Weekend Update

Whew!  What a weekend.  What a couple of weeks!  This was our last weekend of Christmas break.  So glad the kids had two full weeks off from school.

Friday we were home.  I had some cleaning to do.  The kids worked on homework.

Saturday we ran some errands.  The toaster died a slow death on Friday.  It had not been working correctly for a while.  Alex said it was junk because it wouldn't cook his frozen pancakes all the way through.  We kept Cragan Saturday night.  She has it figured out that she has Uncle Brian wrapped around her tiny finger!  He will help her up on Alex's top bunk a million times and give her all the gum she wants.  Although, I nipped the gum thing in the bud when I bought her her own pack!

Sunday we were home for the afternoon.  Alex and I made granola bars for the kids to snack on this week.  He thought he was hot stuff helping me in the kitchen.  We have made them before and it's stuff I have in the pantry.  I will share the recipe again, so here it goes.  The original recipe is from joyful abode.com, but this is my adaptation.

Cranberry Almond Granola Bars

2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup wheat germ
1 cup almonds, crushed slightly, I like to see big pieces of almonds
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Agave
4 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract
8 oz dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix the almonds, oats, and wheat germ in a jelly roll pan.  Toast them in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Stir occasionally so they don't burn.

Prepare a glass baking dish by lining it with waxed paper.  I sprayed it with Pam so the sugar and agave wouldn't stick.

Put the brown sugar, honey, butter, and vanilla into a saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Stir constantly.  This was Alex's job.  He kept telling me he was stirring the glue for the bars.

Once the grains are toasted mix everything together including the cranberries extremely well.  You want to make sure the "glue" gets all over everything.

Spread the mixture into the baking dish with a wooden spoon or spatula.  Fold over the sides of the waxed paper to cover the granola mixture.  Press everything down HARD!  You want to make sure it stays together.

Cool for a couple of hours, or you can do like we did and break into them a little early!  You can change up your nut and fruit combo too.  I want to add some pecans to ours next time.