No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars.

The first thing you should know about me is that I never follow recipes. Like ever. The second thing you should know about me is that I love peanut butter.

This last summer I went through a serious granola phase. I ate about 3 batches this summer, what's a batch you ask? Think 4 quart sized bags per batch. I must have switched to another breakfast food at some point, because I found some leftover granola in my freezer (yes it was still good, I promise!) So I decided to add it to my granola bars.

I found a ton of great looking recipes on Pinterest but, in the end, I decided to take no one's advice and make my own.

And they turned out fantastic. Super peanut buttery, chewy and chocolaty. Perfect. But then I remembered....  I  forgot the rice krispies!  Ugh! I'm still bummin' about this. You see, I hate rice krispies with milk. They're soggy and bland and all the sugar I put on top to make them taste better sunk  to the bottom of the bowl. Great, warm sugary milk.... just what I wanted for breakfast. Anyway, I had about 2 cups left over from making rice crispy treats (which I'm obsessed with) that would have been perfect for these! But they're still in my cupboard, forgotten, sad day. These are great granola bars, even without the extra crunch the rice crispy's would have added.  

Dump and stir.

`

Pour and stir.

Spread evenly. I didn't have enough to fill the pan so I have what a geometry teacher might call a granola quadrilateral. 

Ingredients:

1 c slivered almonds

1 1/2 c granola (recipe below)

1 c coconut

3/4 c chopped walnuts

1/2 c wheat germ 

1 c rice crispy's 

2 1/2 c rolled oats (not quick cooking) 

1 - 1 1/2 c peanut butter, divided

1/2 c butter

1/2 c honey 

1 T cocoa 

1/2 c chocolate chips, divided 

Mix first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Melt  peanut butter (reserve one heaping tablespoon), butter, honey, and 1/4 c chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Whisk in cocoa to melted peanut butter lava.  Mix the dry and wet ingredients in a large bowl and spread in a thin layer in a cookie sheet. Melt the rest of the chocolate chips and peanut butter and spread thinly over the bars. Pop these baby's in the freezer for 1 hour to chill (or chill over night). Cut into bars and enjoy. 

Braid Headband

I was feeling extra lazy last week, so instead of using a fashionable headband, I just used my own hair.
I saw something similar to this on Pinterest forever ago, and thought I'd try an easier route.

I erased my face because I didn't have any makeup on
and I had a good amount of blemishes...

1. Take about a 2 inch chunk of hair right at your ear-line. (I say about because this really depends on the thickness of your hair)

2. Put rest of hair into pony-tail or bun. (You can leave hair down, too)

3. Braid this section of hair all the way to the ends.

4. Pull the hair over the top of your head and use two pins to secure it behind your other ear.

5. Finish styling hair and you're good to go!

[you can do this with 2 braids as well; braiding both the left and right sides]




Thanks for reading!
hannahvictoria

Easy Oreo Snack

Slade came up with this one, so I'll give him credit this time.

This is an easy snack that I think would be good on a hot summer day. It's so easy, a cave-man could do it.

 

1. Pull apart oreos - if you want to take out the middle, go for it! I would leave it in :)

2. Take about a tablespoon of your favorite ice cream and put it in between the cookies.

3. Eat and enjoy!









Thanks for reading!
hannahvictoria

Glittered phone

Well. I glittered my phone. Not some case I got on eBay either, I glued glitter to the back panel of my phone. Crazy? No, I don't know why I haven't done this to all of my cell phones actually.

I chose a dark blue-silver glitter because it matched my phone and it was on sale. I used modge podge for the adhesive, then sprinkled (okay, okay... dumped) glitter over the surface.There's 3 layers of glue and glitter on this baby, plus 2 layers of polyacrylic.

The steps are pretty easy, it's the dry time that's hard.

1. Remove back panel from phone

2. Tape any port holes on the inside of the phone. Taping  the holes will keep the glue and glitter from gunking up  the inside of the phone panel.

3. Apply a thin layer of modge podge to the phone.

4. Cover with glitter and let dry for 30 minutes.

5. Tap off the excess glitter and repeat steps 3 and 4, until the phone is good and glittered!

6. Coat  back panel with 2 layers of poly acrylic. Wait 30 minutes between each coat.

7. Let dry at least an hour. Pull off the tape. Using a small sharp blade, clear out the glitter and glue covering  the camera ports.

8. Let dry completely.

The poly dulled the sparkle a little, but I ain't bummin'!

Belted blazer

Love the belted blazer! Thanks sis for the belt!

Mexican Bake

Hello! I've created a new casserole bake thing. I modified the original recipe a little bit, of course, which is what makes this my own!


Mexican Taco Bake
 
Ingredients:
1lb ground beef
1 (1 ¼ ounce) package taco seasoning
1 (15 ounce) can refried beans
2 cups mexican cheese (divided)
1 cup salsa (use your favorite!)
1 (2 1/3 ounce) can sliced black olives (drained)
2 cups nacho doritos chips (crushed) - the more you layer these, the more crunchy ones you'll have
Optional: 1 tomato and 1 green onion

What Make it Happens:
Step 1: In a large skillet brown ground beef and drain. Add taco seasoning and cook according to package directions by adding the amount of water stated on the package. Set aside. Heat refried beans in a medium sauce pan over medium heat until hot. Stir in 1 cup of cheese and 1 cup of salsa. Stir until combined.

