More Recipes and such

so I had a chance to try that Granola bar recipe I said I was going to try in the last post. WOW. They are very yummy. The first batch I made had everything the recipe called for including the dry fruit.I did add about 1/2 to 3/4 of cup of almonds though. I found when they were done that the sunflower seeds were a little overpowering so I decided the next batch I would reduce the amount of sunflower seeds I put in. I am also not a dry fruit lover ( Cr likes dry fruit so I made those for him) and so I decided I would try the recipe again doing things slightly different and making them in a way I would like. So I reduced the amount of sunflower seeds and instead of putting in almonds I put in Macadamia nuts and baked those along with the other nuts. I also put into the mixing bowl with the oats a cup of White chocolate chips. Needless to say...YUMMO! ( I stole that from Rachael Ray)I am going to try another batch and put the almonds back in and just use semi sweet chocolate chips and see how that one comes out. Oh and you should know by now that Ilike to know if I am saving money by doing this. I already know they are healthier but with my budget if they aren't cheaper we will stick to the unhealthy stuff=)Anyway when I compared..WE like the Nature Valley chewy bars..they are 6 in a box for 3 something and you get a total of 7.4 oz. A batch of homemade weighed in at about 24 oz. When I took the ingredients I used and broke it down into individual serving costs I was at about 23 cents a granola bar. The store brand in roughly 60 cents per bar. So Now I know they are healthier and cheaper. You should keep in mind that to purchase all the ingredients to begin with can get pricey..around 20 dollars to begin with, however with the ingredients I can make 3 to 4 batches before having to purchase more nuts etc.Happy Granola Bar Making. ( here is the recipe again for those who need it) Here are the pictures of the finished product.

This is the White Chocolate Macadamia nut ones..



These are the dried fruit ones. They still taste good to me, I just pick out the fruit.



I also wanted to share the news about the Wheat Grinder I got. I used it the other day and showed the flour to our Food Storage and Baking Guru at church. She said that it was a medium fine flour and that my bread may come out slightly course. She said to try putting it through the grinder one more time. So it will be more time consuming but I think overall it is still going to work just fine for us and considering we couldn't afford the 200 dollar ones..this one will do just fine. This is the picture of the Grinder and of the Wheat after going through the grinder once.





I wanted to share this because I thought it might be something others may be interested in. my friend Raquel found these products on Amazon.com from a place called Barry Farms. She said I should check it out and I ended up buying several things from them. I got 3 one pound bags of Cheese powder at only 3.99 a piece, a one pound bag of sour cream powder for 6.79, a bag of Wheat Gluten( for bread making) for 3 something and 2 bags of 5 oz citric acid( used to treat fruits before you dry them)for 1 dollar a piece. My whole order with shipping was $25.26. The pictures are slightly decieving online because the bags look very big but in reality a one pound bag of cheese powder is only about the size of a can of pam spray. However it will still make a lot of servings of food because you only use small amounts at a time. We have already used some on popcorn last night to make cheese popcorn. Yummy. Anyway I just wanted to share the info in case anyone else wanted to buy some but maybe wasn't sure where to get it or what they would get if they did. Some other websites I found cheese powder on wanted 16 dollars for a pound so that is another reason I am sharing this info so you can get it for cheaper. Good Luck hope the info helps.