Homemade Granola Bars

Ok so today my son had a mate over and it was last minute so i wanted them to have something healthy to snack on! Being that i didnt want to make and bake cookies....as i was already going to be making bread i decided granola bars it is! Now lets just say i have NEVER made granola bars before but i knew pretty much what they were made up with in my mind? That make sense to you? It does to me lol... So headed to the cupboards and pantry and away i went! I came back with;

Oats

Sucanat

Honey

Wheat Germ

Flaxseed Meal

Crasins

Homemade Butter

Dark ChocChips

Vanilla Extract

Crushed Raw Almonds

Homemade Peanut Butter

And there you have it! Those are the ingredients to these DELISH granola bars! Now for the recipe!

~Kira's Homemade Granola Bars~

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup of honey

1/4 butter (melted)

1/2 of sucanat

1 1/2 cups of oats

1/4 cup of crasins

1/3 cup of wheat germ

1/2 cups of dark/milk chocolate chips

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

1/4 cup crush raw almonds

In a mixing bowl combine the sucanat, peanut butter, honey, melted butter and vanilla. Stir remainder of your ingredients into the wet mixture. Press the mixture into your baking dish that has been sprayed with non stick cooking spray :) Bake these beauties in a preheated oven at 360'F for 15-20mins or until the edges are browned. When done you will want to let them cool completely on a wire rack, when cooled the them into bars.

Depending how chunky you want these babies depends on the size of the baking dish you use. As you can see i used a deeper dish so my first batch are thicker then i had expected! But this recipe would work well spread out very thinly and baked till crispy! When cooled break into pieces and serve in a bowl with cold milk for breakfast! This recipe will most definately make some chewy lace style cookies!

Next time i will add different nuts maybe pretzel bits and different dried fruits :)

~Day Dreaming~

So today was the most laid back day i have had in oh so long.... Im not complaining :) Anyway while i was standing in front of the mirror in our master bathroom after thinking about my laid back day i started to think about all the things i had hoped to get done to this house in the next couple of years, you know like the Bathroom Vanities in our bathroom and the bathroom down stairs. So after washing my face i went down and joined the boys on the couch to watch a movie but i had my laptop with me and i started browsing threw bathroom vanities on one of the CSN stores! I know.. i know... we wont get to do that with moving back to Australia and all but Hey a girl can dream! Anyway i came across some realllly nice ones! Like these just to show you a few!

I like this one alot, Im loving the glass in the doors!

Now this one i could totally see in the boys bathroom down stairs! It fits into the "spa'ish" theme i was going for when i first picked out the colour theme! Love the extra room below.

This is extremely fancy i know :) But can you just imagine what kind of house this sort of vanity belongs in?!? :)

This is simple and would work wonderfully in my small master bathroom! I am a huge fan of the darker woods! And simplicity!

This is different i love the bowl its stunning!

I wish i had a master bathroom big enough for something like this! Although i know hubby would hate it cuz i would have all sorts of things all over the vanity top.... im bad about that LOL!

~Lamb Chop Rub and Tasty Cous Cous~

This is an extremely tasty meal! Like usual no idea what i was cooking for dinner..like most nights and this is what i came up with!

Now i dont know how many of you are lucky enough to have a Trader Joe's near you, technically we dont have one THAT close but its close enough (plus we like that its just down the road from another grocery store i LOVE Whole Foods Market) :) and it seems we try and make a trip up to Ann Arbor atleast once a month to stock up on bulk whole foods and other organic goodies! One of my fav things to buy is this;

MMM definately one of my fav things to fix lately because it can be dressed up or dressed down!

~Lamb Chop Rub~

(this rub is enough for 6 large chops!)

2 Tbsp of onion powder

2 Tbsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of sea salt

2 tsp of freshly ground pepper

1 tsp of spicey hot chilli powder

1/2 of ginger powder

1 Tbsp of brown sugar

Mix all the ingredients into a jar/bowl and mix, take your chops of choice :) drizzle one side of the chop and sprinkle the rub over top do this on both sides and place into an extremely hot pan to seal in the juices! Depending on how rare or well done you like your meat depends on cooking time!

This rub is a little sweet and some what spicey :) just the way we like it in our family!

~Tasty Cous cous~

2 cups of dryed cous cous

1 Tbsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of rosemary

1 Tbsp of dried chives

1/2 tsp of sea salt

1 c of raw peas

1 1/2 c of chicken stock

1/2 c of heavy whipping cream

fresh thin slices of parm cheese to garnish!

In a large sauce pan, combine the chicken stock peas, garlic, rosemary and salt. Bring to a boil, turn to low allow peas to cook and become tender, also add the cream at this point. once peas have become tender remove from heat pour your 2 cups of cous cous in slowly stirring threw the liquid. Once stirred throughly place a lid onto and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Remove lid after said amount of time and fluff the cous cous with a fork and serve.

Place thin slices of parm cheese on top and serve! This is super simple and oh so tasty, cous cous in general is fun to play with when it comes to trying new things!