Step 2: Place crushed chips onto the bottom of an 8×8” casserole dish. Pour the bean mixture over the chips in the casserole dish. Add taco meat on top of the bean mixture. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of cheese on top of the taco meat. Sprinkle green onions and black olives over the cheese.

Step 3: Bake in the oven at 375 degrees until the cheese has melted and the casserole is heated through. Take out of the oven and sprinkle with chopped tomatoes if you want!






Enjoy! More recipes to come this week!

Thanks for reading,
hannahvictoria

Easy Meatloaf

I can finally say that I have made meatloaf! I love the stuff - it's easy, cheap, and perfect for leftovers. This recipe is sweet, tangy, a little salty, and full of flavor.

I found a good recipe online a couple weeks ago and tried it with Slade; but of course, I modified it today for myself!

Simple Meatloaf

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (ground shoulder roast is good)

1 slice bread (broken or chopped finely)

1 egg
1 small onion, finely chopped - I used minced onions because I don't usually buy onions. They work just a great!
1 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup whole milk - I used half and half

Sauce
1/4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed firm (to taste)
1/2 cup ketchup
 
What Makes it Happen
1. Combine meat loaf ingredients and place into a loaf baking dish. (ungreased)
2. Smooth out top.

 
3. Sauce: Combine sauce ingredients and pour on top and sides of meatloaf. 4. Bake at 350°F about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes or until done. 170F with a meat thermometer.

**Note** There is a TON of grease on the top once baked - I slowly and carefully dumped a good amount out before eating, just for my sake.
 (extra hint - I made a second batch of the sauce, heated it up, and served it at a dip with the meatloaf. It was way better than plain ketchup!)

Let stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Enjoy!

Need a tip for your lunch tomorrow?
Take a leftover slab of this meatloaf, put it in some bread, and put a little mayo on it! DELICIOUS!!

Thanks for reading!
hannahvictoria

Easy and Cheap "Caramel" Popcorn!

Hello, readers!
I made a wonderful version of caramel popcorn earlier this week and I can't help but to share it with you.

This is about as good as my introduction is going to get. BTW....I actually have photos this time!!


Ingredients
2 bags of popped popcorn or about 12 cups  (I used bagged, no butter)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
9-10 large marshmallows or about 60 mini marshmallows

What Makes It Happen

Heat up brown sugar and butter for 2 minutes in microwave and stir. Add marshmallows, heat in microwave until all marshmallows are melted and mixture is completely combined.

Pour over popcorn and mix in. I drizzled it over with a spoon and mixed as I went.
You could also form into popcorn balls.














This was a big hit at work! I took a big container of it with me two days and both days we shamelessly ate it all!
It's sweet, a little salty, and delicious!!!


Thanks for reading!
hannahvictoria

Minnesota Pride

Like most of my projects, this one was inspired while  browsing pinterest...

Here, here! Let it be known that I, Elise Marie,  LOVE the state of Minnesota. I love snow, lakes, Macgyver (yep, he's from MN), fishing, hot-dish  and most of all, the Minnesota River Valley of Southern Minnesota. Represent! **chest pounds self**

This plaque has a heart in the location of my hub's hometown, my hometown and our current place of residence. Here's how I made it:

Supplies:

• Wood plaque (I had this one in my closet for years, but I believe I found it at the hobby lobby for $2-3)
• Wood-burner
• Outline of the state of your choice
• Tape
• Ball point pen and pencil
• Staple gun (for hanging)
• Yarn, string, floss (for hanging)

First find and size an outline of your favorite state, thank you Google images. 

Next, cut the template to size, draw on your hearts, and tape the outline to the plaque exactly where you want it. 

Apparently I'm really bad at drawing hearts! See all those smudges? Took me WAY too long to draw 3 hearts... 

Then, with your ball point pen, firmly go over the outline and hearts. I went over each line about 3 times just to make sure it was embossed into the wood. Once the template is taken off the wood, it's almost impossible to get it in the same place so go over the lines a couple times, just to be sure. 

A bit hard to see in the picture, but once the paper template is removed, there should be an embossed image on the plaque.

Now comes the fun part! Burning the image into the wood.  Plug in the wood-burner and let it get smokin' hot. Then start tracing! Lightly trace the outline several times until desired darkness is reached. This is the first tracing.

This is after 3-4 passes. 

And it's done! Well, almost. I wanted to show my River Valley pride by hanging this on our wall. This plaque did not come with a hanging kit so, I rigged one up using yarn and staples (not kidding about the Macgyver thing...) 

Tape the yarn where you want it. 

Then staple and done. 

Seriously easy and FUN!  Showing off my Minnesota pride while saying  "I made that."  <3 

In the process of getting the new blog going with Elise. We are officially under construction! So exciting!

Remodel!

Heads up, readers!

My sister, Elise (ee-lee-sah) is going to be joining this blog soon. We are going to post about our crafts, recipes, tips and tricks for anything we can.

So if you come here and it looks different, don't be surprised!
This mini-transformation is going to be amazing for you (and I'll benefit from it, too!)


Can't wait!
hannahvictoria

Welcome, 2013!

Happy New Year!

What are you NY's Resolutions?


I have a few!

-budget better
-cook at home more
-get fit
-go to VA
-always be happy



hannahvictoria