Peanut Butter Energy Bars

It seems like I'm always looking for a granola bar or protein bar that I can just pack in my lunch box for a quick snack. I finally decided that I didn't really love any of the bars I was buying so I started looking for some recipes to make my own. There are so many ingredients that you can add by using this recipe as your base. They are definitely cheaper and more healthy. My favorite things to add are nuts, dried fruit, flax seeds, coconut, add whatever you love! Easy peasy lemon squeezy! The original recipe is adapted from food.com and I've seen it on some fitness sites too.

Peanut Butter Energy Bars

Ingredients:
1 cup natural peanut butter (I use my homemade peanut butter but you can use your favorite peanut butter)
3/4 cup honey
3 cups dry uncooked old-fashioned oatmeal

* Optional - 1 cup protein powder (I use vanilla whey protein)

Combine peanut butter and honey in a large pot and warm over low heat until mixed and fairly runny.  Add the oatmeal (and protein if you're making protein bars). Stir until everything is mixed. Press into a 9x9 pan (I line my pan with parchment paper). Let cool then cut into 16 bars. I wrap each bar individually but you can store them in a tightly sealed container. Enjoy!

Love and peace,
~ Simply Tammi

A Post About Blogs

As I sat here today thinking of what to write, I was getting more upset about some of the blogs I was reading that I thought were reliable sources. They obviously haven't tried making the recipes they put on their blog.  My sister and I continue to research several blogs and have gotten some "helpful" ideas and recipes, and some "not so helpful" ones. Don't be misled like we have been on occasion, just because it's on several sites, doesn't mean it's accurate. Unfortunately, we have tried some bad ideas, as in my exploding bath salts that I almost gave as gifts!

Take this for example, we found several recipes that mix vinegar with Dr. Bronner's Castile soap, which actually causes it to curdle and it smells really bad! As we stated in our disclaimer, we are not doctors or scientists. But rest assured our blog recipes or ideas have been made by us personally before we write about them on our blog. There are great sites out there that contain correct and accurate information but remember there are probably more that contain inaccurate information. Our best advice is to remember that just because someone has information on their blog doesn't mean it's true or that it works!

We welcome your comments and ideas if you find things are or are not working for you. If you have new ideas to share, we love hearing those too!  If you would like more information about Dr. Bronner soaps, his granddaughter has a site we referenced in an earlier post, lisa.drbronner.com.

~Simply Angie

Shaker Cake

Here is an easy and fun recipe to make, especially if you have kids around.  I found this recipe on adelightfulhome.com. You will need a 1/2 gallon jar (I recommend anything with a wide mouth and tight fitting lid). It's called Shaker Cake because you shake all your ingredients together!
You will need:

• 4 eggs
• 1 c sugar
• 1 c oil
• 1 c orange juice
• 2 c flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Now here's the fun part: crack the eggs into a small bowl,  (this is just in case you have a shell-or an egg cracking incident, you can get it out easily!)

Pour the 4 eggs into the jar and shake until they are mixed up
ADD the sugar, oil, orange juice, SHAKE

Shaker Cake

ADD flour, baking powder, and salt, SHAKE until it's mixed well.


POUR batter into a greased 9x13 pan.
BAKE 375 for about 30 minutes or until the top springs back or a toothpick comes out clean.

You can frost this or just sprinkle the top with powdered sugar. I'm a frosting girl so I cover everything with it, but it is a moist cake so it would be good either way.

Enjoy!
~Simply Angie

Dish Soap

I have tried several dish soap recipes and I can't say that I have been thrilled. Last week, my mission intensified because my dishwasher stopped working! So even though I only use it about 3 times a week, it suddenly seemed like we had piles of dishes everywhere! 

My last dish soap recipe was not my favorite so yesterday I spent 2 hours researching dish soaps. I stumbled across an interesting site written by Dr. Bronner's granddaughter. Many of my recipes included vinegar or lemon juice mixed with the Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap. What I learned was that vinegar or lemon juice should NOT be mixed with Dr. Bronner's castile soap. 
You should know that I am not a science person but there are scientific reasons why the  combination of vinegar or lemon juice does not work with Dr. Bronner's castile soap. 

Well I did not give up, I tried one more time to mix up some dish soap. This time it actually worked! Yay!! A couple of tips, use the soap in hot water or it will seem filmy. If you have not used homemade soaps before, you need to know that they will not be sudsy like the commercial soaps, so don't keep adding more soap, more is not better in this case. The lack of suds doesn't mean that it's not working, it means you have less bad stuff in your soap. Your dishes are getting clean even without the suds.

You may have some residue around the edges of your sink after the dishes are done, so use our Simply Spicy Sink Scrubber to clean your sink afterwards.

After washing the dishes, I soak them in vinegar and hot water. I used 1/2 cup white vinegar to 1 gallon of hot water. Your dishes will be clean and sparkling! I use vintage dishes at my house and they love this!

Dish Soap
2 cups hot water
1/2 cup Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap (I used the unscented)
10 drops of lemon essential oil

Shake the mixture gently in a quart jar then I pour some of the mixture into an old dish soap bottle and store the rest in the quart jar. I use about 7 - 8 squirts per sinkful. I also like the Dr. Bronner's liquid pepperment castile soap, then you don't need any essential oil.

If you would like to read more about Dr. Bronner's and scientific information the website is listed below. The vinegar and soap information is under the February 3, 2011 archive.

lisa.drbronner.com

Love and peace,
Tammi