Granola Bars! Forgot the sugar…

I would like to give you a great recipe but… I just threw together some stuff I had on hand. I used:

• 3 cups old fashioned oats
• 3 cups quick oats
• 2 cups flour (1/2 white, 1/2 whole wheat)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup almond/coconut milk (it’s a mix that I bought on a whim- unsweetened)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup marshmallow crème (yea, I was trying to keep it together)
• 1 can frozen apple juice, thawed
• 1 cup flax seeds
• 1 tsp vanilla

I didn’t write this down so am going by memory here. One cool thing about granola, it’s so easy to make and you can rarely mess it up. Of course, I forgot the sugar in this batch so it is a bit bland. The apple juice gives it a bit of …a sour taste? That’s how the kids described it. Also, I did drizzle honey on the top of it while it was baking to see if that’d help it stay together (and sweeten it).

I mixed all ‘dry’ ingredients together. Liquid and wet ingredients were mixed in a large glass measuring cup. Eventually, it was all just glopped together. I greased a cookie sheet (with coconut oil- that stuff can make anything non-stick!) and pressed down the ‘dough’. I cooked it at 275*F for 30 minute increments. I think after the second 30 minutes, I scored the bars. Just keep an eye on the color and also poke it every so often to feel how ‘done’ it’s getting.

Finally after 1 1/2 hours (or was it 2?) I was able to transfer the bars to a cooling rack. Here are two photos- one with flash, one without. Both are without “sugar”

I have another post on my blog with a better recipe –in my humble opinion –for granola, in case you’re interested.

Cooking and its Benefits

Hello, my friends!

Today I'll be talking about cooking.
 

Lately, I've been helping Mom make food. Sometimes I even make it. Often I just do little things, like shredding cheese or cutting olives. But then of course, when I make the food, I do everything, asking Mom for help along the way.

In my opinion, cooking is very fun and confidence-boosting. I enjoy helping my mom with the food and knowing that a little of my work went towards feeding everyone else. It's most confidence-boosting when I do it by myself. When what I made comes out well, it just makes me happy and proud of my work.


Cooking is more than just fun; it's a life skill. When I get older and live on my own, without my Mom to make my food, I'll have to either buy all my food ready-made (that'd be expensive) or I'll have to make the food myself. But the good thing is, I'll know how to cook...! And if someone comes over, I can make food for them. So by learning to cook now, I'm ensuring that I'll be able to make it on my own.


My failures in cooking, like any failures, help me learn. A few days ago, I made cookies using a chocolate-chip cookie recipe, without the chocolate chips and putting on crushed mints. While I was making it, I ran into a few complications: it called for brown sugar, but we didn't have any, so I mixed sugar with molasses. Also, our mixer was ruined when Mom tried to make marshmallows (yeah, we'll just buy store ones from now on), so I had to mix the dough by hand. I was using the smallest bowl and quickly running out of room in it. My hand was starting to ache, but I still needed 1/2 cup more flour! I decided, "Ehh, we'll live without it." 


Without the flour, the dough was a little runny once it got in the oven. I had accidentally put too big of scoops on the cookie sheet, and they ended up running together. We ended up with huge, flat cookies. Then, when I put in the second cookie sheet, the cookies wouldn't cook. Mom ended up microwaving the two that wouldn't; they were very crunchy... Thankfully, they tasted good...


So, I learned from that experience a few things: Make sure your bowl is big enough. Make sure you have the right materials. Make sure you have the right ingredients. And make sure you use the right amount of the ingredients.


That's all for today! Bye...! ^.^

This has been submitted to the Christian Home eMagazine at The Legacy of Home under Young Adults

Jabber, Jabber...!

Eh, I am so not a good blogger. (Mom stands behind me and says, "Bad blogger, bad!" Hehe) Anyways, I'm posting now so that I don't forget later...

Not that I really have anything awesome to say, just some jabber...!

Okay, well, to start...

