Eat your greens!

Do you eat your greens?  Do you want to but not sure how?  We have been trying to have greens this fall and winter about once a week.  We have done southern style braised greens a couple of times.  But one of my absolute favorite recipes for greens is greens with carrots, feta and brown rice.

It is full of flavor with the greens and carrots, nutty brown rice and salty cheese.  I made it this week with cojita cheese, a Mexican cheese that is a cross between feta and Parmesan.  And I don't buy the frozen brown rice.  Instead I make my brown rice in the oven.

Orange Burst Bars

Around our house, we buy lots of fruit.  Lots and lots of fruit.  Most of it gets eaten right away, or at least in a timely fashion.  But for some reason, we get bored with oranges or clementines.  We can go through pounds and pounds of them, and then one day I realize the same 3 clementines have been in the fruit bowl for over a week.  And at that point, NO one is going to eat them.

Now they aren't like bananas that I can throw in the freezer for smoothies or bread.  And it's not like apples that can be diced and put into oatmeal.  But years ago I found a recipe for Orange Burst Bars.  They are a lot like lemon bars.....but orange.  There is a yummy shortbread crust, and then a topping made from eggs, sugar, a little flour and whole oranges!  I do cut up the orange to make sure there are no seeds in there, but my kids (my little boys especially) have LOVED putting a whole (or half) orange in the blender and watching it get all chewed up.  It's a very simple recipe, too.  So any time I have a few old, dried out oranges in that fruit bowl, we get these bars.  You could actually use fresh oranges too!

Orange Burst Bars

Combine:

1 c melted butter

1/2 c powdered sugar

2 c flour

And pour into a 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, in a blender, combine:

4 eggs

1 1/4 c sugar (I used 1 c honey today...YUM!)

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/3 c flour

2 small or 1 1/2 medium oranges

Pour orange mixture over crust and bake an additional 20-25 minutes.  Just like Lemon Bars, you could sprinkle the top with additional powdered sugar.  Or I think some kind of chocolate drizzle would be awesome too!