These granola bars are so delicious and, to me, taste better than most candy bars! They are a bit on the gooey side and won’t do well in very hot weather.

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup oats
• 3 Tbsp wheat germ
• 1/2 cup chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips or chocolate chunks

What to do:
Line an 8×8 pan with aluminum foil.  Melt  the butter, peanut butter and honey in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly.  Turn off  heat once melted.  Add remaining ingredients and stir until combined. Spread mixture into prepared pan and refrigerate.  Once cooled, transfer to a cutting board and cut into bars.

This sounds like a great cookbook and right now you can download the eBook version for FREE!  Secrets From Inside The Pizzeria reveals the secrets of New York Style pizza with step by step instructions through identifying the right equipment, ingredients, formulas and techniques to make American’s favorite food at home.

Download the book for free to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, PC or other compatible device. You can download a FREE Kindle app for your Web Browser, PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, or Android Phone.

Keep in mind that while the book is free right now, the price may change at any time.

Using crescent rolls is the easiest way to make these, but the thriftiest way would be to use your own homemade dough, such as this easy no-shortening biscuit dough recipe. Just roll out the dough to about 1/8″ thickness and cut. The ketchup is optional, but it does add good flavor.

Easy Pigs in a Blanket Recipe 

8 hot dogs (We love the Oscar Meyer Angus)
1 can crescent rolls (or homemade dough)
4 slices American Cheese
Ketchup

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lay out crescent triangles or cut dough on a baking sheet. (I prefer to line it with a silicone liner.) Drizzle with ketchup.

2. Place half a cheese slice on each triangle.

3. Place hot dog on triangle at an angle and roll up, covering as much as possible with the dough (you can stretch it a bit, just try not to break it.)

4. Evenly space on the baking sheet and bake for 11-13 minutes or until golden brown.

This unique guacamole recipe is lower in fat than traditional guacamole and also has a little boost of fiber. It is adapted from a Whole Foods Market recipe.

1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
1 clove garlic, halved
1 avocado, peeled
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp. lime juice
1/2 tsp. salt
1 plum tomato, seeded and chopped
1 Tbsp. minced fresh jalapeño pepper (if you want to add a kick)

Place beans and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Place in a bowl and add avocado, cilantro, lime juice and salt. Mash until well blended. Stir in tomato and jalapeño (if using).

https://thriftyrecipes.com/72/

Try your bacon and eggs in a whole new way with this recipe courtesy of  Eggland’s Best.  It’s great for a game-time snack, a family get-together, or an easy make-ahead breakfast. 

12 Eggland’s Best eggs
1/2 C reduced-fat mayonnaise
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp cider vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
5 slices turkey bacon (I prefer regular bacon, but it ups the fat content)
1/4 C fresh chives, chopped

Hard cook eggs and cool completely. Cook bacon until crisp; drain and cool. Once cool enough to handle, crumble and set aside. Remove shells from cooled eggs and slice in half. Remove yolks and place in a bowl. Mix yolks with mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, salt and bacon. Put yolk mixture in a freezer bag and cut off a corner (or use a pastry bag if you have it). Fill each egg white with yolk mixture. Sprinkle with chives.

Use this recipe to make your own crunchy fish sticks.  For a fun spin with a special taste, use Pringles Salt & Vinegar flavor, but if you’re not sure if your kids will go for that, stick with regular Pringles.

2 6.38-ounce cans of Pringles (Regular or Salt & Vinegar flavor)

2 pounds cod fillets, cut into strips

2 cups skim milk

1. Place fish pieces in milk.

2. Puree the Pringles in a food processor, and pour into a large sealable plastic bag. Place two or three nuggets at a time in the bag and shake to coat.

3. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, and place the well-coated nuggets in a single layer. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

4. Remove and let stand, uncovered, 5 to 10 minutes to crisp.

Visit Eggland’s Best on Facebook and “like” them to download a FREE copy of Fine Cooking’s “Breakfast Recipes Collection – 88 Delicious Recipes for Everyone’s Favorite Anytime Meal” ($9.99 value). Offer available through December 31, 2011, only.

Usually it’s only bad boys and girls who find a rock in their stocking on Christmas morning. But, there is one kind of rock that is perfect for GOOD boys and girls (or rather women and men) who love to cook and bake – The Recipe Rock.

Not surprisingly, over 70 percent of cooks said that they prefer using the internet over cookbooks.  If you print out those recipes for use in the kitchen, they can be a little unwieldy and get in your way as your trying to cook and may be hard to read when laying flat on the counter. That’s where the Recipe Rock can help.

This small 2-inch, sculpted, concave “rock” can hold up up to eight pages of printed recipes upright at the ideal viewing angle.  You just remove the metal ball from the magnetic rock, place the pages upright in front of the rock and replace the ball on the rock with the papers in between – super simple!  It also prevents pages from sauce splatters and dirty hands.  It can also hold those cherished old recipe cards you got from mom and grandma without getting any extra splatters on them.  At a $9.99 price point it makes a perfect stocking stuffer or gift for your favorite cook. 

I received a Recipe Rock to review and passed it on to my sister who is always cooking from internet printed recipes.  She was thrilled with it!  Not only does it make the recipes easy to read, it takes up so much less counter space than those pages sitting flat on the counter.  It’s design also blends nicely into the kitchen.  It’s small enough to be stored in a drawer, but it looks nice enough to keep on the counter all the time.

The Recipe Rock and other Architec Housewares products are available at Crate & Barrel and specialty boutiques

Reader Giveaway:  One lucky Thrifty Recipes reader will win their own Recipe Rock.   To enter, simply fill out the form below by 12/29/11.

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