Grandma's Granola

Since we're moving soon, I've been trying to use some of our food storage. Today I decided to make use of our oatmeal supply. Missy L & C and I made my Grandma Heaton's Granola recipe. It is so good which is bad because that means I've already had my fair share of granola for the week (and I have no plans of halting my intake). It's a perfectly sweet, crunchy granola - good for snacking and enjoying with milk, yogurt or fruit. Keep in mind it makes a lot. I had to use 3 jellyroll pans to bake it all and ended up with 2 gallon-sized storage bags full (approx 16-18 cups).

Granny Esther's Granola

8 C rolled oats
3 C wheat flakes (brand name: Zoom, find it on the hot cereal aisle)
2 C wheat germ (also found by the hot cereal)
2 C coconut
1 C nuts
1 ¼ C brown sugar
½ C honey
1 C oil (I added about a 1/4 cup less)
1 C water
1 T vanilla
2 t salt
(optional) craisins or your favorite dried fruit.

Combine all dry ingredients and mix. Add liquid ingredients. Mix again until everything is evenly coated. Add nuts. Spread on jelly roll pan and bake at 225 F for 1 ½ hours until golden brown (I use a Sil-pat or parchment paper to keep my pans clean). Stir occasionally (about every 30 minutes). Add in dried fruit when cooled.

Sugar-free Jelly Bean Bags

I saw this cute idea and thought it would be a great alternative for Easter candy this year. They were easy and turned out great. If I did it again, I would cut my beans out a little bit fatter. Just a suggestion for those who want to make some, too. Also, I used cotton prints instead of felt due to my lack of Easter colored felt.

Preview: Birthday Invites

Just finished these yesterday:

...invites for miss l's friends.

dad's invitation...it's supposed to be a tea bag if you can't tell.

March Mad Scientist Week: Kitchen Science

Yesterday we did several kitchen science experiments:

1. Yeast: we activated yeast using sugar and warm water in an empty water bottle, put a balloon around the rim of the bottle, and then watched as it inflated the balloon.


2. Lemon Juice Art: we colored with lemon juice and q-tips, let it dry and then baked at 350 for 5 minutes. The heat browns the juice and makes a picture appear. Make sure you saturate your q-tip often.


3. Cornstach and Water Goop: by mixing 1 part water to 2 parts cornstarch, we made a substance that was a liquid when you held it and a solid when you moved it around.

4. Vinegar and Baking Soda volcano: We colored our white vinegar with a little food coloring to make it red, then poured it into our container of baking soda to make our volcanic eruption.

March Mad Scientist Week: Plants

Wednesday was plant day. We made diagrams of the parts of plant, found plants in our refrigerator and checked out the results of our celery experiment that we started on Monday. My favorite part was slicing the celery and looking at the holes (I think they call them the xylem if we're getting scientific) that were dyed red. Carnations would have been neat, but we didn't have any of those on hand. We also cut open an apple to find the seeds and then had it (the apple not the seeds) for our snack.

March Mad Scientist Week: Water Play

Little Miss L enjoyed the water play activities and was soaked by the end. I began filling an empty gallon milk jug with her which she then tried to lift. The point: to show that water is heavy. She agreed, it was heavy. Then we walked around collecting various items to find out if they would sink or float. We filled up the tub, I had my laminated sink/float chart and we began the experiment. I would ask Will it sink or float? Missy answered "float" 100% of the time :) She loved throwing everything into the tub while I recored our data. When we finished, I gave her some kitchen equipment and put some soap in the water and she just played and stirred up bubbles.

March Mad Scientist Week: Nature Walk

Our first science activity was a nature walk. Believe it or not, there is still a little bit of nature in the city. I made colored squares and tied them together. The goal was to collect at least one thing of each color. With the exception of blue (we had a hard time gluing the sky or water to our paper and we couldn't find any robin eggs), we found every color. I also took some pictures for things we couldn't take with us (flowers, bugs, the sky, etc). As we went on our walk, I talked to Miss L about nature (animals, trees, water, flowers...)

Bib Clips

I love these bib clips. They are small and convenient. It seems like I'm always looking for a bib. Now anything can be turned into one (for drooling or dinner messes).

Get in on the fun this week...

I haven't been motivated in the preschool area but today I came up with a fun idea that I'm excited about and I just wanted to let anyone who reads this blog know about it. That way if you want, you can get in on the fun since the name won't work next week...
It's MARCH MAD...SCIENTIST WEEK at our house!
Everyday we are going to have fun doing a different science experiment(s).
Here's my tentative plan:
-Monday: Nature Hike and collection
-Tuesday: Float/Sink Water Play
-Wednesday: Plants...Celery food coloring experiment(you have to start this a couple days before)
-Thursday: Kitchen Science
-Friday: the Zoo..Animals
Let me know if you do it, too. I'd love to see pictures and ideas!

Bargain Hunter

Since I started this blog, I've put some new blogs on my reader. One of them is moneysavingmom.com. Thanks to her (a link to Huggies coupons and a store sale), today I got my first store items for FREE! Here they are, my favorite things for the day:

4 boxes of baby wipes for zero dollars!
Since she doesn't live here, some of the deals she finds don't work for me, but it has been nice to save a little more than in the past. I was so excited, I called B man and my mom as I was driving home. Now if someone could find a blog for me that is specific to my area...