Best Recipe Finds of 2025

Three recipes I tried this year make the cut.

First up is this granola recipe. It's supposed to stick together enough to make bars. I think it needs more honey to do this (or maybe I didn't use enough- not sure). But the taste was great. I skipped the chocolate chips because I didn't want them to melt if taken outside. Mine fell apart into clumps. Still tasted good. I will be making this again with more of the "glue."



• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup nuts (almonds, walnuts, or cashews), chopped
• ½ cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, or apricots), chopped
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup peanut butter (or almond butter)
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• ⅓ cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a baking dish (8x8 inches) with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, chopped nuts, dried fruit, and cinnamon.
3. In a small saucepan over low heat, warm the honey and peanut butter until melted and smooth, stirring frequently.
4. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients and mix well until everything is evenly coated.
6. Press the mixture into the prepared baking dish, making sure it's evenly spread and compacted.
7. If using, sprinkle the chocolate chips on top, pressing them gently into the mixture.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the center is firm.
9. Let cool completely before cutting into squares or bars.

Rhubarb Glazed Chicken is so good, I've fixed it several times. It helps that I have a ton of rhubarb. Remembered to put some in the freezer this year. The recipe is at Rhubarb Glazed Chicken. I did leave out the hot sauce. This batch might have gotten a little too done, but it really didn't taste "blackened."



I've also fallen in love with this recipe for Green Goddess Herb salad dressing. I've been somewhat unhappy with all the extra ingredients in bottled dressings. It also now costs more than $3 for a 16-oz bottle unless you can catch a sale. I'm not sure this saves any money. It does eliminate all those extra ingredients.

a few stalks of basil
a handful of fresh dill (or I've used dried dill when I couldn't find fresh)
a handful of fresh parsley (or I've used dried parsley when I couldn't find fresh)
a few green onion stalks
several garlic cloves
2 c. lowfat yogurt
2 c lowfat sour cream

Chop the herbs and garlic fine. Mix with the dairy products

It has some preparation issues:
It says to blend with an immersion blender. That is mostly a mess because any herbs you don't get fine enough beforehand just glob up. I have switched to chopping the herbs or cutting with scissors. I've finally decided that they don't have to be quite as fine as they suggest.

Keeping leftover herbs is also an issue. Freezing them in water was a mess. Chopping and freezing was a mess. Now I'm just freezing them whole and dry and trying to use before they have been in there too long. Chop them white still frozen.

Also, finding all the fresh herbs is usually impossible, and then they are expensive. After making, I kept half in the fridge while freezing the other half. The last half of the second half tends to separate and get watery. Still tastes OK.

So, I've sort of alternated between commercial dressings and this. It's hard to compare prices. When I can get the fresh herbs they aren't cheap, but a bunch is enough for at least 3 batches if I can sucessfully keep the leftovers.



I was really good today. Dishes, laundry, editing, walked a mile (just along the road). I think I'm going to lie down with a book.

Miles hiked in 2026: 10.2

One mile of roadwalk

See Best Recipes of 2020

Is it Easy Being Green?

 Managed to walk 2 miles today by going for an extra "tour" on the same trip as the shopping. I don't think I'd ever walked that road before. Not that it was anything special, but new is good. Found this little green guy. Wonder what he thought of the freshly oiled surface. Maybe it isn't easy for him to be green. He was certainly visible on the blacktop to birds that might find him tasty. It's the caterpillar for a Gold Spot moth. Nothing special, but nothing bad. Kind of describes my day. His name is Plusia festucae.

For several months now, I've been making my own salad dressing for my usual evening-meal salad. I couldn't find Green Goddess dressing in the stores for almost a month. I had previously tried a couple of recipes and not liked them. But I found one I do like. It needs fresh herbs, including basil. I've also had trouble finding that in the store. So, today, I bought a pot of the live stuff. It certainly hasn't been easy for this specimen to be green. Or any other color. It's a little sad, but it has a new pot. Hopefully it will perk up on the deck until it has to come in the house. If I even get a couple of pickings off it, the cost will be less than what I paid for one little bunch in a plastic container.

And what about that salad dressing? I like it enough that I have continued to make it. I've been experimenting with chopping up the herbs and freezing the extra in water until I'm ready to make a new batch. That works well enough (although even when drained it makes the dressing a little runny). But I also tried freezing the fully prepared dressing, and that didn't seem to change either the flavor or the texture (the part I was concerned about), so today I made a quart and froze half. Here's the jar I'm keeping out for immediate consumption.

Here's the recipe (tweaked by me to be easier). It's very forgiving. Add more or less of any ingredient as you have it or like it. Also low calorie, and does not contain ingredients you can't pronounce. OK, maybe not as easy as buying a bottle off the shelf, and not quite as green, but yummy and no artificial green.

Green Goddess Herb salad dressing

a few stalks of basil
a handful of fresh dill (or I've used dried dill when I couldn't find fresh)
a handful of fresh parsley (or I've used dried parsley when I couldn't find fresh)
a few green onion stalks
several garlic cloves
2 c. lowfat yogurt
2 c lowfat sour cream

Chop the herbs and garlic fine. Mix with the dairy products and blend with an immersion blender. Actually, today, I didn't even do this. The herbs are a little coarser, but I don't think that detracts, and it's one less thing to wash. It keeps in the fridge for at least a week. I've previously made a cup at a time and finished it all before there was any chance to test how long it will last.

I finally got back to working on Long Distance Hiker Recognition for the NCT. I'm way behind on that. Shopped, worked on finances, gardened a little (stay tuned).

Miles walked in 2024: 384.7

See Let the Harvest Begin