Asian-Inspired Granola Bars

And now for something, completely different: Granola Bars!

It *is* okay to eat something other than ramen from time to time, so I picked up some black sesame and shredded coconut at the grocery store and decided to do something interesting with them.

I ended up with these rockin' coconut-sesame-peanut butter granola bars!

Ingredients:

[wet]

1 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 - 1/2 cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, I happened to have smooth so that's what I used, but I bet crunchy would be big ballin')

sprinkle salt

1 tbs water

[dry]

1.5 cups regular rolled oats

1 cup rice crispies or other puffed rice cereal

3/4 cup shaved coconut

2.5 tbs sesame seeds

handful of either regular or white chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

Put everything under "wet" into a small pot and let it simmer for about 4 minutes. Meanwhile, mix everything under "dry" -- except for the chocolate chips -- together in a bowl. After the wet stuff has been simmering for a few minutes, pour it over the dry mix and stir it all together. Let it sit for a minute or two, and when it has cooled a bit put in the chocolate chips. You don't want to put them in too early and melt them!

Which I did.

Line a 9x9 pan with wax paper, and dump the granola mix onto it. Press it all down and smooth it out, then put it in the fridge to chill - don't cut it till it's cold! After about an hour it should be ready to ENJOY!

Love Ramen!

Created by: Hack College

Chili-Lime Ramen (with carrots, which makes it healthy, right?)

This is one of my new favorite ramens to make because it is *so easy* and so much more delicious than just a regular package!

Let's meet the contenders:

Ingredients:

1 pack chili ramen

shaved carrot to taste (and yes, it would be easier to use actual big carrots but I only had baby ones on hand and was too lazy to go out and buy other ones)

2-3 tbs lemon juice

1 tbs peanut sauce (or more, if you want it!)

Directions:

Shave your carrot (or carrots if you have multiple baby ones) and place in your bowl of choice. Top with the lemon juice, like so:

After the ramen is done cooking, drain the pot and add your noodles to the carrot party. Mix with the entire chili flavor pack and then top that awesomeness with some peanut sauce. The finished result looks a little something like this:

... And if you're like me, and horribly vegetable deficient, this helps get in at least some sort of veggie serving to your day! Also it's delicious.

See, told you it was easy!