Choc Peanut Butter Oat Bars

As we are currently baking and peanut butter obsessed, Maddy and I were craving a peanut butter type of thing that we could snack on over the holidays. We also LOVE chocolate and dried fruit, so they were both a must! And also, considering we have porridge every school morning, this was just the perfect snack to make! 

The great thing is, peanut butter is a terrific substitute for pure butter and it is much healthier too! If you are not a fan of peanut butter, almond butter, apple butter or even coconut butter would work too. 

We added a crazy amount of choc chips so I would recommend using a little less than suggested as there is chocolate garnish on the top of the bars too but if you really love chocolate like we do, go ahead and use even more than we suggested if you want! The add ins we used are our favourites but feel free to add whatever you want such as white choc bit, nuts, peanut butter bits, seeds, or any other dried fruit you like!

We felt the amount of sugar added was perfect and it worked well with the amount of chocolate added, so feel free to add more if you are dodging the chocolate, or if you are wanting to edge off the sugar a drizzle of honey would create a healthier, but still yummy sweetness. After all, peanut butter and honey work so well together!!! Make sure you taste the dough before putting it in the oven so you can play around the sweetness if necessary. 

If you are like to snack, these are perfect because you won't feel guilty, and they would even compliment any meal -breakfast, lunch or dinner- quite nicely. They are soft and moist and the fact that they are so easy with very little amounts of ingredients just top off how great they are!

Choc Peanut Butter Oat Bars

Ingredients 

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 choc chips 
1/2 cup sultanas 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a 15x15cm baking dish with baking paper.
2. Beat the brown sugar and peanut butter with an electric mixer for approximately 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Then, mix in the vanilla. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowel if necessary. 
3.  On medium speed, add flour, baking soda, oats and salt. Don't worry that the dough is thick and clumpy as it will come together! Gradually add the milk in one go until a dough forms. Fold in chocolate chips and sultanas- you will probably need to use your hands!
4. Once dough is combined, press it into the baking dish using a hard object such as a spatula to create a evenly leveled surface. Back for 20-25 minutes or until the bars and lightly golden and set. Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.*

*If you want you can melt some chocolate and drizzle over the top! 

So you have learnt another thing about us: we LOVE peanut butter and CHOCOLATE!

Keep cooking, Twins in the kitchen :)

Honey-seared salmon with coriander noodles

Personally, Emily and I LOVE noodle dishes and we also love salmon, and so when we found a recipe for a salmon noodle dish in one of Donna Hay’s cookbooks, we knew we had to give it a go!

For how yummy it is, this dish is actually surprisingly easy! It also isn’t very time-consuming which is another reason why it is an amazing dish!! We made this meal for dinner for our family and since we all like to eat a lot in our house, we made 1 and a half times what the recipe said, but I will just post the recipe that serves four people. We also doubled the amount of sauce to go with the noodles because after making the recommended portion, we decided it wasn’t enough – and this was defiantly the right decision.

This dish is called Honey-seared salmon with coriander noodles and is will definitely be made again in our house!!

Honey-seared salmon with coriander noodles

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

550g salmon fillet

2 tbs honey

Cracked black pepper (optional)

Coriander noodles

200g egg noodles

½ cup coriander leaves

1/3 cup shredded mint leaves

1/3 cup basil leaves, halved

2 zucchini, shredded

1 tbs lime juice

2 tbs soy sauce

2 tbs honey

Method:

1. To make the coriander noodles, cook the noodles in boiling water for 3-5 minutes or until soft. Drain and rinse under cold running water until cool. Drain again.

2. Combine the noodles with the coriander, mint, basil, zucchini, lime juice, soy and honey.

3. Cut the salmon into 2cm wide strips and toss with the honey and the pepper. Be very careful not to break apart the salmon in this step.

4. Heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat. Cook the salmon for 1 minute on each side or until the honey is golden.

5. To serve, place the noodles on serving plates, top with the salmon and enjoy!!!

Preparing the ingredients

Slicing the salmon

Cooking the noodles

All ingredients prepared 

Cooking the salmon

Tossing the noodles

This recipe is soooooooooooooooo good and would have to be in my top 10!! We had leftovers and both Emily and I have been unable to stop ourselves from going back to the fridge to get some more!! We would highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good meal.

Keep cooking, Twins in the Kitchen. 

Oaty sultana slice

For a rainy day with not much ingredients in the house, this was the perfect recipe to make! It is super easy and tastes AMAZING! We felt confident in making up the recipe ourselves and the only tweaking that could be done to improve it is we put ours in the oven for a bit too long, but if you are a fan of crunchy cookies/slices then you can keep them in the oven for 3-5 additional minutes than the recipes suggests. 

I personally preferred the chewier pieces but Maddy kept grabbing the edge pieces because she likes the caramelized  flavour that was produced at the stage just before burning. So it was lucky we smelt that delicious fragrance swirling up the stairs! 