~Just another Day~

Just another day here in my lil swanton home, not alot to say today it was an ok day for me i had a couple of low moments today, we had to take my son in for his check up and he needed some blood work done. There was a brand new mum in the waiting room with a beautiful little girl in her car seat. Oh so tiny and precious.... i didnt know where to look or where to go once the tears started welling up... Baby girl started crying that beautiful new born cry and that just shot a pain threw my heart... It was hard but we got called back not long after that. Im not handling pregnant women and new born babies very well at the moment i have a love hate relationship with the idea... I ache knowning they are going threw something i was going threw not to long ago....6wks to be exact..yep i try not to remember how long its been since i lost my angel baby but its impossible...i would be almost 19wks had i not lost him/her... Anyway Lochlan had to have 7 vials of blood drawn and even on good days im bad with seeing him go threw this BUT 2day i was already an emotional reck.. thank goodness i had to use the rest room and skipped out on it...stood outside the door and listened to the carryin on tho which was still hard... Anyway no recipes today just some pictures of my beautiful flowers in my garden! Hope your all well and enjoyin your week so far, recipes tomorrow i promise!

(Sorry for the moppy post..)

~Adventures in Homemade Goodies~

Homemade mustard?? Yep you betcha! Eggless Mayo??? That can last in the fridge for a couple months?? Mhmmm! The mayo is quick and easy, i know alot of you all once seeing the ingredients will be like WHAAAA???? But believe you me it tastes just like mayo and you can add all sorts of goodies to it! Lets start with the mustard recipe shall we.

~Homemade Mustard~

1/2 c of mustard powder

1/4 c of sugar

1/4 c of white vinegar

1 tsp of sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl or container, cover and store in a cool dark place. Taste after 2 weeks. If its still strong, leave it for a few more days. Once the msutard has mellowed, scrape from the container and place into a clean jar/bottle and refridgerate. This can last months when stored well.

I added garlic powder to mine and some paprika. My boys like that this mustard is spicey and sweet!

You can play with this recipe, as there are many ways to alter it and make it better.

When all mixed up this mustard is extremely strong smelling :)

Mayonnaise (Egg Free)

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

1 cup of vinegar

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of mustard powder

Empty the can of milk into a mixing bowl, add the salt and dry mustard. Slowly start pouring in small amounts of the vinegar, whisk to combine. This does not take long before it starts to thicken. Once all the ingredients have been whisked together, taste it and adjust to taste. You can always add more vinegar, dry mustard or salt to your liking. I like to add some olive oil and a little lemon juice, its VERY tasty!

~Super Simple Delish Summer Corn Salsa~

This is one of the simplest salsa's ever! And it works right in to your "mexican" night menu!

The night i made this dish up my boys were craving Chipotle and i refused to give into the craving myself....(even though i REALLY really wanted it also!) So i dug around in my pantry and freezers and pulled out the last 2 cups of sweet frozen corn from our local farmers stand you all know how i love my locally grown produce! Some local chicken breasts, raided my spice rack! And found some yummy stuff in my veggie crisper draw! This is what i came up with :) Heres the recipe for just the corn the rest will come promise!!

1 Can of naturally sweet corn

1 Fresh tomato

hand full of fresh cilantro

1 hlf of a green pepper(capsicum for my aussie readers!)

a pinch of salt

8 garlic scapes (if you have these on hand!) or just 1 small clove of garlic minced

Drain the corn and empty into serving bowl, dice your tomato to you and your families liking same goes for the green pepper as well (i kept my around the same size as the corn kernels) Add them to the corn. Roughly chop the cilantro and add it to the bowl as well. Mince the garlic/scapes, combine and mix all the ingredients in the bowl now and sprinkle with sea salt and serve!

This is really refreshing you can have it in home made buritos, tacos, salad or just straight up on corn chips!

Lochlan attempting to eat his soft shell taco!

Nathan's Burito that he had a hard time folding lol :)

I had mine on a salad! MMM

Kevin's Burito was also jammed packed and hard to fold up LOL

Happy Friday my Gorgeous Friends! Hope EVERY singal one of you have a fab wkend!

~Trying to move on~

To the baby that I carried, But never seen your face, Or tell you how much I loved you, Or ever to hear your cries. You will never be forgotten. The excitement we had for your coming. When I realized I'd never hold you, The feeling I had was numbing. My angel baby is who you are. My angel baby you'll always be. Your loving memory will live in my heart. So you will always be right here with me.

Sweet Pea is what we called our little darling when we found out we were pregnant.

So here i am making my return, i wanted to thank all of you who have emailed me and checked in on me. I decided i wanted a tattoo to remember my angel baby by something i would always have and could never loose. I went to my tattoo artist with a couple of ideas having NO idea exactly what i wanted... And this is what he came up with! I absolutely LOVE it! Its everything i wanted and then some, he did a fantastic job and i couldnt imagine having anything different.

I am still dealing with it in my own way, i have good days and bad days but i am taking each day as they come.