Granola bars

It's no secret that I love granola.  Crunchy, crumbled, bars, nutty, fruity, spicy....I love it all.  My favorite granola recipes are here and here.  I was super excited to try this recipe that I saw on pinterest.

Granola Bars

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 cups quick cooking oats {not rolled oats!}
• 1 cup crispy rice cereal
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

1.  In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together. Set aside. 

2.  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. 

3.  Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients. 

4.  Pour into lightly greased small jelly roll pan {about 12x8x1} and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness. {If your pan isn't small enough, pack the mixture into one side. You really want to press them down so they stick together.} 

5.  Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and press down lightly. Cool on a countertop to room temperature for two hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Recipe Notes: If your granola bars don't seem to be staying together when you cut them, you may have not boiled the mixture long enough...you want it to make it just past the softball stage. OR you made them too thin or you didn't pack them in tight enough. Stick them in the fridge for 20 minutes and that should help keep them together. {Be sure not to keep them in there too long or else they'll become super hard!} The next time you make them, try boiling for an extra 15 seconds or so.

Get your honey/sugar/butter mixture warm and bubbly.  

Add the wet and dry ingredients.

Put the mixture in your dish.  Make sure you press down and pack it tight.  I used a spatula sprayed with coconut oil to pack it in.

Sprinkle with chocolate chips and flatten again.

Delish.  I love these and the minis did too.  I think adding the rice crispy cereal gives these the texture of store bought granola bars, which I know most kids prefer.

Muffins!!!

Lately, my oldest boy mini has been mistaken for a girl.  Now, if you know anything about my oldest boy mini, you know that being called a girl is the least of his problems right now.  However, this weekend he was referred to as a lady.  As in a gentlemen opened a door for us, and said, "go ahead, ladies."  Apparently being called a lady is much more offensive than being called a girl when you're a 9 year old boy.  Here is a photo of my boy minis shortly after my oldest mini the "lady incident".

Now, I don't see how he could be mistaken for a lady, but maybe that's because I live with him and I know the noises that come out of that body could not come from any lady.  However, I did come home and make appointments for haircuts.

Yesterday was a chilly day and as we were on our way to get our haircuts, I got this overwhelming desire to do some baking.  So I asked my boy minis what they would like for me to bake for them.  My middle mini shouted, "asparagus!" and my oldest minis shrugged and said, "asparagus does sound good."

Well, they're sort of a buzz-kill on the baking endorphins that were surging through my body.  

I decided to skip their recommendation and make a batch of apple cinnamon muffins.  

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground all-spice
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups diced peeled apples (I use Granny Smith)

For the Topping

• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons melted butter

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground all-spice
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups diced peeled apples (I use Granny Smith)

For the Topping:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons melted butter

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a muffin pan with paper liners or spray with cooking spray.  Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and all-spice. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined. Do not over mix. Add in the apples and stir until just combined.  

3. To make the crumb topping, in a small bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and melted butter. Mix with a spoon until crumbly.

3. Fill the prepared muffin pan with muffin batter, filling each cup about 3/4 the way full. Sprinkle each muffin with crumb topping. Bake for 20 minutes, or until muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let muffins cool to room temperature and serve.

Combine your dry ingredients.

Mix together your wet ingredients.

Combine wet and dry ingredients until must moistened.  Do you know that I once took a college course over the chemistry of why overmixing muffins leads to flat muffins?  Fascinating stuff.

This is a new cooking spray I tried.  Smells amazing.  Worked well too.

Make your crumb topping.

Fill the muffin tin with the muffin batter and top with a spoonful of crumb topping.

Bake until toothpick comes out clean.

These muffins were delish!   The minis loved them.  See how happy they are....

In case you were wondering, this photo was taken AFTER the haircuts.  Sorry, dad!

CPS...and muffins, of course!

So I spent most of my Saturday fearful that a neighbor was going to call CPS and my minis would be taken away from me.  You see, I walked into the living room on Saturday morning and I saw this......

And this.....

Now, you may be thinking that looks like innocent minis watching Saturday morning cartoons.  Well, it's not.  Mr. McGhee won't let our minis watch cartoons on Saturday morning, rather he insists that they watch this show.  If you haven't heard or The Wildman (or Turtleman, as his faithful fans like my minis refer to him as), you may be thinking that this is another educational show (ala the crocodile hunter) that Animal Planet airs to educate our youth.  You are mistaken, if that is your impression of The Wildman.  The Wildman is a backwoods Kentuckian who catches trouble-causing rodents, reptiles, and animals with his bare hands.  The show includes segments such as "hillbilly hygiene" and I am fairly certain that the Wildman uses swear words, although I have a hard time understanding what he is saying most of the time.

So, yes.  I am concerned that my sweet minis are going to be taken away from me and placed in a home where they adults make more appropriate choices in television programming.

