Sweet, Sweet Savings--Rhubarb crisp

Making a crisp, crumble, or cobbler with in-season fruit is an amazingly tasty way to save some money on sweets.  Plus, unlike a lot of the junk food you may be tempted with at the grocery store, it actually has some nutritional value!  Rhubarb is an excellent source of fiber (5 g per 1 cup!), and also contains vitamin A,  C, and several B vitamins, as well as containing a lot of calcium and magnesium.*  Sure beats a cookie!  Even though rhubarb is technically a vegetable, it works like a fruit in such recipes and is in season long, long before the first fruits of the year are.  In preparation of rhubarb being in season locally soon, I used the last of my rhubarb that I chopped and froze last year when it was in season the other day.

It is so hard to get kids to eat vegetables!

Rhubarb Crisp

3 cups rhubarb (thaw and drain if frozen)

2 tbsp all purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together the all-purpose flour, white sugar, egg, and rhubarb.  Pour into a small greased casserole dish.  In a small mixing bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, and whole wheat flour with a pastry blender.  When the mixture resembles fine crumbs, sprinkle it evenly over the rhubarb mixture.  Bake for 40 minutes or until the rhubarb is tender.