Another food post - homemade granola bars!

Today I decided to attempt to make homemade granola bars - in an effort to make something that does not contain sugar alcohols and various chemicals. 

I've seen many recipes on-line for granola bars but the one that most interested me was one for chewy granola bars - (like the Quaker brand ones).  Here's the link to the blog where I found the recipe: http://backtothecuttingboard.com/dessert/no-bake-chewy-granola-bars/

I'm obviously not a food blogger but thought I would share pics of the bars I made - they look almost like bars you would buy!  I made 3 batches but only photographed two of them.  The first batch I made used some purchased Raspberry Vanilla flavored granola.  I simply used 2 cups of that, 1 cup of rice krispies, and the brown sugar, butter, honey syrup.   They turned out great so I was encouraged to go one step further - I made my own granola for the next two batches.  I used the recipe from the link above.  Once the granola was finished, I made a batch of s'more bars - following the directions exactly.

The last batch I made was a peanut butter bar with peanut butter and chocolate chips.  To create this bar, I wanted to add peanut butter to the peanut butter/chocolate recipe on the blog listed above.  I made the following modifications and it seemed to work out perfect:  increase the brown sugar to 3/8 cup and once the syrup has cooked for the 2 minutes, stir in 1/4 cup peanut butter. 

All 3 flavors are YUMMY and a hit with the family.  Going to check out the granola selection at Earth Fare next time I go in - see what other flavors I can create!

Let me know if you try this recipe - I was so excited at how they turned out.

Happy New Year!

First, an apology for being a bad blogger.  It's been a typical holiday season for me - custom framing gets a bit crazy during the holiday season and entails lots of long hours and abnormal shifts.  Once that kicks in, I have a hard time just getting through the days and doing the things that have to be done - so the blog suffers yet again.

On a totally unrelated note, I took the tree down this morning.  And, spent a couple of hours photographing and inventorying all of the ornaments. I typed the inventory sheets into spreadsheets on google docs and will be uploading my photos to an online storage site.  After the 2011 tornados that barely missed us, I have thought quite a bit about the fact that we have no detailed list of our belongings.  And, a list won't do you much good if it is blown away by a tornado, burnt by a fire, etc  - so online storage of the list and photo documentation seems a good way to go.

Of course, a couple of boxes of Christmas stuff is only a tiny drop in the bucket, but there's a reason I started there.  This year, when we went to put up the tree, Harvey went to the attic and brought down a tree and ornaments - but not the ones I wanted.  See, we have two trees and two completely different sets of ornaments.  One tree is huge and the ornaments that go on it are ones we have collected in our 30+ years of married life together - we call it the MEMORY tree.  The other tree is one of the slim trees and the ornaments that decorate it are color themed to coordinate with our home.  To make a long story short - Harvey spent an hour going through every storage container in the attic TWICE to find the box I was looking for.  I vowed then and there that I would get the stuff up there sorted and inventoried, labeled with numbers that correspond to inventory spreadsheets.  Next year I can just tell him which box numbers to bring down.

So, 2 boxes of ornaments and one tree down - the rest is going to wait until we have a nice day and Harvey can bring it all down to the garage.

My questions today are - how many of you have a COMPLETE household inventory?  What format have you used - written lists, computer software, online storage, photos?  And, how thorough have you been - do you itemize book and movie titles, etc?  Or just  count 30 paperbacks, 20 dvds, etc? 

And, last but not least, have you inventoried your craft room?  (I don't want to know how much money sits in this room, LOL)

Off Topic - Cooking is another of favorite activities

Due to our varied schedules, I've been doing a lot of cook-ahead things for the freezer.  One of our favorites so far is a recipe I found at Taste of Home for Bacon Cheeseburger Buns:

Today, I used the yeast dough portion of this recipe and made them into pizza style rolls - I just combined a can of pizza sauce, one pound of mozzarella cheese, diced ham, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, and green peppers for the filling.  After baking, I brushed the rolls with butter and sprinkled with some parmesan cheese. YUM!