We used sultanas as we are currently obsessed but you can use whatever fruit you want and/or even chocolate chips. 

Oaty Sultana Slice

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup sultanas
½ cup desiccated coconut
½ cup self-raising flour
½ cup raw sugar
125g margarine, melted
2 tablespoons honey

Method

1. Preheat oven to moderate, 180°C. Lightly grease an 18 x 28cm slice pan. Line base and sides with baking paper. 
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add butter and honey and mixi until combined.
3. Press mixture firmly into the prepared pan, using a hard object such as a spoon to ensure a flat surface of the slice. 
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden. Let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan before cutting into squares so it holds it's shape when cut. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Melting the butter 

Dry ingredients in a large bowel

Combining wet and dry ingredients

Cooling in pan

We got a bit excited...

And that's all there is to it! This is super yummy so give it a try!!

Keep cooking, Twins in the Kitchen

Crispy Apple Chips

These crispy apple chips are actually to die for because they are so incredibly yummy and we would definitely recommend them to anyone who loves a healthy snack! The best bit about these chips is that they are 100% apples, if you exclude the cinnamon, and so are 100% healthy.

The apple chips are quite time consuming to cook, however they take almost no time to prepare so you can go off and do your own thing while they bake. Cooking these apples properly is essential because how they taste depends on how they are cooked. If you overdo the chips they will be very crispy, but will have a slightly burnt taste (we know from experience!) and if you underdo them they will not crisp up perfectly. So getting the right balance is very important.

You can choose to put cinnamon or sugar on with the apples and we decided to try some with and some without cinnamon. They were both very nice.

 

Crispy Apple Chips

Makes: about 60 chips

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

4 apples (any sort)

Pinch of cinnamon

Method:

- Preheat oven to 90⁰C and line four baking trays

- Chop apples into thin slices with skin on, so that they are about 1cm thick

- Lay apple slices out on baking trays so that they do not overlap

- Sprinkle with cinnamon or sugar if desired

- Cook apples in oven. After one hour, flip over apples and put back in oven for another hour.

- Leave to cool on rack and enjoy!

Chopping up the apples

The apple slices (aprox 5mm thick)

Sprinkling on cinnamon 

Flipping over the apples after 1 hour

The chips after 1 hour

And that’s all! This snack is really so easy to make and taste so good so give them a try!

Keep cooking, Twins in the Kitchen

Char Sui Pork with Noodles

This is our first ever dinner recipe or even savoury recipe on this blog, and it is called Char Siu Pork with noodles! This recipe is a yummy and easy evening for the whole family. The hardest part of this meal would have to be preparing all of the ingredients, and this is the biggest time consumer of the recipe, however once you know the steps well you should find it easy to prepare them all quickly.

Another hard point of the meal is cooking the pork so that it is not over done or under done. We did this by putting it on a fry pan for four minutes each side so that the juices and flavours of the pork could be sealed, and we followed by putting it in the oven for about 10 minutes to cook through.

We are a family who loves our greens and so there are quite a few green vegetables in this recipe, but if you are not much of a fan of greens you can also take some out of the recipe. There is a lot of sauce from the pork and vegetables which is great for the noodles in this dish. If you feel like you don’t have enough sauce, you can always add some more Lee Kum Kee char siu sauce.

Char Sui Pork with noodles

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

3 (about 150gm each) pork loin medallions

½ cup Lee Kum Kee char siu sauce 

500gm hokkien noodles

1 tbs peanut oil

1 red capsicum, deseeded and cut into strips

150gm show peas, trimmed

½ cup bean shoots, trimmed

1/3 cup fresh coriander leaves

3 spring onions, cut into slices diagonally    

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 180⁰C
2. Place the pork on a plate and brush both sides with 2 tablespoons of the char siu sauce. Cover and place in the fridge for 10 mins to marinate
3. Meanwhile place the noodles in a heatproof bowl. Cover with boiling water and let sit for 2-3 minutes.
4. Using a fork, gently pull noodles apart from one another. Drain.
5. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook for 4-5 minutes each side.
6. Then, place pork in oven for 10 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer to plate and set aside for 5 mins to rest, then thinly slice
7. Add the capsicum and snow peas to the pan. Cook, tossing for 2-3 minutes or until just tender. Add the noodles, pork and the remaining char siu sauce. Cook, tossing until heated.
8. Place noodle mixture in serving bowl and top with bean shorts, coriander and spring onion to serve.
9. 
   

   

   Cooking the pork in fry pan

   

   Preparing the vegetables

   

   Cooking the vegetables

   

   Slicing the pork

   

   Adding noodle mix to serving bowl
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   And that’s it! This is so yum so try it for yourself!

   Keep cooking, Twins in the Kitchen