DIY Meal Bars

These baked meal bars are great on the go as a quick meals on the go, or if you just don't like a big breakfast. These are quick and easy to whip together as well!



Ingredients:

2 cups oats
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup dried blueberries
1/2 dry nonfat milk
1/2 cup honey
3 TBS brown sugar
3 TBS peanut butter
1/2 tsp salt

Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper leaving enough on either side of the dish so that you can use it to lift the bars out of the dish after they have cooled.

Mix oats, almonds, cranberries, blueberries and milk in a bowl.

Combine honey, brown sugar, peanut butter and salt in a small sauce pan and heat till the peanut butter has melted.

Combine dry and wet ingredients and coat thoroughly. I just got in there with my hands to completely coat.

Press mixture into your baking dish evenly and bake at 300 degrees for 35 min on the middle rack.

Let bars COMPLETELY cool before pulling out and slicing into bars.

Take a very sharp knife and slice into the size bars you prefer!

Revitalize Your Hair With Coconut Oil

Us women sure are rough on our hair.. we perm it, dye it, crimp it, curl it, and straighten! We also put gel, hairspray, and so many other products it's not even funny, no wonder our hair is dry and dead!!


Here is an overnight treatment that will leave your hair revitalized, soft by giving it back the natural oils that our daily use shampoos strip it of!


What you need:
Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
Shower Cap

Wrap a towel around your shoulders to protect your clothing from oil stains. Since you are doing this before bed make sure to already have your jammies on prior to treating your hair

Take your coconut oil and completely saturate your hair with the oil. (best if hair is dry before applying)

Take and run a comb through it to ensure you get every strand.

My daughter took this photo.. didn't even say  "Say Cheese" don't I look so happy?


Take and twist your hair up and put on your shower cap, you can also use a hair towel to ensure you don't get any on your pillow and blankets.

Leave this on overnight and it the morning shampoo it out.. you won't regret this, it will leave your hair so smooth and silky!!!!

Totally got photobombed by the 7 year old haha


Use this treatment every other week or as needed!

Dehydrating Green Beans

Hey there friends!! I hope your monday wasn't too horrible, I am suffering from some major back spasms today, but I still have accomplished many things. I as able to add canned beef stew to my stockpile food storage, I did my monthly grocery shopping and snagged a few deals on meat and veggies. I also got the house picked up from our superbowl party!

This evening I am going to show you how to eliminate some of that precious freezer space!! I buy the bulk bags of frozen vegetables, corn, green beans, broccoli, peas, and even hashbrowns. 5lbs in each bag, with 3 little ones and two adults we go through LOTS of veggies and potatoes. I also have a tiny side freezer, so that space is very precious to me.

Did you know that you can take those frozen veggies and dehydrate them to save space? OH, yes, yes you can!!!

 Fill your dehydrator trays and dry at 125 F until brittle.

Can you say space saver? I can! How easy!!

This is one of the shelves on my bakers rack, 5 lbs fills a quart jar, if I have some that doesn't fit I just vacuum seal it with my food saver and put it on the shelf.

 I love finding ways to preserve my food that is convenient and space saving.

These veggies rehydrate wonderfully, I make stew meal in a jar with my own dehydrated veggies and it is amazing!!!

Homemade Better Bisquick Recipe

Ok, so since I did my mini pancake bites in my previous blog post, I figured I should probably give you the recipe for the homemade bisquick I make here and never have to run out of and always have on hand. (without the added stuff inside that you don't know what it is.)

Bisquick is so versatile, you can make numerous things with it... from pancakes, to biscuits to chicken and dumplins to fried chicken. It's expensive! So lets save you some money and make it at home!!!

Ingredients:
6 cups of flour
3 TBS baking powder
1 TBS salt
1 cup vegetable shortening

Take all your dry ingredients and mix together
take your 1 cup of shortening and cut this into your dry ingredients until it looks almost like a cornmeal.

I always make a double batch because I use it constantly with 3 little ones around.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge, and use as you would the regular old bisquick.
( I do not know the original source of this recipe but I know it is floating around all over the interwebs )


WARNING: With this recipe you will never buy bisquick again!!! :)

Waste not, want not. Getting a second harvest out of store bought celery!

Morning y'all, and Happy New Year, man I've been up since 4am!! Really, I never wake up this early, but good thing I have my coffee in hand to keep me going through the day!

 Been a couple weeks since I've been on but I've been busy between work and my personal prepping at home and my new Facebook page, have a checked it out yet? Prepper Nicki's Nook. The page has really taken off and I love my followers so much on there, I just love the community I have growing on there.

Anyway's today I will be showing you how to re harvest that celery you bought from the store! Don't throw away that butt end! No, stop that right now and get you a glass of water to put it in... like so

Celery in the middle, yea.. that one.. do that!! As a couple days go by you can see those outer layers, those are gonna have to go, but not just yet, you wanna let some new growth begin before you start pulling off those outer layers.

Watch how fast this is growing for me, indoors, on my bakers rack, as we speak!!

 I was very surprised myself at how fast this took off for me, before this it was headed for the compost!!
You can see in the new few images how I have started to remove those outer layers as the new growth begins to come in strong.

On day 5 I put it into some potting soil, water just does not have enough nutrients for the stalks to grow up tall and thick. Make sure you water your new plant I have not had an issue with warmth or light so far and I live in Western Washington, right now we aren't getting much sun and the rain is constant, but like I said, this is an experiment I am doing indoors.

Day 7 and I have removed all of those extra outer layers and look at how beautiful and well this is growing!!

Today is day 8... and look at the significant growth from day to day!! WOW!! I will be doing daily blog updates on this to show you how my progress is going and any adjustments I would advice!!  Till the next update y'all!!!

Healthy PB cookies

Well the weather sure is frightful here in the great northwest!!! Got a few power outages... But not in this house, yet.. :-/
So my kids love peanut butter, what kid doesn't? None that I know. So here is a healthy quick recipe for peanut butter cookies.
Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup honey
1tsp baking soda
1 egg
Mix it all up and drop onto your baking pan. Small drops, cause they spread big.
Make at 350 for about 10 minutes.
Let the cookies sit on your pan got another 10 minutes, they will continue to harden, they are delicate so be careful.
Enjoy your healthy snack, I didn't get a picture of the final product cause the kids devoured them before I could!!