President's Day Cooking Triathlon

I had last Monday off because it was President's Day (bank holiday).  So I spent the day with my little guy, and got a bunch of cooking done.  First I made granola bars.  These are Julian's current favorite, at least partly because they're different than the breads I make a lot.  They are so good, and you can mix them up depending on what you like, and what you have.

Granola Bars

2 cups rolled oats (quick oats, etc.)     3/4 cup add-in's (I did coconut &
3/4 cup brown sugar                                  chocolate chips)            
1/2 cup wheat germ                             3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon                                 1/2 cup honey
1 cup flour                                           1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil                           2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 pyrex.  In a large bowl mix the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, mix-in's, and salt.  Make a well in the center and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla.  Mix well, then spread into the pyrex.  Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the bars begin to turn golden brown.  Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars (don't wait to cut until they're completely cooled off, it'll be hard).

Next I made our lunches, couscous with apricots, scallions and almonds.  This is as simple as it sounds - I made 3 cups of couscous (3 cups boiling water to 3 cups coucous with 2 boullion cubes), fluffed it up and added a few tablespoones of olive oil, the diced up apricots (approx 1 cup), scallions (1 bunch) and almonds (1/2 cup or so).  I also added some black pepper & red pepper flakes.  Lots of variations, depending on what you like.

Last I made dinner for that night, a lemon and asparagus risotto.  This is just 1.5 cups of arborio rice, 7 cups of vegetable stock, 1 bunch of asparagus, 1 lemon (zest of peel, and juice), pepper, and some cheese (I used some pamesan and Italian blend).