Homemade Granola Bars

I have an new obsession with these homemade granola bars. They are delicious and satisfy any sweet cravings I get. They are a healthier alternative. I have to limit myself on how many I can have.

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Adapted from: Lauren's Latest

Healthier and cheaper than the store bought kind!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
4 cups quick cooking oats {not rolled oats!}
2 cup crispy rice cereal (whole wheat)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Flax seed, mini chocolate chips, any other toppings you like

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together. (If you want to make them healthier, use whole wheat crispy rice cereal and throw in some flax seed. This will add some protein and fiber.) You can add nuts, coconut, or whatever other ingredients you want in your bars. Set aside. In a small pot, melt butter, honey and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes. Pour in vanilla and stir. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients. Line a 9x13 pan with wax paper and pour ingredients into the pan. Press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness.  (Press firmly - you want it to stick together!) Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and press down lightly. Cool in the fridge until firm enough to cut. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Seriously, so delicious.

january.

Paul and I love puzzles. By January we had completed either 1000 piece puzzles together.

One Sunday Paul was leaving for Tyler, Texas where he would spend the week at a client. We had just gotten a new puzzle for Christmas from my family so we started it together and bascally only finished the edges before he had to go.

Paul is the real puzzle expert (I get frustrated with the parts that all look the same like the sky, water, etc) so I just decided to sort the pieces by area/color and do some of the easier sections.

So I got started and was having a pretty good time. I just kept going and going until probably 12:30 or 1 in the morning...

Not bad for one day, huh?

The next morning I went right back to work and within 24 hours of starting, I had become the new puzzle expert:

Everything done minus the sky. I waited until Paul got home that weekend to finish since the sky is always his favorite part. It's a beautiful puzzle.

I also got a haircut and glasses this month! I haven't worn glasses since probably junior high so they have taken some getting used to.

I also perfected my roll recipe this month. Texas/my apartment requires some adjustments when making these beauties. But I have finally figured it out and they have become quite a hit!

Random lizard while house hunting..the house had been vacant.

Last year I became a huge Oklahoma City Thunder fan. So Paul got us tickets to see them play the Mavs at the American Airlines Center!

It was an amazing game. I had such a blast! It went into overtime with a last second shot by the Mavs and KD (favorite player!) delivered at the end and the Thunder pulled off the win. Couldn't have asked for a better game!

We've made some awesome friends since moving to Dallas. This makes for getting invited to great parties where the boys play Poker and the girls chat until after midnight.

We love Dallas! I have no plans to leave.

Luv, Lindsay

Coming Home.

So it's only taken me a month to post about coming home...not bad, right?

My sweet husband decorated our bedroom for me. How cute is he?

That weekend we had a Sushi date.

So fun.

Paul is a professional.

We got fortune cookies and the last 4 fortunes I have gotten have decided that I am going to be rich. Still waiting for that to come true :)

Paul is playing on an indoor soccer team.

They went undefeated in the regular season! Tournament starts this week.

I love watching him play.

Since I've had a lot of time on my hands, I've been cooking quite a bit.

We have had some very tasty dinners, including these lettuce wraps. I got the recipe from my awesome cousin. I loved them.

I love being home!!

Luv, Lindsay

Better than Takeout!

I've had a few requests for the recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken that I made the other day so here it is!

 (This recipe made a lot. The chicken breasts I had were pretty huge. It could probably feed about 6 people)

SWEET and SOUR CHICKEN
INGREDIENTS:
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2-3 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup oil

Sauce:
1.5 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoon garlic salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

DIRECTIONS:

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. While the oil is heating, cut the chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Coat the chicken with cornstarch. (You can do this in a shallow dish or gallon sized ziploc.)  Whisk the eggs together in a shallow dish. (Depending on the amount of chicken, you can adjust how many eggs/how much cornstarch you need) Dip the cornstarch-coated chicken pieces in the egg and place them in a single layer in the hot skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then flip each piece over to cook on the other side until nicely golden but not all the way cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish and repeat with the remaining chicken pieces.

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a medium sauce pan and simmer until the mixture thickens and all of the ingredients are dissolved. Pour half over the chicken in the baking dish. Bake for one hour, turning the chicken once or twice while cooking to coat evenly with sauce. Serve over hot, steamed rice.

Use remaining sauce on the rice or I like to fry up some vegetables in it. Onions and peppers work very nicely. Or you can half the sauce and just use it on the chicken.

Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Enjoy!

Can you believe it's December and getting up to 80? Loving it :) Hoping for a white Christmas in Utah though!

Luv, Lindsay

we can watch!

First, a shout out to my awesome cousin Derek and his cute family for loaning us their old TV antenna so we can watch the Olympics. It is pretty amazing. We got to have dinner with them and my cousin, Jake, on Sunday. Good catch-up time!

The dessert I made actually turned out really good. Easy too!

Recipe is included at the bottom.

My job search continues. I was sad to turn down a job offer I received but after lots of prayer and talking to people, I just knew it wasn't what I was supposed to do.

But here's what I wore including a skirt from my NYC trip and my wedding shoes :)

So the job search continues still.

