Funday Sunday - Granola Bars

What kid doesn't enjoy a good granola bar every now and then? Or what adult for that matter? The problem with prepackaged granola bars is that I have yet to find a single one (and believe me, I've looked) that does not contain milk or nuts of some form. So when I get in that 'granola-mood', I make my own. This, like the previous Funday Sunday recipe, has many possibilities. The less allergies you have, the more fun you can have of course. My kiddos love them of course and Josh gobbles his fair share up too. I tell ya, I love rolled oats. They have so many uses!

Granola Bars

1/2 c. Butter
3/4 c. Brown Sugar
1/3 c. Corn Syrup
1 Egg
1/2 t. Vanilla
3 1/2 c. Oats
1/2 c. Raisins*
1 c. Chocolate Chips**

Mix the butter, sugar and corn syrup together in a bowl. Add the egg and vanilla. Third, add the oats, raisins and chocolate chips to the mixture and mix well. Grease a 9x13 pan and firmly press the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes until it's light brown on the top. It usually takes me around 23 minutes. Cool for two hours before eating (but they taste pretty darn good warm with a glass of (soy) milk). Expect them to be slightly crumbly. I don't know what the manufacturers do to keep them nice and firm, but a little crumble never hurt anyone.

*I've substituted the raisins with dried cranberries. They are really tasty in the mix. And I've even added both to change it up. I figure you could put just about any dried fruit you want in there. Blueberries, apricots, coconut, etc. My favorite is coconut and cranberries.
**If you don't have any kind of milk or nut allergy the chocolate chips can be substituted for just about any kind of chip (or no chips at all if preferred). I have always wanted to try 1/2 cup peanut butter chips and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Drizzle a little melted chocolate chips over the top of the cooled bars and you could have a really nice peanut-butter cup granola bar. Yum!
***Just FYI...marshmallows don't hold up in the oven so don't waste them trying but I bet peanuts or almonds would be tasty.

Christmas Vote

I'm putting it to a vote folks! I have three photos that I am going to put on this blog and I'd like to have your opinion on which one I should give out for Christmas. All three of them are pretty cute pictures of the kiddos, but trying to photograph Abby is near impossible. So keep that in mind when you see her sucking her thumb. I'm putting a poll up on the side bar of the blog so if you check out this blog, please, please, please vote. These are by no means professional photos. Abby wanted to do nothing but scream and Alex wanted to watch her scream and laugh at her. So I don't have plans to get professional photos done. That, and I can't really afford a pro. So let me know what you think. I'm leaving the poll open until Friday. I have to have the pictures mailed out by Saturday if there's any hope of getting them delivered by Christmas. Your opinion counts!

#1 - Alex & Abby Close-up

#2 - Alex & Abby Christmas

#3 - Alex & Abby Zoo

Smooth Transition

So it's done. The crib is gone as of today. Last night after miss Abby went to bed, she got out of her crib for the last time. I put her to bed just like always and after at least a half hour of screaming and 'Mommy! I wanna rock!', she decided to just do it her way. I heard the tell tale sound of her kicking the wall through her crib and then I heard a large THUD directly afterwards. At first I was heading to go check on her because I thought she might have hurt herself. But by the time I got to the door, she was happily talking to herself. Granted, the noises I heard coming from her sounded like it was closer than the distance it was to her crib. But I chalked it up to possible hearing loss issues and decided to avoid going in the room. Because as we all know, going back in the room usually only makes things worse. So about ten minutes later I decided that she had been quiet so long that she was more than likely asleep and I should go check to make sure she didn't have a pillow over her head or something. I went to open the door and it was stopped by something in the way. It was Abby. She had thrown her pillow and blankets out of the crib, climbed out, and proceeded to curl up in front of the door on the floor. I looked down at my precious little, thumb-sucking doorstop and said, "What are you doing on the floor Abby?" She grinned up at me and said, "I sleeping." *sigh* So I said, "You need to go to your crib and sleep." To which she instantly jumped up with her blankets in tow and ran to the rocking chair saying, "No! I wanna rock, mom!"

So in hopes of not putting her life in danger by falling out of the crib, I decided to replace it first thing this morning. I was very concerned that she would not take a nap for her first day in the 'big girl bed', but to my massive surprise, she zonked out within five minutes. On her own. No rocking needed. No escape attempts. Nothing! Not a single issue. I couldn't be more thrilled. Now bedtime will tell me the ultimate result of the transition, but for now, it appears to be a smooth sailing!

Funday Sunday: Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

This Sunday's edition of Funday Sunday is brought to you by Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies. This recipe has been passed on to me by my mom who shall from here on be referred to as the best cook ever. This recipe, though deceiving by the name, can be made 100% milk and peanut free. It's a very good recipe that has countless possibilities when it comes to different combinations. You just change up the different kinds of chips and pudding flavors that are out there. Now as far as dairy free goes, I've never found any other flavor other than chocolate for the chips. But a good majority of Jello® brand pudding oddly enough has no milk in it. Just be sure to always double check the label if you have a milk allergy like Alex does. So without further ado, here's the goods.

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

1 c. Butter*
1/4 c. Sugar
3/4 c. Brown sugar
2 Eggs
1 t. Vanilla
1 Box of vanilla instant pudding**
1 t. Baking soda
2 1/4 c. Flour
1 Package of chocolate chips***

Mix butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla together in a large bowl. Add the dry pudding mix and stir until mixed well. Add the baking soda and flour and mix and then add the package of chocolate chips. Spoon out on a cookie sheet (I don't grease my pan because it's supposed to be non-stick, but you could use a lightly greased pan if the cookies seem to stick). Bake at 375 degrees until lightly brown. Now...if you use chocolate pudding it is a bit harder to see how brown they are so I'd venture to say check them after about ten minutes. The funny thing about my mom is that she never really was one for setting timers on her food. She passed that down to me.

