homemade apple cinnamon granola bars aka apple crisp to go

I love granola bars! they are really way expensive though. 4 bucks for 8 bars?? really?? So what do I do? find out how to make them myself! of course! with some Internet searching I came across a ton(and i mean a ton) of recipes and how tos. I decided that I would mix them and do some testing to find what we liked best. So what I came up with was:

Mix the following on a cookie sheet with sides:
2 1/4 cups oats
3/4 cup cream of wheat
1 cup crushed peanuts

put this in the oven at about 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes, stirring a couple times to evenly toast.
While that is toasting mix the following in a sauce pan over medium heat until mixture liquefies completely:
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp Cinnamon

in a large bowl mix all of the above ingredients AND 1 1/2 cup chopped dried apples until the dry mixture is COMPLETELY coated with the wet mixture. Line a cake pan with foil or wax paper. Grease the foil. top with another piece of greased foil/wax paper.  Press your mixture into the pan as firmly as you can. I used the sauce pan to press down. put in the freezer for a couple hours, until the granola is completely cooled. flip onto a cutting pan and cut into you desired size bars.

The whole process took about 20 minutes(not counting freezer time) and they turned out absolutely scrumptious!! like apple crisp in bar form.

I based my recipe on the ideas from here: Granola bars, granola bars 2, Granola bars 3. The first link is where most of my inspiration came from. I really didn't want to bake them and that one helped me figure out how I could get away with not baking :)

beat the burn

I have a sunburn :( it hurts. really bad. I didn't get out of bed for over an hour after I woke up because it hurt to move my arms. So what do i do about it? scour the Internet for home remedies for sunburn pain. well, the most popular is to make a paste of apple cider vinegar and baking soda, spread it on the burned area and let dry, then wash off with really cold water. Since I use these to wash my hair with I already have an abundance on hand so I will be giving it a try once hubby gets home from fishing(again) so he can help me reach my burned back. Maybe next day in the sun I should use some sun block?? Yeah, definitely! Also, Robbie said he and Mikey have caught enough fish to have them for supper so I am going to try this recipe:

Spicey Fried Fish

Ingredients

• 2 cups dry potato flakes
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon seasoning salt
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 4 (6 ounce) fillets cod
• 2 cups butter flavored shortening, for frying

Directions

1. In medium bowl, combine the potato flakes, flour, garlic powder, seasoning salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
2. Soak fish fillets in bowl of cold water.
3. In a deep skillet or deep fryer, melt and heat the shortening to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
4. Dredge fish fillets in dry mixture and fry in the hot oil for 5 minutes or until fish flakes apart easily. Remove from oil and place on paper towels to absorb excess oil.

out the ying yang

I hit a road block. I could not think of a single thing "crafty" to do. So, I decided to sit down and brainstorm. I made a little list. Then it got bigger. and bigger. and now I have a list of about 30 different projects. I am satisfied with that being my goals for the next few weeks (or months lol) Here is a small list of whats to come: dandelion painting, I am super excited about this but it may take sometime to find the right size canvas.
tea pot herbs, another one that excites me :)
bucket garden(of course)
end tables :( not so excited about this, but we NEED them...
cloth boxes, I found a cute pattern for cloth storage boxes.
something to fill the recessed cuby in the bathroom, a cabinet, shelf, bench something...
also want a shelf up on that wall
do something with the shelves that are sitting in the basement. hmmm....not sure what yet
Thats a good start :) hopefully I will have something new and fun to show everyone in the next few days. Something besides my pissed off rants. Maybe I should seperate the blog, one my projects, one my insane pissy rants.... there is an idea. Don't know if I'll actually do that though. Oh, we found something interesting to do with pork! chili! This is only really interesting because we really didn't have alot of the ingredients to make chili. What we did: 2 cans of kidney beans (we did have those) 1 can chili with beans, 2 cans tomato soup 1 can mild enchilada sauce, we didnt have tomatoes or tomato sauce so we made do with what we had on hand. add regular chili spices(onionpowder, chili powder, garlic salt, oregano, cilantro) a minced onion and jalapnos and cubed pork, and viola, pork chili. It was AWESOME! I think the enchilada sauce really made it!  yummy.

the other white meat

We have an over abundance of pork. Anything that is on sale is what i tend to buy and I REFUSE to pay more then 2$ for a pound of any kind of meat. Unless for something special and I might get steak (if it's on sale). So, pork was on sale and now we have a bunch. Now I have to get creative or we will become very tired of pork. I cannot find any recipes that actually call for things that I have (our cabinets are a little bare right now). So, I came up with this. My version of sweet and spicy pork :)
1 1 1/2 lb bonless pork roast, cut into 1 inch cubes
Marinade in:
2 tbs ground ginger
2 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs chili powder
1 tbs cock brand hot sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp onion powder
1 cup chicken broth

marinade for a minimum of 5 hours. heat skillet to med heat. add 2 tbs oil. add meat and marinade. cook completly.  serve with noodles or rice.
I'm hungry. too bad this wont be ready for about 10 hours :(.
I tried to make a different bow last night. Bad. very bad. oh well. guess i'll try again later.