Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal no-bake bars

I'm constantly on the hunt for healthier snacks for the kids and myself. Last week, I made these cookies and they were devoured (aside from a few that were left in the pantry and started molding after a couple of days in there - the beauty of "real" food that doesn't have preservatives in it!)

This week I wanted to try something new and something with a sweeter taste. I searched Pinterest and found a recipe here that I liked but I had to adapt to make larger portions since there would be three of us (maybe four) eating them.


1/2 cup unsweetened Hershey’s chocolate chips
1/2 cup  natural peanut butter (I use Adams natural and the kind I had on hand was chunky which I figured would add more texture to the bars, but almond butter, sunbutter or another nut butter would work)
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or rice milk or regular milk would work...I used rice milk since I have a dairy allergy and only had that on hand for myself)
2 cups oats
4 Tsp Vanilla Extract
4 Tbsp Sweetener (I used agave syrup, but you could use honey, Truvia, etc…)
4 Tbsp Dry Ingredients (I used unsalted almonds because that's what I had on hand, but flax seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, nuts, protein powder, etc. would work too. I just ground up the almonds in my food processor to make them into a powdery consistency)

Directions:

1. Melt the first three ingredients together in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring and checking (mine took about a minute and a half total to melt.)

2. Add the oats and the additional ingredients, stir to combine.  (You want this mixture to be somewhat dry.  If it’s not dry enough, add more oats one tablespoon at a time.)

3. Press mixture into bars or balls. I used an 8×8 pan for thin bars, but you could use a smaller pan if you want thicker bars.  Simply pour the “batter” into a pan lined with wax paper.  Spread batter until even and put in refrigerator or freezer for 10 minutes, or until bars have set up. Slice into bars. I keep these in the fridge and give them out for lunches or snacks.

Finished (for now) Mudroom in the garage

So I have finished the garage mudroom makeover for now. I still have a little to do (paint the door and step and add a bench and get a new shoe rack) but for now its done and we've been "living" with it for a couple of weeks.

I hung two coat racks that I made myself. I literally went to Lowes, picked out a piece of wood and had it cut in half there. Then I came home and painted it and then added some brushed nickel hooks and screwed them into the wall, one above the other. Little people coats and book bags on the bottom and big people coats and stuff on the top.

 

I then added a new shelf and some bright yellow buckets I picked up from the dollar spot at Target to hold outdoor toys, and my gym equipment (since I use the garage to work out in too). I added a hook above that to hold our reusable bags, and next to that I hung a shoe rack that we use to hold odds and ends.

Right next to the door I hung two hooks to hold umbrellas - this is Seattle after all! On the other side of the door I hung a wire letter organizer and decided to use it to hold things like tape, measuring tape, stud finder, etc. All those things you need at hand but don't really have a place.

 

Right below the wire hanger is a shelf that holds our extra toilet paper, paper towels and emergency kit. I added a rug in front of the step and a shoe rack under the cost racks too. Not bad for now and it feels so good to be so much more organized as utilizing the space better.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies

I'm always searching for healthy recipes for snack for the kids and myself. Bonus if there is very little or no sugar and no dairy. When I found this recipe, I knew I had to try it! Super easy and delicious!

4 ripe bananas
2 cups of quick oats
1/2-3/4 cup of chocolate chips* (I used mini semi-sweet chips)
*Can also substitute coconut, nuts or raisins

Total time: 25 minutes (10 minutes prep and 15 minutes baking.)


Place oats and bananas into a large bowl and mash until bananas are sticky. Add chocolate chips (or nuts, etc.) Mix together. With a spoon, place a teaspoon sized dollop onto a baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Allow to cool on pan and then move to a baking rack when cool to the touch. Eat and enjoy!

 

 


 

Sneak Peek: Garage Mudroom Update

I've been stalking Pinterest for garage mudroom ideas for awhile, but we didn't have our garage door remote when we moved in to this house (old owners took it) and it literally took us over a year to buy another one. So we didnt need a mudroom since we rarely entered the house from the garage. But one morning I was out running errands with the kids and pulled into Lowes and grabbed one. 18 months, and one hour later, I had it programmed and in the car. This is now how I go in and out of the house 90% of the time with the kids because its the easiest (living in the Pacific NW it rains a lot so I park in there or at least load them in there) and its easy to set the alarm from the garage with our remote FOB.

So I knew it was time to create our mudroom. So far I've hung some cost hooks, assembled a shelf and purchased some buckets for outdoor toy storage and have some hooks for umbrellas, our reusable bags and a boot tray/shoe rack for our shoes. I still need to paint the door and hang a over the door shoe pocket holder that holds our odds and ends, but here's a couple photos of the coat rack I made (purchased one long 2"x4" board that was 8 feet long and had the people at Lowes cut it in half for me. I painted it with some Rustoleum espresso paint and added three silver nickel finish hooks to each one and hung them on the wall.

A Day In The Life...

So I decided to document a "day in the life" on Instagram yesterday, but wanted to share it here as well for those of you who don't follow me on Instagram. (And if you don't follow me there, click the link on the right to do so...I post a lot there!)

I wake up at 4:30am and can't get back to sleep. After an hour of tossing and turning, I give in and decide to wake up for the day. I look out the window and see that it's another grey sky...er BEAUTIFUL day in the Pacific NW! My treadmill taunts me from the end of the bed each and every moment I'm in my room. I make a mental note to move the treadmill to the garage when we can.

I make a quick blog post from my mobile Blogger app, but I'm still frustrated that I can only post photos at the end of a post right now. Hoping there is a fix/update on this soon as it's a pain.

