Variations on a granola bar

You may remember a past post about homemade granola bars. What you may not know is that I am absolutely obsessed with these. So is my boyfriend. He requests them often and challenges my ability to make different 'flavors.' Here are some variations on my original granola bar recipe...

For all of them, follow the baking instructions in the original recipe.

Minty White Chocolate Granola Bars

1/4 cup melted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 - 1.5 cup honey (have to guess based on consistency)
1 teaspoon mint extract
4 cups oatmeal
1 cup rice krispie cereal (or in my case, Krispy Rice!)
Flour, wheat germ, wheat bran, flax meal, etc to equal 1/2 cup.
1 teaspoon baking soda
White chocolate chips

*Note: these turn out softer than the originals but once they are chopped up and in the freezer they are fine.

"Butterfinger" Granola Bars

1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup softened peanut butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups oatmeal
1 cup rice krispie cereal (or in my case, Krispy Rice!)
Flour, wheat germ, wheat bran, flax meal, etc to equal 1/2 cup.
1 teaspoon baking soda
Chocolate and butterscotch chips

These are REALLY good.

I am sure there will be more variations in the future. This recipe seems to handle changes really well.

Menu Plan, Week of 5/30/2011

So I fell off the face of the earth again. Fear not, faithful reader(s), I'm still here. This is what I am eating this week:

Breakfasts:

Homemade granola bars

Homemade banana bread

Fruit

Lunches:

Pita bread, hummus, veggies

Summer rolls

Pasta salad

Dinners:

Summer rolls

Pasta salad

Green salad with chicken

Snacks

Homemade apple sauce

String cheese

2011 Personal Development Goals: April

I'm not even sure I want to post these because I've done so poorly with them this month. But in the interest of full disclosure, here we go:


2011 Personal Development Goals:
- Read at least 3 books per month. Fail. I read most of 1 book.

- Try 1 new recipe per month. Nope. It was enough that I managed to eat this month.

- Attempt 6 "Do it yourself" projects. Half success.
Well I did work on my garden this month which is a do it yourself project but it isn't exactly something complicated so I am not sure if that counts. I'll count this as a half success.

- Volunteer somewhere at least once per month. Fail.
I might need to remove this from my goal list since I have failed repeatedly at it. But better to aim high I guess.

So ya, not a great month but that is life for you! Sometimes you have to focus on other things!

2011 Home Remodeling Goals: April

March and April were VERY busy months so there wasn't much time for home remodeling. But I still managed to get a few things done (though not anything on my original list!).

2011 Home Remodeling Goals
- Tile Backsplash for Kitchen - not yet
- Paint rest of house (dining room, hallways, living room, master bedroom) - not yet
- Replace light fixture in dining room - not yet
- Replace kitchen faucet - not yet
- Replace towel racks in all bathrooms - two down, one to go!

Other:
- Replace master bathroom faucet - done!
- Replace 1/2 bathroom faucet - done!
- Decorative elements in foyer - done!
- Front landscaping - done!
- Back landscaping - done!

Financial Goal Update: April

I've had some busy months but I've been able to stay mostly on track with things. Here is where things stand right now.

- Pay cash for all home remodeling goals so far so good
- Make an extra principal payment each month yes!
- Pay off 5% of my mortgage this year. I have paid off 0.99% so far this year. YAY! Almost 1%!
- Up my retirement savings by maxing out my Roth IRA. 68% funded!
- Continue saving for a new car. Yes
- Pay for all travel in cash So far so good and still saving for summer travel :)
- Pay for Christmas gifts in cash Saving for this goal

Front landscaping

I finally got around to adding some flowers to my front yard. I don't exactly have the greenest thumbs when it comes to flowers so I am hoping that these make it through the summer. So far they are still alive so I count that as a step in the right direction.

Here is my front yard before. I have some tall bushes and then 2 rose bushes. I recently added the cute little solar lights that line my walkway. It is nice to have them on the nights I come home after dark.


So here are the plants I added. I think it is a nice touch. It isn't anything too exciting but I like that it makes my house stand out from the rest a little. I also added the same plants on the other side of the rose bushes.


And here is my cute little house :)

CSA Week 2

Week 2 of my CSA and I am loving all of these delicious veggies in my house. This week was another good one with lettuce, spinach, strawberries, broccoli, and asparagus. Plus I still have a bunch of greens left over from last week. So I need to start eating some more salads.

Here is my half of the haul this week:


In other news, I'm drowning in strawberries. So I might have to get creative to use all of them up!

PS: You may remember that last week I got radishes. Turns out your should not put them in the fridge. So, lesson learned there.

Garden, Week 2

Nothing too exciting happening in the gardening front. My plants are getting bigger and looking good! Here is week 1 for comparison. As you can see pretty much the only difference is that they are a little bigger. The tomato plant has quite a few flowers on it so I am hopeful that I will get a decent number of tomatoes.

And the good news is that no rabbits have gotten to my plants yet!

Menu plan, week of 5/1/11

So what am I eating this week? Excellent question.

Breakfasts:
Homemade granola bars
Fruit

Lunches:
Work lunch
Peanut butter sandwiches
Leftovers

Dinners:
Summer rolls
Homemade pizza
Something else depending on the CSA delivery

Snacks:
Strawberry shortcake
Fruit

Pantry Organization

I'm not sure what it is about my pantry but it seems to get out of control so easily! One day everything is nice and organized and the next day, it is a complete EXPLOSION!

I'm in the process of a pantry makeover right now. I'm trying to limit the mount of processed foods I keep in the house. Instead, I'm trying to make my own convenience foods and do a lot of cooking from scratch.

Anyway, here is the before shot:

It is almost impossile to photograph the inside of my pantry because it is located in a hallway. Also, because I live in a townhouse and don't have a garage, I have to keep my recycling in this closet. It isn't ideal and it definitely adds to the clutter but it is the best option at this point.

And here is the after:

It took me only about 5 minutes to clean out some things and put everything back where it belongs. I'd say this was 5 minutes well-spent!