Since I was doing the whole waiting on the dough to rise thing, I decided I would also try out a recipe that Melissa found for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls - these are outstanding!

I've made a lot of soups and meals for the freezer - if anyone is interested, check out the blog:  Once  A Month Mom.  There are some awesome recipes and they all include instructions for make ahead cooking.  As we try some of them, I'll share results if anyone is interested.

That's it for today - closing tonight so have to head to work now.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

My favorite crafty things!

I am working on cleaning my disaster of a scrapbook area this morning and as I was putting things back in their proper places - I noticed that I keep my FAVORITE crafty items right next to me.  I'm sure you can guess what they are:

1.  Black Cat Lynx! (if you are wondering about the tape on the Lynx - that is the mark to align my Cricut mat against for perfect positioning.)
2.  SVGCUTS Binder containing .pdf printouts of all the kits and collections I own - for easy reference!
3.  Scotch Spray Mount .- the absolute best solution I've found for keeping my mats sticky!
4.  Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive - the best glue I've ever used for paper crafting!

Here's a picture of the inside of my svgcuts binder - I printed all of the .pdf sheets 2 to a page and then used the half size sheet protectors.  The binder is my old stamp binder that I outgrew.  I now store my stamps in a file box.

These 4 items are ones that I use every single time I sit down at my scrapping desk.  What about you - what are your favorite crafty items?

Thanks for stopping by!

Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop

Thank you for joining for our Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop. You will see great projects and read about some of our personal experiences. There will also be blog candy along the way, so be sure to visit all the stops.

Epilepsy is a medical condition that produces different types of seizures. It affects 50 million people worldwide. If you would like to read more information about Epilepsy you can go to the Epilepsy foundation online at : http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/

Neither I or any of my immediate family members suffer from epilepsy. When my oldest daughter was younger she was evaluated for some seizures she experienced but they did not turn out to be epilepsy. My husband's step-mother has a nephew who has epilepsy and as a result, I've tried to become more active in promoting awareness. I have spent quite a bit of time reading on-line about the disease and I made that the focus of my layout for this blog hop - sites to visit and tidbits of info about events to raise awareness.

I apologize in advance for the quality of this layout - my paper trimmer desperately needs a new blade and I could not get a straight cut no matter how I tried. (On a side note - anyone have a recommendation for a new trimmer? Can't find blades for mine anymore - it's an OLD model.)  If you want to read the captions and such - you should be able to click and enlarge the image.

Please begin this hop at Holley's blog: http://www.holleybarnhartsblog.com/

Holley- http://holleybarnhartsblog.blogspot.com/(start hop here)

Ashley - http://www.especiallymade.blogspot.com/

Jessica- http://www.canyoupixelthis.com/

Lora - http://scrpbooklady.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE

Michelle- http://www.craftychelle.blogspot.com/

Rexann- http://ibecircled.blogspot.com/

Lisa - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/

Zenita- http://www.scrappinwithz.blogspot.com/

Sher- http://www.patternsbysher.blogspot.com/ (end of hop)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Costume . . . Check

I was motivated to make myself a costume this year in order to participate in the dress-up activities at work.  If you aren't aware, I work at Michaels Arts & Crafts......so here is my costume:

I may feel silly wearing it - but I think it turned out kinda cool! 

Can anyone help?????

Okay my crafty friends - I'm wondering if someone might be able to help me out? To complete my costume, I need some information off of a bottle of BURGUNDY Craft Smart acrylic from Michaels. We are out at work so I can't get the info I need.

What I am looking for is the paint names at the top - it's in English/French/Spanish. I tried a translator but it didn't work for the orange that I have on hand so don't want to trust it for Burgundy. If anyone has this color of craft smart, could you post the french and spanish names for me?

Thanks!!!!!