve. Chop the apricots.

Return the apricots to the saucepan and add the lemon rind, sugar, cornstarch and 4 tablespoons of the cooking liquid. Cook about one minute. Keep a watchful eye on the time! Too long and you'll have the apricots cemented to your saucepan.

Cool slightly. Spread the apricot mixture over the crust.

Sprinkle the chopped walnuts and put the baking dish in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes more.

Cool before cutting into bars.