Goat brushing

Henry and Addie love brushing the goats...but I think the goats love it more!!

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Granola or Granola Bars!!! Homemade Recipe, Easy and Inexpensive! With pics

I absolutely love granola, especially with some homemade yogurt, but granola and granola bars can be really expensive! I've tried a few ways and this is my absolute favorite! I actually "fell" into the granola recipe trying to make some homemade granola bars, but I didn't use enough honey and peanut butter in my first experiment so the granola bars didn't stick together well...therefore they crumbled into amazing granola, which I was just as excited about! I modified the recipe and was able to make granola bars that were just as scrumptious and were excellent snacks to throw in my purse to have on hand when someone got hungry!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup flax meal
• 2 1/2 cups Nuts and Seeds (this is where you can get creative and have each granola be different and not be repetitive!) I use about 3/4 cup crushed almonds, 3/4 cup peanuts, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup flax seeds, 1/4 cup sesame seeds...but you can use any combination or nut you want or have to make up 2 1/2 cups
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• (for Granola) use 1/4 cup EACH of Honey, Brown Sugar, and Peanut Butter
• (for Granola Bars) use 1/2 cup EACH of Honey, Brown Sugar, and Peanut Butter
• 1 cup dried fruit (another way to change up each granola recipe!) cranberries and raisins are favs here

The only step that is different if you are making Granola or Granola Bars is Step 11!

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 325 degrees
Step 2: Line a square baking pan (8x8 or 9x9) with parchment paper.
Step 3: Crush your almonds and peanuts (or whatever other nuts you want to the size you want them!)...this is a great time to get the kids involved, my kids LOVE it! I use the bottom side of my rolling pin with the nuts all in the bottom of my large measuring cup.

Crush them into whatever size you want...I like to have some really fine and some still a little larger for a good crunch!

Step 4: Combine the nuts, seeds, oats, & flax meal

Step 5: Spread out the mixture onto a rimmed baking sheet and toast for 15-20 minutes

Step 6: About 5 minutes before the oat mixture is done toasting Combine the honey, peanut butter, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla in a pan over medium heat and stir...stir constantly to avoid burning!

Step 7: Once the oats are done toasting and the sugary peanut butter mixture is smooth pour it all into a bowl together with the dried fruit and stir it up :)

Step 8: Press the mixture into your square pan (lined with parchment paper)...press it real firm (I used the bottom of my measuring cup to get it nice and tight). This step helps to get some good chunks of granola! If you want flaky granola you don't have to press it in real firm, but I like chunks!! This step is super important for the granola bars though, otherwise they wont be firm enough and will end up being granola :)

Step 9: Bake at 325 for 30 minutes

Step 10: Remove pan from oven and let it cool for several hours (letting the mixture cool while still in the pan will help all the good chunks form together! This is super important for the granola bars too!)

Look at that beautiful golden brown coloring!

Step 11: Once your mixture is cooled, pull the mixture out using the parchment paper. (Step 12: Cut or Crumble, depending if you want granola or granola bars!)

Step 12 (For Granola): Crumbled the mixture into the sizes you want onto a baking sheet :) I let my crumbled granola cool even longer out on a baking sheet (to avoid moisture build up in my jar when I store it) then I pour it into a canning jar and it is ready whenever breakfast or snacks are needed!

Crumbly, Golden Granola!!

Step 12 (For Granola Bars): Make sure your bar is cooled completely and take a sharp knife and cut into the size bars you want, wrap the bars with plastic wrap or put them in a mini zip lock baggy (I have 2"x4" baggies for snacks) and they are ready to go!

Tomato, Basil and Cheese = perfect combination :)

One of my seasonal favs!! I couldn't wait for the first big tomatoes to rippen up so I could make this!!

Ingredients:

• Sliced tomatoes (cut as thick or thin as you like. I like good hearty slices)
• Basil (as much or little as you like)
• Cheese (any kind! Parm, Mozzarella, etc...or a combination!)
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Step 1: Slice Tomatoes

Step 2: Layer with Basil

Step 3: Layer with Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper

Step 4: Top with Cheese

Step 5: Bake at 400 degrees for 5-8 minutes (depending on how crispy you like the cheese...just keep an eye on it!)

Step 6: Serve it up! You can have them singles or layer them for a tall stack! Look at that Cheese!!! Oh you have to try this, it smells and tastes amazing! This is a very inexpensive and easy snack or appetizer...especially if you get the ingredients from your own backyard garden :)

Tomato trimming... clipping the suckers!

Our tomatoes are getting mighty big!! Its time to start some trimming!! Tomatoes have non-flowering stems that will only suck up nutrients that the rest of the plant needs, so those "suckers" need to be clipped off.
You can see in this photo that the main stem is going up, but off the side there is a large sucker stem as well as a small new growth that is trying to get going (more than likely it will produce a stem that will flower and give you tomatoes, so you want it to have all the help it can get).

Clip off the leafy sucker stem as close to the new growth as possible, without disturbing the new growth.

Doing this to your tomato plants will help them be more productive! But make sure not to get to crazy, you don't want a naked plant!! The leaves are important and do serve a purpose, but you just don't want it to be a big bush! Also the weight from the unnecessary leaves will cause big stems to snap :(

Also be aware that pruning your tomatoes will expose the fruit to the elements...The fruit will be more noticeable to squirrels, rabbits and birds (our 3 main problems). Don't do all your pruning at one time...take a couple days to prune your plant. Otherwise you will shock your plant!