Gourmet Granola Bars

WARNING! These granola bars aren't just for kids! This is definitely a snack that grown-ups (or at least those that like to think they are grown-ups) and kids alike will LOVE.

Several months ago I began purging our pantry of most processed foods - particularly those containing high fructose corn syrup. But I do have kids that like to snack, including two that are very active adolescent boys who are growing by leaps and bounds. Yes, they do like fresh fruits and yogurt, but I still needed some healthier alternatives for items that were quick and easy to take on the go - like granola bars.

I found several recipes online but none that I was 100% thrilled with, so I took the parts I liked from each of them and this is what I came up with.

A Little Disclaimer: This is a very healthy, natural snack - and quite yummy, but by no means is it a low-fat or low calorie food. However, it is full of lots of protein and fiber and great for an energy boost before soccer or lacrosse practice (or when you get so busy you forget to eat lunch).

Gourmet Granola Bars

Ingredients:

2 cups oats (I use 1 cup of regular rolled oats and 1 cup of steel cut oats - I like the consistency that gives)

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup wheat germ (I use untoasted)

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup or so chopped dark chocolate baking chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips)

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup honey

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 10 x 15 baking sheet.

In a large bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, whole wheat flour, chopped dark chocolate chips and salt.

You can use one of these mini food processors to chop your dark chocolate chips or you can do it by hand (personally, I thought it was easier by hand).

As you can see here, there are some normal size chocolate chips in the bowl. Occasionally, I'll get a whim and throw in a few regular semi-sweet chocolate chips (especially if I don't happen to have quite enough dark chocolate chips in the pantry).

Next, form a well in the center of your dry ingredients and add the honey (Tip: spray your measuring cup with cooking spray and the honey will pour out very nicely), beaten egg, vegetable oil and vanilla.

Now is the fun part - get those hands in there and mix well. (Yes, I know the picture shows a spoon - but I couldn't have taken the photo had I not used it. Believe me, your hands work much better.)

Spread evenly onto baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes, or until edges begin to brown. (Do not over bake or you may find yourself visiting the dentist.)

Remove from oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes.

Cut into bars and continue cooling for a few more minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack. (Do not wait too long to cut them or it will be impossible as these set up very quickly.) Store in an air tight container.

These make great on-the-go snacks, but they are also really good heated in the microwave for a few seconds then washed down with a big glass of milk.

Enjoy!!!

Back At It - Blogging, Blankets and Bets

For some crazy reason, I thought that with summer break upon us I would have more time for blogging. I have recently come to the realization that was a silly thought. Between traveling, checking off items on our summer fun list (we're making a dent in it) and keeping up with the necessary household tasks (which is a bit more challenging with everyone under foot), I've found that I have lots to blog about but no time to blog.

It's very easy as a newbie blogger to come up with a thousand excuses not to make time to blog (at least for me anyway). But since I really want to become a real blogger, I need to put those excuses out of my head and...just do it!

So for my first entry after my brief hiatus (not that I was the queen of consistency before), I'm going to be a little random just to get back in the game.

1) Princess Mia and her blankie
Princess Mia and her blankie are inseparable. They go everywhere together - I mean everywhere. She loves her blankie - which is good since she needs a big, thick, fleece blankie with satin edges to keep her warm since it has only hit 100 degrees for a few days so far this summer (no sarcasm here at all). Well, because she and her blanking go everywhere together, blankie tends to get a wee bit dirty (did I happen to mention what a great Swiffer blankie makes). So the other day as I was doing laundry, I suggested to the Princess that we wash blankie. She was all for it - even carried it to the washing machine and put it in herself. All was well until...I shut the washing machine door and turned it on. Suddenly the only sound heard throughout the house was Princess Mia shouting and sobbing, "BLANKIE, MY BLANKIE" over and over again.

It was awful and my heart really did break for her, but Blankie.had.to.be.washed! For the next hour and a half we sat on the couch and snuggled until blankie was back where it belonged - in Princess Mia's arms. Alas, all was right with the world again.

2) Toy Story 3 - A Very Important Lesson
While we were visiting family for the 4th, we went to see Toy Story 3. If you've seen it, you know it's quite sentimental and makes you realize (even more than I already do) that your children will grow up. At least that's what I took away from it. Here's what Brandon and Joshua took away from it: See-N-Say Roulette.

A few days after returning home, I told them they needed to find something productive to do. And I guess (in their minds anyway) they did. I came downstairs to find them with Princess Mia's See-N-Say placing bets on which animal the arrow would land on. And they weren't messing around - they were betting with quarters. I guess they'll be heading to Vegas next!

Well that's enough for now - a summer fun list update will be coming soon.

Quiet No More - Thank Goodness

This last week was too quiet for my liking. Some might say that there's no such thing as too quiet, but if you know me, you know that I don't do quiet very well.

Both boys were off having their own adventures (one was in Florida with a friend, the other was visiting grandparents) while Tim, Mia and I stayed home. After the first 12 hours or so, Princess Mia and I decided that it was just way too quiet. She'd wake up from her nap calling for her "brudders, Bandon and Joshie." It was very cute, but also very sad. It made me fast forward in my head 6 or 7 years and realize that one day, they won't just be gone for a week but for a whole semester or longer. I won't hear the sound of cleats (baseball, lacrosse, soccer or football) clicking across the hardwoods. I won't hear the sound of some kind of ball bouncing repetitively off the back of the house. I won't hear the yells and grunts of brothers wrestling each other (whether for fun or not). No, it will be too quiet. Mia and I will have to figure out some way to make our own noise. But we'll think about that later, much later.

