Granola bars that might not change your life, but they sure as heck taste AMAZING.

My family is privy to a little secret that I am going to share, just once.  The first time I tried to make granola bars, they were burnt over baked. I followed this recipe to the letter.  My goodness I was ticked that they were basically good enough to present as a burnt offering to my sweet boys.  NOT ACCEPTABLE. 

Have you ever eaten something like that?  Over done oats? Not pleasing. Not at all.  Well, if you know me, I knew in my little baker's heart that I could get it right the next time.  I don't know how old the gal's oven is that did the recipe, but good gracious the statement "baking times may vary" has never been more true.  Check these little beauties out.

 

A pan of golden deliciousness!  Baked for about 22 minutes, not the crazy 30-40 recommended. Cooled and cut a double batch like this made me sad I wasted money buying granola bars all these years.  The beauty of this method is the variety!  Our family loves a more chocolaty bar, not ashamed to admit it.  You can add the ground flax, like she suggests, so I feel better about myself.

 

 

My most recent batch was for a Stake Preparedness event(using emergency food storage). Justin is the "go-to" guy for our Ward (local church congregation) for emergency stuff.  He "volun-told" me to enter a recipe, only made from pantry and food storage ingredients. NO PROBLEM.  Granola bars were the answer, easy to do. I had all the ingredients on hand - almost.  I decided my ratio of chippy-ness wasn't high enough.  Butterscotch chips made their debut, to rave results and a 2nd Place prize!  Scored a gift card too. 

 

The other side of the Mountain

What do you think can happen in 4 months to a house in shambles? One that needs seemingly epic amounts of work to restore and repair flood damage? What can be done week after week with an amazing contractor is nothing short of miraculous.  I left the house in Dayton on November 17th, 2013 as we relocated to our new duty station.  The pipes froze and burst during the 1st week in January 2014. Remember This?      

On April 19th, 2014 it looked like this:

I did not have my regular camera, so all we could get was some shots on Justin's phone. 

 Countless hours of hard work has gone into saving this house!  The demo work, cleaning up all that demo, fixing the walls, painting, ceilings redone,putting fixtures back in, bathroom retiled, carpet installed and a whole lot more.  This baby is better than when we left it in some ways. 

Here we are, coming down the other side of this "mountain" the stress, the frustration, the uncertainty, we conquered it.   We in no way did it alone.  Our wonderful Uncle Scott, family, friends and complete strangers who donated funds,  our incredible Ohio family (you know who you are and we can't thank you enough) a talented,  HONEST Contractor (Brian Grubb of Papaw's Home Repairs & Remodeling 937-315-0393) and so, so many prayers put it back together again.

All that is ahead of our family now is selling the house.  Another hurdle in our path for sure, one that can and will be overcome.  There is no doubt about that.  Our family has so much gratitude in our hearts.  Many times we felt they just might burst. The peace in our hearts has been such a treasure.

Thank you.