My Crunchy Kind of Girl...

Happy belated Earth Day, y'all.

We've been amiss from our blog (as usual), and wanted to post you an adorable photo of Casey on Earth Day, dressed as quite the hippy that she is (she wore tye-dye that day)...

...but our camera decided to give out on us once and for all (which is why you're seeing a picture from Longwood Gardens instead.)

Granted, our camera was many, many years old. It was bound to happen at some point. It's always nice to upgrade. Yadi yadi yada. But none of those statements make it very easy to swallow the idea that we'll now have to spend some mucho bucks on electronics today (when we didn't budget for such an expense).

Life goes on, though, and cameras are necessities (as far as I'm concerned!), so let's hope for even clearer, nicer pics in the future.

The one shot I was able to take this past Thursday before the camera went kaputz was this:



Granola Bars

2 cups oats
1 cup nut(s) of choice (crushed, chopped, halved or whole)
3/4 cup wheat germ (I substituted crushed Wheat Chex here)
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup dried fruit (Craisins, raisins, etc.)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together oats, nuts, wheat germ and sunflower seeds in a baking dish. Toast these dry ingredients in the oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring once. Pour them into a large bowl and add the dried fruit to the mix.

Meanwhile, line a jelly roll or lasagna pan with wax paper, and lightly spray it with non-stick cooking spray.

In a small saucepan, mix brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla and salt together - set the stovetop temperature to low-medium, and bring your liquid ingredients to a boil, stirring constantly. Allow to boil for about 2 minutes and remove from heat.

Pour liquid ingredients into bowl of dry ingredients, and mix quickly. Spread and flatten your granola mixture into the prepared pan, adding another sheet of wax paper on top to help press down your bars. Allow to harden for at least 1-2 hours, cut into squares, and ENJOY!

The real keys to this recipe, in my estimation, are the oats and the liquid ingredients. If you use at least 1-1/2 cups oats along with 4 cups of other dry ingredients (to have 5-1/2 cups total) -and combine that with the liquid measurements- you're going to end up with a delicious snack in your household.

Just think of the possibilities.... Breakfast Bars with Cheerios, yogurt bites, dried apples... Salty Sweet Bars with pretzels, caramel chips, peanuts... and so on.