Granola Girl

I love granola. I love making my own. I haven't quite found a recipe that I can go by all the time, but here's sort of the ones I follow (combined.) I do improvise with whatever I have in my cabinet at the time.

6 cups of oats or more (I use what's on sale, but Bob's Red Mill are my faves)

1 cup coconut (today I didn't have any)

2 cups wheat germ (sometimes I do flax seeds ground up or half and half)

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup chopped pecans

1 package of sunflower seeds (didn't have these today)

1 cup of baby oats or wheat flour

1 cup dried fruit (more or less to taste, I'm allergic to most fruit so I use dates, cherries, or apricots)

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 cup molasses

1 cup honey

1 stick or less of butter melted

Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, (or whatever floats your boat)

Put all dried ingredients in a large bowl and mix. Then take a microwavable measuring cup and place wet ingredients in there plus butter. Cook til butter melts. You can use juice if you don't want the honey/molasses, or part juice. Pour over dried ingredients in bowl and mix.

Bake at 350, checking every 5 minutes to stir, until lightly browned. (About 20 minutes or so total.) Just depends on how brown you like it. (I like my crispy to stand up in the milk!)

Store in the oatmeal containers!

*I'd love your input on granola. Here is a post to my friend's recipe. She is a fantastic cook!

Liquid Laundry Detergent

Liquid Laundry Detergent
1 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
a bit of tea tree oil (to cut the mildew smell front loaders can have!)
1/4 cup or so of Dr. Bronner's Baby Castile liquid soap
4 cups hot water (first) then added about 8 more cups
**My mom pointed out that this makes a VERY concentrated soap.  It does!  If you use this recipe you'll only need a tablespoon or so for each load.  She uses quarts instead of cups of water in her recipe (same amounts of everything else)  and it makes a not-as-concentrated recipe that you'd use a capful of a normal washing bottle. I am using the quart method now myself because the other was overflowing!

I mixed it in a bowl with a whisk because the washing soda (soda ash) gets hot when it gets wet. (Luckily I knew this from my pool or I'd have probably burned my hands trying to get the clumps out.) I did put the end of it in the blender and mixed it there to try and get all the clumps out. Here are more recipes.

Chili for what ails ya

(I really need to find my camera! My cell phone doesn't take the best pics.)

ground turkey 1 1/2 lbs or so (you could use another meat or sub more beans for this if you wanted)
1 onion (chopped finely)
3 or 4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
Olive Oil
Chili powder (I used Penzey's Chili 3000) add as much as you'd like
1 can of Bush's Chili Starter
1 can of Bush's Chili Beans (or any beans)
1 bottle of Corona beer
1 28 oz can of Muir Glen diced tomatoes
about 1/2 cup of Herdez Salsa Taquera

Brown onions in olive oil in large pot. Add garlic and meat and brown with spices.
Add chili beans, starter, tomatoes, beer, salsa, and cook til it's done!

Best served with homemade cornbread, hot from the oven! (Fritos will do in a pinch though!)
I like mine with cheese and a dollop of sour cream on top.