week 1: homemade granola

This is the first post in my weekly series of "Create", posts that will be things I have made by hand or am in the process of making. Enjoy!

Last night I made granola.  My mom made some delicious granola over the Christmas break and I just ran out so I decided to make some more!  It was super easy and fun to pick what I was going to put in it.

Recipe:

3 cups of oats

3 tbsp of brown sugar

1 tsp of cinnamon

¼ cup of oil

⅓ cup of honey

1 tsp of vanilla

handfuls of nuts and dried fruit

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Combine the remaining ingredients [with the exception of the nuts and fruit] in a measuring cup.

Pour the liquid mixture over the dry ingredients and combine until the oat mixture is completely covered (might be helpful to use your hands)

Spread out over a cookie sheet with sides and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes (until the oats are a golden brown)

Mix the granola, try to flip it over so it bakes evenly and let it continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Let granola cool on the pan, mixing occasionally.

Pour granola into a mixing bowl and add the nuts and dried fruit.

Store in airtight containers and enjoy for days and days to come!

Homemade Donuts

we made donuts! 

we decided that this weekend was going to be tasty.  roomie made muffins,  we made apple chips together and we made donuts!

The muffins burnt a bit on the bottoms (stupid oven, we still can’t get it to cook our food properly and we’ve been living here for 4 months), the apple chips didn’t really turn out super great either  but they were pretty good.  The donuts, however, were DELISH!  We kind of cheated tho…we didn’t make our own dough… we used safeway white dinner rolls instead!  They may not be as authentic but they still tasted great!  

We dipped them in oil, fried them up, drained the oil and coated them in a cinnamon/sugar mixture.  They were great on the first day, nice and soft and slightly warm but by the next day they were a little harder..

Needless to say, these will be made again!  I’d like to try and make a different glaze and decorate them a bit to make them even more fun!

Hope you have a great week and get to make and eat lots of yummy things!

Folk Fest 2013

This weekend I got to go to the Folk Fest!  It's a music festival at Jericho Beach in Vancouver that takes place every summer.  I've been a few times but I think this year was definitely my favourite.  In previous years it's been a family affair with mom, dad, Zoe, my aunt and my uncle.  But this year it was just me and my aunt and my uncle.  I loved it!  I don't see them very often so it was great to get to spend a whole day with them!  There was a ton of great food, amazing vendors selling all sorts of different stuff and absolutely fantabulous music playing all day long!  By far, one of the best days of my summer!

Birthday Bike

This weekend, along with being Easter weekend (chocolate and jelly beansssss!) is also my mom's birthday!  In honour of the anniversary of my mother's birth we usually do something as a family.  For the past couple of years this has been taking a ride around the beautiful sea wall!  Last year mom got a beautiful cruiser and named it Clementine.  Since her bike is the nicest, we strap it to the back of the car and the rest of us rent!  The weather is beautiful and the scenery can't be beat.  Today, we finished off the day with dinner in Gastown and I ended my day with a nasty reaction to all the cheese in my dinner... Oh the price we pay for good food.

March is busy!

stove-popped popcorn: the best kind there is!

a sad little birthday cupcake that didn't quite make it...

most exciting (and satisfying) meal I have made in the 7 months I have been at school.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.  I have been busy with school and family and life and have been neglectful of letting you know the happenings of my busy life.  March is a busy month, with lots of birthdays, end of school exams, papers yaddayaddayadda, planning for summer and trying to stay focused on the stuff that needs to get done (ie stu-dying).  

Although I am busy I'm making sure that I eat relatively well.  I've been exercising more and am trying not to cancel out all my hard work with crap food so I've been trying to be a bit more healthy.  Although the cupcake begs to differ, I swear I'm being better than I have been..

Hope y'all are good and life and the weather aren't gettin ya down!

weekend fun

This week is reading break!  That means I am home all week!  I'm pretty excited to spend time with my family, see some friends, catch up on some shows and relax on the couch.  So far, I've already spent some quality time with my mom antiquing in Fort Langley, had a night of laughs, food, music and dance and spent a relaxing Sunday napping and movie watching.  The week is off to a good start and I am happy to be in my own bed and being with the people I love!