Health Nut

Something healthy today!
The Trivita VitaJournal newsletter had a Homemade Energy Bar recipe recently.  I finally bought the ingredients and have made them twice.  Once with dates and once with figs.  I think I prefer the dates.  It calls for any kind of nut butter, so for the first batches I used peanut butter since I have plenty of that on hand.   Ideally I would use natural peanut butter, but I used Peter Pan for the experimental batches.  I would like to try it with different butters to compare the tastes.

The recipe sounded good, but I was shocked at how delicious the bars are!   They are a perfect little pick-me-up snack!

I made the first ones in to balls, using the small cookie scoop.  This method made about 18.  The second batch was pressed in to a 9" square dish, and it only filled up about 1/2 the dish.  The bars may look better too, but either way they are good!

Homemade Energy Bars
(from Trivita's VitaJournal)

1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried figs or dates
1/2 cup nut or seed butter (recipe calls for almond, I used peanut)

Place the first 4 ingredients in the food processor.  Chop until everything is ground together.
Add the nut/seed butter and mix until combined.  Roll in to balls or press in to an 8" round cake pan.
Keep refrigerated. (makes about 2 dozen, if cut in to 1" squares)

Warning: they are a bit addicting! :)

Energy Bars with Figs

Energy Bars with Dates

Book Club Directories

My Book Club celebrated it's 11 year anniversary this summer and I made books for each of the 5 members.  I had made little directories in the past, but this time I wanted to include the books we have read over the past 11 years.   I knew I wanted to make a book from scratch and use each member's favorite color, but that was it.  

The biggest thing I needed to come up with was what to use for the inside pages.  One morning, I got the idea to use pages from an actual book.   I thought I would start with the dollar store (not my favorite place), and to my great surprise, there was a hardback Jan Karon book for $1!!!  I was thrilled because 1. it was only $1, 2. there would not be any chances of inappropriate words, 3. it was the right size, and 4. it was only $1!!!! :)   I used a craft knife to slice the pages out of the book, used Yes paste to glue 2 together for each book page, and then trimmed them to all be the same/right size.  If I do this again, I will glue the pages to card stock to make a sturdier page.  I punched the holes and used hole reinforcers for each page.

I looked at just about every piece of paper at the scrapbook store, trying to come up with the right cover paper and color combinations.  This was the 3rd one I debated and it was perfect.  I wanted the favorite colors of each member on the cover and in the book.  We have 2 pinks, 1 orange, 1 blue/aqua, and 1 yellow.   They were all in this AND the background has notebook page lines!

The first thing I had purchased several weeks earlier when I got this idea were the library card pockets. I figured I would use them one way or another.  I ended up mounting the pockets inside the covers and it was perfect for the book theme!

I cut chipboard for the front and back covers, and covered it with the scrapbook paper.  I used pink card stock for inside the covers.   The pages started out with our order of choosing books (by seniority) and the list of birthdays.  The next few pages are not pictured, but each page has a member's contact information mounted on their favorite color.  All other items were mounted on black.  The rest of the book has a list of books for each year.  Due to the number of books I was doing, I used both the front and back of each page, and put 2 years on each page.  For the finishing touch, I tied ribbons on the binder rings that hold the books together.  I had found a flower ribbon that matched the cover paper, and then had light pink, dark pink, aqua, yellow and orange ribbons to tie on the rings.  

The BiblioChicks loved their books!

Book Club Directory Front Cover

Book Club Directory Inside Front Cover

Book Club Directory Inside - Lists of Books

Book Club Directory Inside Back Cover

Book Club Directories

Sugar Cookie + Sprinkles = Fun

Funfetti Cookies!

No relation to the cake mix.  These were pretty good, however after making them, I realized I made them much smaller than the original recipe.  They would be extra fun as a large cookie!  I had decided to make them at the last minute, for a Book Club Birthday, so I was limited on the types of sprinkles I used.  (I only had time to go to one store)  The recipe calls for both nonpareil and jimmie sprinkles.  The jimmie type sprinkles are stars, and the colors matched the nonpareils.  They were fun and birthday-ish!  

I may either make this recipe again, or modify my own favorite sugar cookie and load it up with sprinkles.  I also want to try it with different colors/sprinkles.

This is a cookie that has fun and happy sprinkled all over it!

Peach Jelly

Not much to write here, except I made a batch of peach freezer jelly that turned out really well.  This is the first jelly I had made that wasn't strawberry!

Peach Jelly

Peach Jelly

Vanilla Gelato with Peach Sauce

I had been looking at gelato recipes, again, and found a Vanilla Gelato that looked simple and tasty.

I did not have any cream, nor did I want to use heavy cream, so I just used whole milk.   The recipe used a vanilla bean which gave it a wonderful vanilla flavor.  I used 3 cups of milk, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 vanilla bean.   It takes a little time because you cook the vanilla bean in the milk, let that cool, chill in the refrigerator, then put it in the ice cream maker.   I only left mine cool for a few hours because I wanted to have it that evening, but even though it was a little soft, it was very good!

I had some peaches that I needed to use and I was looking for something good to go with the Vanilla Gelato.  The gelato mixture was chilling in the refrigerator and I was reading all kinds of peach recipes hoping to find something before dessert time.  I found this Peaches in Brown Sugar with Rum Sauce recipe that looked like it would be the perfect match to my gelato.  Butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, rum......yummy!  

(If you want the recipes, just click on the underlined names)

Vanilla Gelato with Peach Sauce