Luv, Lindsay



Chocolate Dream Bars:
(Adapted from a recipe by Peggy)

Ingredients:

1  package chocolate cake mix (I used devil's food)
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup (6-ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I only used 3/4 cup and it was great)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with non-stick foil.

Empty cake mix into a very large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the egg and oil into the well. Using a mixer on medium speed, blend until the mixture is combined to a crumbly texture (like wet dirt). Remove 1 cup of the mixture and set aside for use later in the recipe.

Pour remaining crumb mixture into the bottom of the foil-lined baking pan. Press firmly into an even layer.

In a small saucepan, bring the sweetened condensed milk slowly to a simmer. Turn off heat and immediately stir in chocolate chips, vanilla extract, and salt. Stir until chocolate is melted and all is combined. Pour chocolate mixture evenly over the crumb layer in the pan.

Sprinkle reserved 1 cup of chocolate crumb mixture evenly over the fudge layer.

Bake about 25 minutes until the edges are firm. Place on a rack and let cool completely before adding the frosting.

I had some leftover canned frosting that I needed to use up so I whipped it with some cream cheese and powdered sugar to make my frosting but you can use whatever thick buttercream/cream cheese frosting you want. Just make sure it's not runny.

Pour into a zip-top plastic bag, press out all the air, and seal. Snip a very tiny bit of the corner from the bottom of the bag. Use as a pastry bag to drizzle frosting in a decorative pattern over the top of the brownie dream bars. Let brownies sit at room temperature for about an hour before cutting to let the frosting firm up.

baking fun

One thing I have learned this week:

I am pretty good at making food that tastes delicious. Not so much at making food that looks beautiful. No matter how hard I try, it's just not meant to be. Good thing I'm not one to really care about the look of the food, just the taste of it.

A few experiments this week:

#1

Breadsticks! Like the ones from The Pizza Factory! Thanks to Purple Chocolat Home for the recipe. Hers are beautiful. Mine are alright though. Baking is also a lot harder for me here in Dallas, probably because I'm so used to cooking in a dry climate at a high altitude. Apparently that makes a difference.

#2

Cake Balls.

These were a challenge. I don't know how people make the perfectly smooth ones but it was definitely not the greatest experience of my life. And I'll probably never make them again.

I made them for Paul. It is his birthday tomorrow so I wanted him to have something fun to take to work to celebrate today. So I attempted to make ones that looked like basketballs. Here are some of the pictures of my adventure:

The first ones that really didn't work very well.

I started dipping half at a time and it worked so much better.

Funfetti! There are chocolate ones too.

But look how cute!

I thought this was pretty adorable.

They aren't perfectly smooth and really not the prettiest,

but for Paul, they were fine.

And I still think they're cute.

I though they were cute but like I said, I'll never try to make cute ones ever again. Way too much effort!

Luv, Lindsay

pudding fail.

Remember the FIRST blog post I had published on Southwest's blog? I just posted the follow-up :) Click HERE to read the story of Gary in San Francisco. Writing for Southwest is super fun. I'm enjoying it.

Today is a super wonderful holiday . . National Chocolate Pudding Day!


I am a huge fan of the cheap, store bought chocolate pudding. Never fails. But today I got adventurous and made it from scratch. Unfortunately . . didn't work so great. It was more like a chocolate gravy. It tasted ok but wasn't the greatest texture.

The best way to make chocolate pudding is to mix a packet of chocolate pudding powder with a can of sweetened condensed milk and a small tub of whipped topping.

Now that's some awesome chocolate pudding, my friends. Next time.

Luv, Lindsay

Airplanes!

Denver was a party but definitely resulted in some sleep loss. Still recovering.


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Today is National Strawberry Parfait Day!

Because we have been busy the last 2 weekends, we haven't done much food shopping. Meaning we have little food in the apartment. No eggs, cereal, milk, yogurt, fresh fruit . . so that obviously meant pancakes for breakfast! We are still going through the pancake mix we got for our wedding.

In honor of National Strawberry Parfait Day we decided to make our own version of a Strawberry Parfait - with our pancakes!

I tried to put it in a cup to make it look like a real parfait but was much easier to layer it on the plate. Pancakes, frozen strawberries, and homemade vanilla sauce. So delicious.

The vanilla sauce was super simple:

1 cup half and half
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Just stir everything minus the vanilla in a sauce pan and heat SLOWLY while stirring constantly. Let it come to a boil for about 3 minutes while still stirring, allowing it to thicken in the pan. Make sure you stir it and heat slowly or else it will get chunky and gross. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. If you keep it in the hot pan it will also get lumpy so I would suggest moving it to a different dish. But it is a great alternative to syrup.

I'm all about the simple and easy when it comes to cooking.

At work today I got to go on a tour of the airplane hanger where they do all of the maintenance. It was really interesting to see a completely gutted plane and how they work on them.

 Captain's Chair!

 This is where they track the weather . . from the nose.

Captain!

Now dinner . .

Another delicious success for the day.

Slow cooked chicken with black beans, tomato, corn, and salsa over rice.

Again, loving the simple.

Luv, Lindsay