I head into the bathroom to take a shower and take some medicine. I'm going on Day 7 of still being sick and so these two things are what helps me through my days and take care of the kids!

I go into the big boy's room to get him up and find that he's not there...I look in his closet and the bathroom and then realize that someone (not me...the husband!) left the gate on the stairs open. This isn't a big deal as much with Santi since he can walk up and down the stairs by himself...and he chose to do that this morning!

I find him downstairs going through his cars and playing. He grabs his toys and comes upstairs after a promise that he can watch "one episode" of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

 

I go into get the little one and find her already awake and sitting up in her crib. Her hair looks like this most days when she's not wearing a ponytail. It's a reverse mullet basically as it's long on the top and front and shorter in the back. Eventually it'll come in, right?  :)

 

 I put on a show for the kids (Little Einsteins) and hit the shower and get dressed quickly. I literally only have about 20  minutes to get ready each morning because Santi gets bored at the end of the show and comes to ask me to put another one on. So in order to avoid that, I dress quickly and throw my hair up in a messy bun (since I'm sick I don't feel like doing anything with it anyway) and put some makeup on in case someone comes to the door or we do head out I don't scare anyone away!

All dressed and ready to go downstairs!

I grab my pedometer that I've been wearing for a couple of weeks and curse myself for forgetting to put it on a bit ago since I feel like I've already walked a mile or two just chasing the kids around before breakfast.

Fed the kids breakfast (waffles, fruit and milk) and myself (fruit, slice of Dave's Killer Bread and 2 egg whites with spinach scrambled together.)

After breakfast I have my morning Spark, Catalyst, fish oil, probiotic and fiber powder. Love my Advocare products! (Want some of your own? You can order from me via my website here!)

While eating, we notice that Gaby's little cell phone is talking to us by itself. I'm hoping the batteries are dying and that's why, otherwise it means someone is trying to communicate with us from the beyond... :)

 While browsing my phone and Facebook, I discover Annette Funicello has died. This is so sad, as I grew up watching her on Disney reruns and those Beach Blanket Bingo movies. There was even a remake with her as a mom called "Back to the Beach" that I loved!

 The kids get a little cranky and whiny and I find this from Deliciously Darling on my Instagram feed and it reminds me to breathe...

 We head out to Lowe's which is about two miles away. It's all I can muster for today as my energy is low due to my illness. I grab some new pendant light shades, and get a piece of wood cut so I can make some coat racks for the garage mudroom project I'm working on and we head home.

 

I install the new pendant shades right when we get home as I'm making lunch for the kids (baking some nuggets for Santi and making a PB&J for Gaby allows me to multitask, plus the project took me about 15 minutes total.)

 Kids have lunch and I bring them upstairs for nap. I have my lunch finally at about 2:30pm and settle in to watch a DVR'd episode of Kourtney and Kim Take Miami and read my new People magazine that came in the mail over the weekend.

After my rest, I get up and start to cut out tags for the upcoming consignment sale and bring clothes and toys into the living room so I can tag them later on.

   

I take a moment to look out the window and realize that the sun came out along with some blue skies!

5pm and both kids are still sleeping and Tito is home! Right as he walks in the door, Santi starts waking up and I check the monitor and Gaby's awake too so we both head upstairs to get them.

 This is what greets me as I hit the top of the stairs...Santi is anxious to see his daddy!

 

Gaby's excited too!

 

Gaby being silly!

I bring Gaby into Santi's room where they both play for a bit before we all head downstairs.

 

Tito makes dinner (tacos with ground turkey) while I get to work on tagging items and enjoy a glass of wine (which is necessary.) I work right through dinner time and grab leftovers later.

After dinner we put Gaby to bed since she's grouchy and Tito plays with Santi until about 7:30pm, when he brings him up for storytime and bedtime.

I finally finish at 9:30pm and put everything away. My feet hurt after being on them for so long.

 

Tito's put in Zero Dark Thirty that I've been watching as I tag. I settle in and watch the rest of the movie and we head upstairs at 11pm (long movie!)

 Finally going to sleep at midnight after some final checks online and Tito reading the Wall Street Journal. This was a LONG day! Hoping I can sleep better tonight and I wake up healthier tomorrow!

A quick fix

I've hated our pendant light shades for awhile. They are just 1990's style frosted glass. I didn't know quite what I did want there, but I knew what I didn't want. I had to get rid of the frosted glass. I looked at many options, but many of them felt too "Starbucks bistro" (you know, the art glass type?) And then I was at Lowe's and saw some plain, small, clear glass shades.

I picked them up thinking if I hated them when they were up it was a cheap mistake because they were only $5.58 each. So an $11 mistake? Ok by me.

I came home with the kids in tow and after I'd made them lunch and sat them down, I pulled the old shades off and popped these new ones on. The whole project took me about 15 minutes (after I figured out how to remove the old ones it went quickly!) The result is an understated lamp that opens up the space more (in my opinion at least!)

What do you think? The bottom photo is a comparison of what was there vs the new shades.

Making it all work...

So I've definitely seen posts where people organize their pantries and refrigerator and it always has me wondering, "What does it look like after they put a new load of groceries away?" Or a week later? Or after a big Costco run?

I organized my pantry last week, complete with new labels, bins and purging items (ie the moldy spaghetti sauce in the back of the fridge!) But when I organized it, we were pretty low on food and I was due for our monthly Costco trip as well as our bi-weekly trip to the grocery store. So even I was wondering if it would all fit and how would it look once I'd crammed more food into the space? I'm proud to say it is still organized and everything fit!

Just for reference, here was my pantry the day of the organization, and below that, all of our food from our large grocery run, and after I'd put it all away...