*For a good stick 'butter' that is 100% milk-free I've found that Blue Bonnet Light works great.
**For allergy-free families, you can use any kind of chip. White chocolate and butterscotch are really tasty in these. There are two brands I've found that are milk-free. Kroger Value brand Semi-sweet chocolate chips and Baker's Choice chocolate chunks.
***Make sure you check the allergen label on Jello® brand pudding if you want milk-free. But try changing it up with different flavors. White chocolate chips with fudge pudding, chocolate chips with butterscotch pudding, cherry chips with lemon pudding...the possibilities are endless!

Lonely Holidays

Today starts the beginning of a very long and lonely 21 days. About two days ago, Josh called and told me that he will be working out of town for 21 days. Now, at first I didn't think anything of this. I mean, even with his first employer here, he worked out of town for a week at a time. The difference between that job and this job, is that he will no longer be spending his weekends at home. He is actually working for 21 straight days, 12 hours each day. I thought only robots were expected to work those kind of hours. But at least they turn machines off to cool for awhile, right? So three straight weeks of working 7 twelve hour days. I guess it's a job that needs to be done by the beginning of next year, but still. It's Christmas people! Who works like this during the holidays. So when he told me I was flabbergasted. I didn't know how to respond. 21 days straight of no breaks where I hand the kids to daddy and get some personal time. 21 days of no Josh. So other than play-dates with Mandy, my only adult interaction will be the TV and I don't even have cable. The good news is that the paychecks should be fairly nice and the company is putting him up in a nice hotel with all expenses (including food) paid for on the company credit card. The bad news is that I'm spending the holiday season by myself. Ugh. When I asked him if that meant that he will be working on Christmas Day, he said he had to ask. So when he asked, One of them said, "Look Josh, Christmas is just another day of the year." And lucky for me, Josh had told the other guys that are doing this job that his wife wasn't too happy about not seeing him for Christmas. So the other guys piped up and said, "Um, yeah man. It's not just another day to Josh's wife." So they said okey dokey and told him they would all go home for Christmas day. So at least we will see him for the day. I would be really upset if the kids couldn't spend Christmas with their dad. Now, on the other hand, this means we won't get to spend our 8th anniversary together or New Years day/eve. But I suppose I can't have it all this year. So for the next three weeks, I'll be having very long days. I'll look forward to seeing him when/if he comes home to visit anytime. But I can't expect him to do that because I know that twelve hours of work is pretty heavy duty stuff. I can't even fathom what it must be like for people who's spouse is in the military so my hat goes off to them. Oh, and I am also using a very old computer to connect to the internet. It's a fickle machine with quite a few issues, so blogging may be a bit off this month. Hope you all understand. Until then...wish me luck. It's gonna be a long lonely holiday season.

That's Nasty

Okay. I have a date with my couch in about thirty minutes for my nightly Star Trek episode. So I think I'll just share with you my fun experience of the day. Okay, so really it's just Abby's experience for the day. But I had to witness it and it was enough to make my stomach go all queezy. Apparently, no matter how high or how far back I put things that I don't want the kids to reach, it will inevitably be reachable by one or both of the monkeys. I make banana shakes every morning. Basically it is just their soy-milk with a banana blended into it. But they love it and have one nearly every single morning. Today Alex ate so much breakfast that he didn't drink all of his. So I threw his cup in the sink and forgot to rinse it out. Well...miss Abby decided tonight that I wasn't getting dinner ready fast enough. So after I realized that it was much too quiet for two toddlers, I went looking for her, only to find her under her cube slide, hiding out. She had somehow climbed up, fished the nasty old cup of banana milk (at least 8 hours old) out of the sink, and took off to go drink it. By the time I got to her, it was all but gone. First, I grabbed it out of her tiny guilty hands...then I gagged a few times...then I tried to explain to her that it was yucky to do something like that. She grinned and said 'good shake mom.' I then proceeded to gag again. Eww. Since then, I have been fully prepared to clean up vomit at some point tonight. But so far so good. Good thing soy-milk doesn't curdle as fast as milk. But still....that's nasty.

Pitter-patter

Right now, as I type, I can hear the pitter-patter of little feet heading for the bedroom door. This ordinarily wouldn't be an issue. But seeing as how it is past 9:00 p.m., it can only mean that someone is awake. So if you'll excuse me for a moment...


Okay. I'm back. You see, Abby has decided to give up her crib. So at bedtime, I spend the better half of an hour taking her back to her crib and telling her to stay there and go to sleep. So thus, the pitter-patter of little feet can only mean one thing. She has escaped her prison...no wait...I mean crib...again. And again and again and again. She refuses to stay in it now that she has mastered her escaping skills. So as a result, this weekend I will be replacing her crib with the lovely toddler bed that Alex never wanted to use. He is lucky enough to get the big twin bed. I'd love nothing more than to give Abby her own twin bed too, but seeing as how they share a teeny tiny room, there is not enough space for two beds. (Please, oh please, let Josh keep a job so we can move someday. Because I'm not sure if they will be able to adjust to sharing bunk-beds when they are teenagers.) So as of this weekend we will most likely be a crib-free home. Wow. Times are changing so fast with these kiddos. No more baby toys. No more cribs. Alex has outgrown his carseat and has to move to a booster a year earlier than most kids due to his nearing the 40 pound mark. And hopefully I can add 'no more diapers' to this list soon. Abby is showing signs of wanting to potty train. She asks to use the potty all the time now (with a very small success rate). So I suppose I better get this blog done for the night. I can hear the pitter-patter again. *sigh* What a little turkey...