Peanut Butter and Banana Granola Bars

Road trip time! Tom, Christopher (my brother) and I are off to Atlanta tomorrow, a whopping 16 hour drive from Toronto to my family in Sandy Springs, which we are attemptingto do in one day. We have done it before ... once. And this time we have a few obstacles in our way - traffic, construction, the border (ugh), freezing rain and you know, desire to sleep. We'll see what happens. Safety first! 

Peanut butter and banana sandwiches are an after-school classic, one that many elementary school students love almost as much as I do! This granola bar reincarnation is gooey, chewy, sweetened with a little honey, and easy to take on the run. Wrapped in wax paper, they are perfectly portable and filled with energy and protein rich ingredients that will keep you going. I'm hoping these granola bars will keep us from relying too much on McDonald's Crispy Chicken combos (guilty), and help us survive the long stretches of road where the population density is in the single digits, without starving. 

Black Quinoa Salad with Feta, Avocado and Pistachios

After all this heavy winter food, I need some fresh relief! I feel like I've consumed my weight in butter and potatoes this January, and I probably got closer than I'd like to know. In any case, its is time for a salad. But not a meager, apologetic, "I feel guilty because I ate all that toffee" kind of salad. Salad shouldn't be a punishment! It should be nourishing, satisfying and above all, yummy. 

I wanted something with texture and protein, so quinoa seemed like a natural choice. I went digging in one of my favorite cookbooks and stumbled upon this beautiful recipe in Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy. And just like that, I was on my way to the health food store on the hunt for some black quinoa!