Apricot Bars

This is one of the easiest bar recipes ever. It takes no more than five minutes to prepare the bars and get them into the oven. The bars are delicious and especially good served with homemade vanilla ice cream!

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups apricot preserves

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Mix together all ingredients except preserves. Press half the mixture into the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking pan lined with foil and greased. Spread apricot preserves over mixture. Sprinkle remaining oat mixture on top. Bake mixture at 350° for 35 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.

Giant Cinnamon Rolls

Yum! I have been craving cinnamon rolls for a month now and I finally decided to make them. I have been baking for 20 years now and never once have I made cinnamon rolls. We only had whole wheat flour in the house so I substituted the whole wheat for the white flour and they turned out very well. Next time I might try half whole wheat, half white, but all whole wheat is great and extra healthy. I also had to reduce the baking time by 10 minutes and I think I could have reduced it by 5 more (a total of 15 minutes less). The rolls were great hot out of the oven but I thought they tasted even better the next day. We froze the extras and then microwaved them when we were ready to eat them and I thought the frozen ones also tasted even better then the ones straight out of the oven.
Be sure to roll the dough very tightly. After rolling out the dough into the rectangle and sprinkling the cinnamon sugar mixture over it, I did not roll the dough back up tightly enough. The rolls still tasted great but I think they would have been even better if I had rolled the dough very tightly!

Here's the recipe I used:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1842384

Whole Wheat Coconut Bread

This bread is so quick and easy to make and absolutely delicious! To get the rich coconut flavor it is important to use regular coconut milk rather than light coconut milk. For some extra coconut flavor feel free to add 1/4 tsp coconut extract and 1/2 cup coconut flakes.

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup Coconut Milk (not light coconut milk)
1/4 cup thinly sliced almonds

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a bread pan. In a large bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl mix butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and coconut milk. Stir in flour mixture. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle top with sliced almonds. Bake about 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.