And since I was stressing about this, I do what I always do when I am stressing.  I make muffins.

Banana Muffins

• 2 cups flour (I used white whole-wheat)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 1/3 cup mashed overripe bananas (I used 8 bananas, which I believe is quite a bit more than the recipe called for.

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Put muffin liners in your muffin pan, or grease your muffin/bread pan.

2.  In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

3.  In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.  Stir in egg and mashed banana until well blended.

4.  Stir banana mixture into flour mixture, stir just to moisten.  DO NOT OVERSTIR!  

5.  Pour batter into prepared pan.

6.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin/bread comes out clean.  Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan (I never do this....oops!)

**You can add vanilla extract and additional spices (cinnamon, etc) to the banana batter, if you chose.  I normally do, but I was such a nervous wreck over the Wildman debacle that I forgot.  The muffins were still tasty.  I did, however, remember to throw some chocolate chips into one of the muffin pans.  I wanted my minis to remember me fondly.**

Here's my batter, chock full of bananas.

Here is my muffin.  

These are a good, basic banana muffin.  My minis love them.  They keep well for several days and are perfect to stick into lunchboxes.  These muffins shall not be consumed during brain-cell sucking television programming.

After school treat

I told you that my minis went back to school on Wednesday.  I was a tad nervous to pick them up after their first day and hear how things went.  This is the feedback I got......

Oldest Mini:  It felt really good to be back playing football at recess.
Middle Mini:  I love school so much that I didn't want to come home.  The only reason I came home was because I missed Lola.  (I chose not to be hurt over this comment, and celebrate the fact that my boy really loves his puppy.)
Tiny Mini:  I had so much fun with my new friend Chelsea.  (To which, I commented that I didn't know she had a girl named Chelsea in her class.  To which my tiny mini replied, "I don't have a Chelsea in my class.  I forgot her name, so I called her Chelsea in my head.")

Sounds like a successful day to me!

On the 2nd day of school, as I was driving my minis to school I asked my middle mini what he was most looking forward to at school that day.  He replied, "mom, can you be quiet for a second?  I am watching the movie Rio in my head and the best part is coming up."

And that's when I realized my middle mini is weird.  But in a good way.  Quirky, we call it.

 (And, yes, I realize these pictures of my middle mini on the beach have nothing to do with my story, but he's such a doll, I couldn't resist posting them.)

So anyway.....I wanted to have a special treat for my minis to enjoy when they came home from school.  My minis LOVE chocolate milk and I rarely let them have any because the ingredients on the label are a little shocking to me.  So, I found a recipe for homemade chocolate milk and I whipped up a batch for them.  

First you need to make the chocolate syrup.

• 1/4 cup cocoa 
• 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar 
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

1.  Add the water and cocoa to a small saucepan.  Stir and heat over medium heat until the cocoa is dissolved.

2.  Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

3.  Heat to boiling and stir for 3 minutes while boiling.

4.  Remove from heat and add vanilla extract.

5.  Chill in fridge and add one tablespoon to one cup milk.

Mix your cocoa and water.

Dissolve cocoa and then add sugar.

Dissolve sugar and then heat to boiling.

Boil and stir for 3 minutes.

Store in a glass jar in the fridge.

Once you've made and cooled your chocolate syrup, add 1 tbsp of chocolate syrup to one cup cold milk.  Stir.  Chug.

This recipe got rave reviews from my minis.  This is probably the most popular unprocessed item that has left my kitchen in 8 months.  They LOVED this chocolate milk.  I mean, look how happy they are.

OK, so maybe we didn't enjoy our chocolate milk ocean-side.  And maybe I am the one playing movies in my head.

Milk?!?!?

Does anyone else hear the term almond milk and have one of these moments?

I don't know.  I was always under the impression that in order for something to produce milk, it needed to have....errr.....milkers.  

Apparently that is not the case.  Due to many people discovering they are lactose-intolerant, there has been a recent surge in cow-milk alternatives.....soy, coconut, rice, hemp, and almond.  And, if you notice, none of these have...errr....milkers.

Almond milk is basically made by soaking almonds in water, blending the almond/water mixture, and then straining the remaining almond pieces.  According to this website, almond milk is a good source of magnesium, manganese, selenium, and Vitamin E.  That means it's good for your bones, immunity, cell membranes, and thyroid function.  Almond milk is a source of unsaturated fat, protein, flavanoids, and potassium.  

The great thing about almond milk is that we can make our own.  A while back, I followed this tutorial and made a batch of almond milk that lasted a whopping 5 minutes in my house. So, I am being completely honest here.....I have been cheating and buying my almond milk.  And lately, I have been really bad and buying flavored almond milk (dark chocolate AND vanilla).  

My minis love almond milk (especially dark chcolate) and my minis love smoothies.  So, I guess it would make sense that they use almond milk in nearly all their smoothies.  Here are the ones I have shared so far:

1.  Chocolate Shake Smoothie

2.  Pumped up and Buff smoothie

3.  Peanut butter and spinach smoothie

And, remember chia Pudding?  You need almond milk for that too.

