Granola!

Kyle's mom made him some granola for Christmas a couple of years ago.  He really liked it and the bag was gone in no time.  I finally got the recipe from her just this fall and I've been making granola like it's going out of style.  It's good on yogurt, plain and with milk as a cereal (which is how I prefer it).  It's originally a Southern Living recipe, but you know how I like to tweak things.  So here's my version:

3 cups regular oats, uncooked
1/2 cup vanilla whey protein powder (or omit and add another 1/2 cup oats)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 bag dried fruit

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl.  Stir well.

Combine honey, sugar and oil in a small saucepan.  Cook mixture over medium heat, stirring until sugar melts and is thoroughly heated.  Remove from heat and add peanut butter and vanilla, stirring well.  Drizzle over oat mixture, toss gently to coat well.

Spread mixture into a jellyroll pan.  Bake at 250 for 50-60 minutes stirring gently every 20 minutes.  Add dried fruit.  Let cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.

Cute pics and a few runs!

I took all of last week off from running as my knee  hurt really bad the previous long run...and I ran with it hurting for quite some time (which wasn't smart) but I was back at it again this week.  Tuesday was a treadmill run and this morning I ran outside in the balmy 36* weather and returned from my run covered in frost.  I didn't know I could frost.  But I can.

 Tuesdays run on the treadmill because it was raining.  This includes a .36 mile cool down.  I set the incline at 1% and really try to work on my "speed".

My run today was a tough one.  I felt like I was running through mud.  I felt sluggish and like I was working WAY too hard to maintain my pace, which is slower than it has been. Probably the cold had something to do with it.  Yeah.  That's probably it.

Sorry for the poor quality of the Max pics.  They're taken on my touch at church (during class!) last night.  And the Luke holding Max pictures are from tonight.  See how up-to-date I am?!?

We've been busy around here.  Last Thursday we had a couple college girls over for supper.  Monday evening my cousin, Analisa, and two of her friends stopped by and spent the night.  They had just finished walking 60 miles in 3 days for the Race for the Cure.  I hadn't seen Analisa in a long time so it was nice to catch up with her.  Luke and Leta were in not-so-rare, but pretty unpleasant form that night.  An audience of THREE! to perform for!  Kyle was gone Tuesday night, and we had a couple of college girls over for supper tonight (different ones).  Tomorrow night is a Body & Soul girls night here, plus an afternoon birthday party.  Saturday I'm co-hosting a baby shower, Sunday church and small group at our place, Monday friends over for supper..whew!  I'm tired just thinking about it! But it will force me to keep my house relatively picked up, so that will be nice.

Trick or Treat!

 I feel this is an accurate representation of Luke.  This picture was taken at Body and Soul during our "Salsa Fellowship"

 Obi Wan

We went trick-or-treating with our friends, the Hayes again this year.  In the same neighborhood as last year. The kids had a lot of fun.  At one house Luke got an apple from one of the houses and we let him eat it.  He took a couple of bites and said, "This apple isn't good.  I want an apple from home.  I want a HONEYCRISP apple."