I got up before everyone else and decided to figure out breakfast. So I looked at our breakfast options and 'Muffins' caught my attention. I took out a cookbook and hunted down a good-looking muffin recipe. I found just a basic one, 'Muffins'. Because they sounded boring, I decided, I want the oatmeal variation!

So when Mom came up, I pointed out the recipe to her, and she just said, "Get to it, then." (Or something like that...0.0) 

The muffins are just now down and out of the oven. (Thank goodness Mom took them out of the oven... Ovens scare me!!) Sadly, they aren't coming out of the wrapper-things very well. (Which, by the way, I arranged in a special pattern in the pan, hehe)

I'll be back and finish this after I eat some of my supposedly yummy muffins...!

Yum, they are yummy! ('um, yeah...' says my inner self) They're really good with Mom's honey butter. (Perhaps I'll ask Mom to post the muffin recipe here, cause they are really good and quite simple. And I'm too lazy to post the recipe myself)

Okay, Jabber Part 1: Completed.

 Now, Jabber Part 2...

My book!!

I am in the process of getting a copy of my book, The Bright Stone. (Which I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year) Using Lulu.com, I can get a copy of my book! I just have to wait for the 'print-ready file' to complete (which will take years) and then I'll order a copy for myself. Just one, to make sure that all the formatting and stuff is done right. Then I shall release my book to the world!! (Bwahahaha)

(computer voice:)Jabber Part 2: Completed.

Jabber Part 3...!

Have you watched Megamind?! If you haven't, you are really missing out!

When I first watched it, I was skeptical, because it is said to be better than Despicable Me (which I didn't find very awesome, really...) So my first viewing was kinda in an 'ehh' state of mind. After we (Fox and I) finished it, he said, "It'll probably be better the second time." And it so totally was...! There are so many funny little bits in it...!

Some of my favorite quotes from the movie:

Titan: There is no Easter Bunny. There is no Tooth Fairy. And there is no Queen of England!

Megamind: Unfathomable. It's like, uh, without fathom.

Megamind: You were right, minion. I was... less right.

Megamind: (hits head on windshield) Ow! My giant blue head!

You really have to watch the movie, to understand the quotes a little better...!

(computer voice:) Jabber Part 3: Completed.

Jabber: Completed.

Lee, out...!

Meal Planning...a first!

Here it is Wednesday evening already. Where has the week gone? 

Is it just me or does this year seem to be zooming faster than last year?? Oh well, no matter, it is what it is.

I'm going to start with this: God is good no matter how bad life gets. Well, my life is actually pretty good and God is even better. He's carried me through when I make mistakes, when I blunder along and when I do things that later I think oh, I shouldn't have done that! He is always there and He provides for us in every way. God is awesome.

This week has been a fairly busy one and that's why I've not been around. I've been adding things to my Etsy shops (BlossomBs, Kidchen Gnomes & Lossolleff), been trudging along with my school work and plugging along with doing school with the kids. You'll hear more about the school with the kids on Friday. 

I've also been making up my menu- for the entire month. This is something I tried to do last month but didn't do as well as I wanted. The main reason for planning was initially to save on the grocery bill. The other reason was that I was tired of looking in the fridge/freezer/cupboard 30 minutes before dinner and having no idea really what to make. I've read about others that do menu planning and I'm always interested in what they are having. It looks so much more interesting than our usual of burritos, sphaghetti or chicken with vegetables. 

Here is my months menu. Anywhere it has (x2) means that during the 2 weeks we will have it twice; usually once each week rather than in one week. And the lists are for reference. So if I want Eggs on Monday then I can make them again on Saturday if I really wanted to. When I went shopping it was a tremendous help to keep me from buying stuff that I wasn't sure I needed.

Ready?

