Living out of our Pantry: mint chocolate granola bars

For the past month we have been living out of our pantry.  We like to do this every once in awhile when our cupboards get so full we can't find anything.  So, we started the month with buying all the basics (flour, sugar, cheese, butter, etc.), but resolved that we would not purchase any "extras" like crackers, cookies or chips.  We don't buy a ton of that anyway, but we somehow managed to have very FULL cupboards.  We had purchased 3 big boxes of cheerios at Costco when they had a coupon awhile back, so we had backup breakfast or snack for when we would need it, as we still had 2 boxes left.
 For us, this is obviously easiest to do in the summer time.  Our garden has a bounty of zucchini, squash, and  tomatoes, and we have very generous neighbors who let us pick fruit from their fruit trees.
Since living out of our pantry, I have had to be a little more creative with our snacks and meals.  I make granola bars regularly.  My youngest would eat granola bars for breakfast lunch and dinner if I let him.  Usually I like to add a few chocolate chips (preferably the mini ones).  But, we used up all of our chocolate chips (and white chocolate chips) that I had on hand last week.  Then I found a bag of andes mint chips (Um, can we say, YUMMY!).  I have experimented with a lot of different granola bar recipes, and I have a recipe that I have recipe that I love, but, I wasn't sure if the mint chocolate chips would be good, as the recipe calls for peanut butter.  Sounded a little strange to me.  But, then in my cupboard next to the peanut butter was nutella.  Now, that sounded delicious!!  So, I decided to try swapping out the peanut butter for the nutella.  This recipe originally came from thebusynothings.blogspot.com.
Here is my adapted version:)

Mint Chocolate Chip Granola Bars:
Preheat oven to 350
~2 1/3 cups oats
~1/4-1/2 cup brown sugar (depending on how sweet you like)
~1/3 cup ground flax seed
~1/4 tsp cinnamon
~3/4 cup andes mint chips
~1/2 cup coconut
Mix these ingredients together in a large bowl, set aside.  In a small bowl, mix together:
~2 Tablespoons nutella
~1/2 cup applesauce
~3 Tablespoons melted butter
~1 tsp vanilla
~1/4 cup honey, heaping
Add this to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.  Line a 9X9 pan with parchment paper and press mixture FIRMLY into pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Once cooled, put them in the fridge to let them set.  Wrap individually and freeze.
Hope you enjoy them!

Living out of our Pantry: Homemade Bagels

We enjoy living out of our pantry, and trying to see how long we can go in between grocery store trips.  One of my staples around here have become homemade bagels.  I think what I love about them is their many uses.  I'm sure you could create just about any bagel, but my favorite is to just do plain bagels.  We eat them for breakfast with either jelly or butter with cinnamon and sugar.  We eat them for lunch (or  dinner when the hubs is gone) as pizza bagels.  We even just heat them up and have them plain, because really, who doesn't love a soft warm bagel!  Last week, I made four DOZEN bagels!  Being a family of 8, that lasts us about a week!  Yes, we go through a LOT of bagels!

I first found the recipe on allrecipes.com, but they have since deleted the recipe. Thankfully I think I was able to pretty much recreate them.

Homemade Bagels:

~1 1/3 cups milk

~1/3 cup butter

~1 egg yolk

~4 cups bread flour (sometimes I feel like being healthy so I do 2 cups whole wheat and 2 cups white)

~1 teaspoon salt

~2 Tablespoons sugar

~2 teaspoons yeast

~Melt butter in a glass bowl.  Heat milk in a glass bowl.  (sometimes I do this together, but it takes the butter longer to melt, and I'm always afraid I'm going to scorch my milk).
~Mix milk, sugar, and yeast.  Stir to combine.  Add butter, egg yolk, and salt.  I put mine in my kitchen aid mixer at this point.
~Then I slowly, 1 cup at a time add the flour, beating in between each cup.  You know your bagel dough has enough flour when the dough is pulling away from the sides of your mixer, forming a nice ball on the blade.  

Oil a large bowl.  Place dough in bowl, flipping to cover dough in oil.
~Allow to rise for at least 1 hour (this will completely depend on how hot your house is, some days my dough rises in no time, and other days it takes several hours, so just keep checking it).  You will know it is done when your dough has doubled in bulk.

~Once doubled, take dough out and knead on a floured surface.
~Divide dough into 12 sections.  Take each section, roll it into a ball, and then poke a hole in the ball, stretching until it looks like a bagel.
~Let each "bagel" rest on floured surface for 10 minutes.
~Begin heating a pot of salted water.   Preheat oven to 400.
~Grease 2-3 pans VERY well, or use a stone (these are optimal as the bagels tend to really stick to the cookie sheets).
~Once water is boiling, place bagels in water, one at a time.  When the bagels rise to the top, they are ready to be removed.  Use a slotted spoon to remove bagels, and place immediately on your stone.  

~Bake for 18-20 minutes.

~Once cooled, I stack mine in gallon sized ziploc bags.  They freeze great!

Hope you enjoy them!

homemade laundry soap

About five years ago, I was looking for ways to cut our grocery bill.  One of the ways I found was to start making our own laundry soap.  I bought the ingredients, and have not purchased laundry soap since!  Seriously easy, and seriously CHEAP!  Plus, it's good soap!  If you are not already making laundry soap, I highly recommend it.  I found the recipe on tipnut.com.

Homemade Laundry Soap:
~2 cups of the fels-naptha bar soap.  In my area, they only sell this at CVS pharmacy.  It usually runs about $1.19 per bar.
~1 Cup washing soda.  In my area, they sell this at Orchard Supply or at Nob Hill foods.  It is usually about $3 a box, but will last for several times of making soap.
~1 Cup Borax.  This is pretty common, and can be found anywhere.
~1 covered container, about 3 quarts.

~I cut my bar soap into about 8 pieces, and then I put it in my food processor.  It grinds it down to a nice fine powder in under a minute:)  If you don't have a food processor, you can grate it by hand, and the finest grate.
~Measure out two cups into a container that you want to keep your laundry soap in.  Add washing soda and borax.  Mix to combine.  That's it!
Happy laundering!

*I have a friend that adds essential oil to her soap so that it smells nice, but I have never done this.