Everyone is back now and so is the noise. And I'm happy!

Summertime = Fun Time

We just finished up our first week of summer vacation - and we still have quite a few more weeks to go. Thank goodness - because I'm soooo glad to have a break from the normal routine. (I'm probably more excited about it than the boys.)

One of the first activities we did this week was to create a Summer List. This is something new for us. I read about it on this really cool blog and thought it sounded like a really cool idea. I always feel like summer flies by and we never really do anything or get anything accomplished. This year we're going to change that.

This kind of goes back to a New Year's theme that I came up with for myself. I didn't want to have resolutions - that's just setting yourself up for failure - but I did want to have some general goals for the year. One of those main goals was to live life more purposefully. Now I don't mean that I planned to seek out my life's overall purpose this year (I pretty much know what God's purpose is for my life right now and that's being a wife and mom to my husband and kids). I mean making decisions or choices with a specific purpose or goal in mind. So often I do things just because - because I really don't know why, because I feel like I need to fill every minute, or because I'm procastinating. That has led to a lot of wasted time or unfinished (or unstarted) projects. Then I get mad or frustrated that I've really wanted to do something but haven't. All this to say that I didn't want us to make it to the end of summer without having really done anything.

We had a little family meeting and brainstormed about the various things each or all of us wanted to do this summer. Now we have them on this big piece of poster board so that we see it every day. Then when we're looking for something to do we consult the list and make a plan. It may seem really structured but it's not. It's actually a lot of fun figuring out when and where we're going to do everything.

We got off to a good start this week - we ran a 5K, went to the pool, fished and had a few workouts at the gym. Next week will be a little slow because both boys we'll be gone and it will just be me, Tim and Princess Mia. (We won't know what to do with just one child - I think I'm going to be a little sad.) But when they return we will see what other fun, purposeful memories we can make.

Happy summer!

I Must Be In a Time Warp...

because it is hard to believe that today was Joshua's last day of elementary school - and mine too (at least for a few more years). He can't possibly be moving on to 6th grade and the vast expanse that is middle school. Where have the last six years gone? What happened to my cute little boys?

 Joshua's first day of kindergarten.

Well, those cute little boys have turned into very handsome young men. (They would be mortified if they knew I put that in writing on this blog - but oh well, I have a parental obligation to embarrass them at least a little bit, don't I?)

Joshua's last day of 5th grade.

Bus stop buddies - Jake, Jack and Joshua

No longer will I ever be able to get this close to the bus again - at least not without getting a lethal glare.

I'm very happy that school is out for the summer but quite sad that I no longer have little boys who want to fill their days with Lincoln Logs and Matchbox cars. Fortunately they're still OK with spending the summer hanging out with me - and I plan to treasure that while it lasts. Oh, I know they must grow up - and I am looking forward to following them - and guiding them - along the next leg of their journey. I couldn't ask to be a mom of two better boys.

And then there's always this cute little thing to remind me that not all of my babies are grown up yet!

And now that I'm done being nostalgic, it's time to let the summertime fun begin and go make some new memories!

Camping Fun

We 'unofficially' kicked off our summer Memorial Day weekend with a neighborhood camping trip. (I say 'unofficially' because the kids don't get out of school until the second week of June.)

We are very fortunate to live close to a big lake with several State Park campgrounds. That makes it nice in case we forget something or decide we'd rather shower at home without bugs and fungi - or in my case, come home at night with the baby while the boys (and Tim) became one with nature.

It was very refreshing to see kids ranging in age from one to 12 hanging out with each other with no TV, video games, texting, computers, etc. They entertained themselves from sun-up to sun down with fishing, boating, kayaking, swimming, and the like. And never once did I hear anyone say they wished they had one of the aforementioned gadgets. (I plan to continue that them throughout the summer.)

Here are a few highlights in pictures:

Yay - it's finally here...

...my first box of vegetables from a local produce delivery service. I'm so excited - no, really, I am! Look at all the delicious goodies:

...squash, blueberries, white new potatoes, endive, cilantro, dill, asparagus, broccoli and turnips.

Over the last few months, we - as a family - have been trying to eat healthier and more 'real' by eliminating as many chemicals and unnatural substances as we can. Now that doesn't mean we don't partake in an occasional processed food item, but we are trying to be more conscientious of what goes in our mouth. This may seem like the fairly common sense thing to do - but let me tell you it wasn't easy getting everyone to agree to this (especially Tim - who's diet consisted of an array of Little Debbie snack cakes, frozen dinners and other junk).

But after reading the book In Defense of Food he came around. This made it much easier to persuade my somewhat reticent children. I can't say that they're completely thrilled with the idea, but they are slowly getting used to trying new things and giving up a few of their dietary staples that didn't quite cut the mustard. They are also learning that eating healthy/whole doesn't mean they're on a diet. We still have sweets and desserts but they are more often than not homemade with whole wheat flour and real ingredients as opposed to out of a box. They actually like this part of it a lot!

Our eating habits are still far from perfect (and I can tell you they probably never will be), but we are learning, trying new things and continuing to make small changes along the way - which is why we signed up for the Produce Box. I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, and by the way - does anyone know how to fix turnips?