Breakfast:

1st 2 weeks:

Scones with fruit and milk

Omelet with juice

Oatmeal with fruit

Eggs with toast and juice (x2)

Yogurt with fruit or granola (x2)

Coffee Cake with milk

Cold cereal with fruit (x2)

Waffles with fruit and milk

Grits with eggs and juice

Muffins (with fruit) with milk

French toast with juice

2nd 2 weeks:

Eggs with toast and juice

Cold cereal with fruit (x2)

Oatmeal with fruit and milk (x2)

Scones with fruit and milk

Yogurt with fruit &/or toast

Coffee cake with milk

Omelet with juice

Waffles with juice

Grits with eggs and juice

French toast with juice

Pancakes with fruit and milk

Farina with fruit and milk

Lunch:

1st 2 weeks:

Sloppy Joes

Mac & Cheese

Tuna Turnovers

Personal Pizzas (x2)

Hot Dogs with beans (x2) (I keep forgetting the baked beans though!)

Tuna sandwiches

PB & Banana or Honey sandwich with milk

Salad with chicken

Burritos

Chili Mac

2nd 2 weeks:

Quesadilla with tea

Meat sandwich with juice

Salad with chicken

Tomato soup with grilled cheese

Tuna Tortillas

PB & J sandwich (x2)

Salad with tuna

Sloppy Joes

Mac & Cheese

Personal Pizza

Tuna Sandwich

Burritos (x2)

Dinner:

1st 2 weeks:

Chicken Enchiladas

Pork chops with biscuits and veggies

Bean soup (x2) with cornbread or cheese spoon bread

Pot roast

Chicken with veggies

Spaghetti with garlic bread

Pork stew

Creamed chicken over rice

Meatloaf with veggies and biscuits

Chili

Cabbage Rolls

Chicken and veggies

Pizza

2nd 2 weeks:

Fish with salad 

Chicken and veggies

Chili w/ cornbread

Turkey Burgers and salad

Creamed chicken over mashed potatoes

Beef stew

Bean soup with cornbread

Burritos

Chicken Enchiladas

Pot Roast

Pizza

Sloppy Joes

Chicken and veggies (x2)

Snack Options:

1 apple & 1 string cheese (water)

dried fruit and 1 string cheese or 1 serving crackers (we have Wheat Thins, Animal Crackers, Cheezits, Ritz and saltines to choose from) (water)

1 apple & 1 serving of crackers (milk)

1 string cheese and 1 serving of crackers (juice)

1 carrot and 1 string cheese (water)

1 carrot and 1 serving of crackers (milk)

scoop of pb and milk

1 piece of bread with pb (juice)

1 piece of bread & 1 string cheese (juice)

sliced apple with pb (milk or water)

Something else that I've been trying to do is eat less meat and more wholesome foods. In my menu it looks like there is a meat in just about every meal! Not quite what I had in mind when I thought about cutting back. But some of those things- such as spaghetti, pizza, chili, even sloppy joes -can be made meatless. At first, honestly, I anticipate grumbles in my house. And no, I don't intend to use tofu- my poor hubby would starve because he wouldn't eat it! Haha! No, I intend to use beans- black, pinto, navy, great northern, but no garbanzo (again, hubby dislikes...picky man! heehee jk)- to replace the meat. Sometimes though, nothing else will be needed. Spaghetti is just fine with only sauce and pizza is good with lots of cheese and olives.

And for breakfast items, I am using more whole wheat products. I have almost always used whole wheat at some point and in differing amounts. Now I am making it more whole wheat than other flours. I am using honey also in place of the sugar and coconut oil in place of hydrogenated fats (you know, Crisco) and butter in cooking. I love butter though so that's a tough one. Can always have some butter on my whole wheat toast :) A problem with using wholesome ingredients for making foods is that it can be expensive :(

