Granola Bars

I'm posting this for a friend. FB wouldn't give me enough space to write it all out and this was the only other way I could think of to share it ;) Its chewy the first day then gets crunchier and crunchier until you really have to fight to break it up. Don't throw it away when it hits this point! Get it into chunks and its very yummy as cereal :) I pour milk over to cover then either eat it cold or heat it up like oatmeal. Not exactly sure how healthy it is, but I like it all the same!

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup wheat grem
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 ounce unsalted butter plus extra for pan
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
6 1/2 ounces chopped dried fruit (any kind you want: apricots, cherries, blueberries)

Butter a 9x9 glass baking sheet. Heat oven to 350. Spread oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and wheat germ onto a cookie sheet. Toast in oven for 15 min, stirring occasionally. In meantime, combine honey, sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt in a med sauce pan. Cook until sugar has dissolved completely. Once the oat mixture is done, remove it and reduce heat to 300. Immediately add oats to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit and stir to combine. Turn mixture out into prepared dish and bake in oven for 25 min. Remove from oven and allow to cool before cutting.

Halloween 2010

 Happy Halloween!!! We has a great weekend celebrating this fun holiday :) It of course started out with the carving of pumpkins. Usually Mark does all the carving because the kids pick these insanely difficult images that only he can cut out but this year the kids did it all themselves. Partly because they had a pumpkin contest at school and partly because Mark is working all the time and isn't home till just about bed time. But the girls all had a great time drawing pictures that they traced and cut out. 

 For dinner on Saturday (before the trunk or treat) we had spaghetti with eye balls (cored cocktail onions with capers inside). Most of the kids thought it was pretty funny. Austin even got mad when I took his out. Becca was the only one who was NOT impressed. lol

 For the trunk or treat I made desert. The cupcakes are supposed to be the guy from Nightmare Before Christmas.

  Here are the kids in their costumes. Brooke was a mummy.  I actually really liked her costume. We made it together which was really fun. Kelsie was a Hogwarts student. I had fun making her patch out of felt. We couldn't find a gold and maroon scarf but I think you get the idea with just a maroon scarf. Shayna was a green witch. Its the same costume as last year. Actually this year I gave the kids $3 each as a budget of what they could spend on costumes (I am totally over the whole $40 cheap costumes). Shay decided to be the witch so she could have the broom this year :). Becca was a Jaguar. And Austin was supposed to be a cowboy. He actually had a cowboy hat that was once Marks, a bandanna, and a set of guns with holster. He had fun playing with the guns but refused to put anything on...aw well...one day maybe. And I'm happy to say that everyone came in under budget :)

 This is the only picture I have of the trunk or treat event. We had Beetlejuice there as a MC. He was really cool! Austin was fascinated with him and poor Shayna refused to go back into the gym once he came out :( But Bro. Foote did a great job of staying in character and not making eye contact with the kids he knew were scared :)

 

Sunday we stayed home and enjoyed the day together. After all the rushing around I did in the weeks prior to Halloween my muscles were shot. I couldn't move without cramping, which makes getting kids ready for church near impossible. So we sat around, watched movies, and ate most of the candy haha. Then when it was night time the kids got to help hand out candy. We didn't go trick or treating because it was Sunday but even if it wasn't, I don't think I'd get very far anyway with the way I was feeling. Luckily the kids had a great time seeing friends come by (a few anyway) and hand out candy. All in all, it was a very fun weekend and I'm very glad its over ;)