So make some almond milk.  Or cheat and buy some.  A friend of mine shared this recipe with me yesterday and you should use your almond milk to whip up a batch.  It's totally delish.

Monkey Maddness Smoothie

• kiwi
• mango
• ginger
• strawberries
• kefir (he suggests peach, I would use plain homemade yogurt or plain keifer and add 1/2 of a fresh peach)
• cinnamon
• dark chocolate or vanilla almond milk 

 1.  Blend and enjoy!

Remember my friend Deb?  Deb told me the other day that her minis do not drink smoothies.  I was stunned and speechless (I mean, really, her minis do not drink smoothies?!?!?)  Then I remembered that once I made a smoothie that my minis turned their noses up at, and then I tricked them into eating it by pouring it into popsicle molds.  It worked!  So ever since then, whenever I have leftover smoothie, I make them into a popsicle.  And then I win best-mommy-ever award when I offer the minis popsicles for breakfast!  And that cancels out the worst-mommy-ever award when I make them eat chia seeds for breakfast.

Popcorn and Chocolate Shake Night

One of my favorite memories of my childhood was popcorn and chocolate shake night.  It was usually on Thursdays, when all of us would plop down in front of the tv to watch the Cosby Show.  And nothing could ruin popcorn and chocolate shake night, not even the time that my little brother stuck a wooden spoon into the blender, while it was still blending and we all spent the evening picking wooden splinters out of our teeth.


My minis love popcorn and chocolate shake night too.  We pan pop popcorn in some canola oil with a little butter and salt on top, or pop it in butter-flavored grapeseed oil.  And we have come up with the best chocolate shake recipe.  And, lucky you, we are going to share that recipe.


McGhee Family Chocolate Shake

• Dark chocolate almond milk (6 oz per shake)
• frozen banana (1-1.5 bananas per shake)
• 1-2 tbsp all natural peanut butter

1.  Blend all ingredients and enjoy!

**Disclaimer** Dark chocolate almond milk is processed food and contains more than 5 ingredients.

Ready to blend.

Ready to be enjoyed while watching your favorite family tv show.

Smoothie Shop

The McGhee family knows smoothies.  I talk all the time about how my boy minis want to grow up and work at a smoothie shop.  My oldest mini has a logo already drawn out, along with floor plans of his shop and we are working on recipes.  The thing my minis are adamant about is that their smoothie shop will be whole ingredients.  No nasty processed "smoothie mix" for them.  The downside to this is my mini's smoothies will cost you a few bucks, the upside is....well, you'll live longer and healthier!

Our latest smoothie obsession is a raspberry mango smoothie.

Mini McGhee's someday-we'll-make-money-off-of these raspberry mango smoothie

• 2 cups mango (they use one cup frozen, one cup fresh)
• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 1 frozen banana
• chopped ginger (add according to your taste, maybe 1-2 tbsp)
• 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 4 tbsp orange juice
• 1 scoop protein powder (unflavored)
• 1-2 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 1 tbsp chia seeds (optional, it changed the texture of the smoothie completely so be prepared)

1.  Blend all ingredients.  Enjoy while chatting with your minis about their smoothie shop.

80's fashion and Chia Pudding

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to chia seeds.  If you don't remember, there are supposedly a lot of health benefits to consuming chia seeds.  


I agree though.  I still think it's weird to eat these babies.
However, here is why I think you should regularly consume chia.  If they do happen to be the super-food that recent studies are proposing them to be, then you will be glad you have been including them in your diet.  If, in the future, they end up being something that we all are laughing about haven eaten, you will be glad that you are in on the joke with the rest of us.  Chia seeds are sort of like tight rolling your jeans.  We all look back and think, "why did I ever do that?" but, yet, we are all glad that during those years we fit in the crowd with everyone else.  

Could you imagine today being that one person at a party that says, "I never tight rolled my jeans?"  It would be social suicide.


I already told you that you can eat chia in your breakfast oatmeal.  Another way you can try chia is in chia pudding.  


Chia Pudding

• 1/4 cup whole chia seeds
• 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 scoop vanilla brown rice protein powder (I used plain protein powder, Tera's Whey)
• 1 T rolled oats
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 to 4 drops of liquid stevia, or other natural sweetener
• 1/2 sliced banana
• 1/8 cup blueberries

1.  In a bowl, mix together all ingredients except the banana and blueberries.  Stir.  A lot.

2.  Let sit on the counter or in the fridge for 8-10 minutes. Stir in the banana, top with blueberries and enjoy!

Mix it up well.

Let sit for a bit.  Go tight roll your jeans.  For old times sake.

Combine with your mix-ins.

Eating chia is strange.  But, definitely not the strangest thing I've ever done.  I'll save that story for a later day.