I think I've mentioned the More with Less Cookbook but there are two others that I use, but no where near as frequently. The Taste of Home Cookbook from Taste of Home Books and Reader's Digest. It is handy sometimes but it doesn't really help with how to make things from scratch often. It says to buy a can of cream of chicken soup when a recipe calls for something like a white sauce. It can be made super easily at home- that's where my More with Less comes in handy. The other book that I use for biscuits, scones, breads and those types is Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. It's definitely not the 1930s version! My mom has one that is older than mine and it's interesting how things have changed even in 10 years! I think hers is a lot older than 10 years. Anyway, I love that cookbook almost as much at the More with Less. And finally the cookbook that I use the absolute least is The Woman's Day Cookbook that was given to me by my aunt and cousins when I got married. I use this for one recipe and one only (at least for the last 14 years...). I still keep it around though because I can still never remember the recipe by heart.  Never know, I might someday find something else interesting in it!

So my meal planning took me a long time to complete. Probably a couple months. We usually eat the same things again and again and again and it gets so boring. The kids used to have cold cereal almost every single morning. Hubby still has, and possibly always will have, 2 eggs on Saturday and Sunday ;) Our lunches were not really much of lunches; we would look to see what was to 'munch' on and at call it lunch. 

I think that planning the meals has been a great help and will continue to be. I took inventory before I went shopping also and discovered 3 cans of salsa and 3 cans of spaghetti sauce! I would almost certainly have bought another when I went shopping had I not done the inventory first. Saved on some meat as well because I checked and we still had 2 bags of frozen chicken to use- I would have bought a few more. Not having to buy those things saved me at least $20.

Cooking Class via Real Life

On Friday night the kids made dinner- all by themselves! That included 'dessert'.

Since it was National Taco Day (according to some calendar that Lee had found long ago and marked up her current calendar with) they insisted that we had to have tacos- not burritos like I make on occasion, no- TACOS. So we went to the store and bought a taco making "kit", tomatoes, and ground beef *we usually eat ground turkey but they thought it should be beef this time.*

Before dinner was started however, they wanted to make fruit salad for dessert. It was to be made simply out of apples and whipped topping because that's all we had I thought but I found some frozen peaches and strawberries in the freezer. They cut the apples, cut the seeds out, rinsed them and put them in a bowl. Next they each cut some frozen peaches and strawberries to put in with the apples. They kept asking me, "Is that enough?" but I would say, "You're doing fine, you be the judge." After all was sliced and mixed in the bowl, they added a few scoopfuls of whipped topping. (Again, "Is that enough?" lol) The fruit salad was covered and put in the refrigerator to chill until after dinner.

For dinner, Jeff opened the 'kit' and took out all the contents. He read the instructions out loud and decided, "The meat has to be cooked before anything." That was Lee's job. For some reason she loves to brown meat. So while she was working on that, Jeff again read the instructions. After the meat was browned it said to drain it but because we bought 90% lean meat there was next to nothing to drain so I suggested skipping that step. Jeff dumped in the seasoning packet contents that came with the kit into the meat and also measured out 2/3 cup of water and poured that into the frying pan. Lee mixed it all and let it set on med/low heat for a few minutes until most of the liquid was 'absorbed' (I think it just evaporated!). Meanwhile, Lee 'shredded' (aka, cut into small pieces) the lettuce and Jeff cut up a tomato into small pieces for the topping. Lee transferred the taco sauce from the pouch to a small dish so that it could be used easier.

When the meat was done she took it off the burner (and turned off the burner ;), took the taco shells out of the packaging and heated the soft shells in the microwave on a small plate for about 30 seconds. The hard shells were just set on top of the soft shells. Most of us do not like hard shells for 'tacos'. Lee wanted to try a double taco this time (soft shell on the outside of the hard shell, with the fillings inside the hard shell) so she got out some left over burrito filling to use as 'glue' for the soft shell to stick to the hard shell. In case anyone else wanted to try it as well, she heated it up in the microwave and set it out with the other toppings.

It was great. They found dishes for each of the toppings- all in the perfect sized dish for better serving. And when dinner was all done, Jeff put everything away. He found containers for each item, based on how much was left and put them all away in the fridge.

It was great. I love when they do that :)