HEALTHY Granola Bar Recipe!

GRANOLA BAR RECIPE FROM ALLRECIPES.COM - Great healthy snack for those HUNGRY MONSTERS!

Cranberry Nut Granola Bars

Submitted By: SeattleFarmersMarketGirl
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Servings: 24

Ingredients:
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup hulled pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup dried cranberries
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:
1.
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a 13x9-inch pan with lightly-greased parchment paper; an inch or so of parchment paper should stick up on 2 sides to form lifting handles.
2.
Mix the quick-cooking oats, old-fashioned oats, pumpkin seeds, almonds, mixed nuts, cranberries, and sweetened condensed milk together in a bowl; spread into the prepared pan, evenly pressing into the corners and out to the sides.
3.
Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden brown, 20-25 minutes, using slightly less time for chewier bars and slightly more time for crunchier bars.
4.
Allow the the bars cool for 5 minutes in the pan before using the parchment paper to lift them from the pan. Use a sharp knife to cut into bars. Let the bars cool completely and store in an airtight container.

GRANOLA BAR ADD-INS:
Substitute the seeds, nuts & berries in this recipe for any combination of the following:
Coconut
Chocolate Chips
Peanut Butter Chips
Mini Marshmallows
Dried Apples, Bananas, Cranberries, Raisens,
Peanuts, Almonds, Pecans, Cashews (chopped small or slivered)
Sunflower Seeds
Flax Seed
Wheat Germ

Cookie Monster Birthday Theme

Just got back from my friend's son's 2nd Birthday - COOKIE MONSTER THEME!

Invites:

Blue circles cut from construction paper - folded in half. White circles glued at top of fold for eyes (black circles drawn for pupils). Invite details inside!

Decorations:

BLUE! - Balloons, Tablecloth, etc!

Poster - "Brought to you by the letter W and the number 2" (change according to your birthday child's first initial and age)


Cookie Monster Balloon - use a glue stick to add eyes & mouth to a blue balloon. Eyes must be close and lopsided to portray Cookie Monster

Food:

Blue Kool Aid

Blue Popsicles

regular party snacks

Cake:

Cupcakes on platter in round shape. Two iced to look like googly eyes, and then blue for fur and black for mouth! *warning that blue & black icing WILL create funny lips, tongues, teeth (and poop for those still in diapers!)

Birthday Boy's Attire - I love this Cookie Monster tee she bought off Etsy.com


Loot Bags:

Kid's decorated brown lunch bags with LOTS of blue glitter & bingo dabbers and then there was a Sesame Street Colouring Book, Sucker, and this cute & nifty luggage tag inside!

Bunny in the Garden - Seed Catalogue Collage

A great use for the seed catalogues we get in the mail! My daughter helped cut pictures of the flowers. I gaver her two different sized circles in white and the bunny ears, googly eyes, pink pompom, white cotton ball and glue.

Arts and Crafts Birthday Party Theme

I have started to plan my daughter's 4th birthday with an Arts & Crafts theme. We both love crafts!!

This is a compilation of ideas that I have found through the internet & magazines. The photos are from my daughter's party. Great for indoor parties to keep kids occupied! Probably best for this theme to be used with a smaller group of kids.

Invites:
* Shaped like an Artist's Palette
* Some of your child's artwork folded into a card with details inside

*"Let your inner artist come out at Sophie's 4th Birthday" or "Come Paint with Me!" or "Come Craft with Me!" or "Sophie loves to create, come help us celebrate!"

*Name your house as a Gallery or Art Store (ie. Johnson's Gallery)

(may want to include a mention to NOT wear your bestest newest dress)

Activities (that double as Loot Bag Favours):
* Paint a PICTURE FRAME (plain wooden frames & paint)
* Make BRACELETS or NECKLACES (stretchy elastic string & beads!)
* LOOT BAG decoration (paper or canvas bags, give them supplies to decorate)
* Design your NOTEBOOK cover (give them a notebook with the cover covered in paper - then let them decorate)

Other Activites:
- PlayDoh
- Hang a white sheet or paper on clothesline and let kids at it with PAINT!
- Decorate a TableCloth

Loot Bag Favours:
Recycled Crayons
Construction Paper
Paints, Markers, Crayons, etc.
Play Dough & Accessories
Any type of Craft Supplies

Pencil Case or Box (Personalized with stickers perhaps!)

THANK YOU: "Thanks for making my Birthday a MASTERPIECE!"


Decorations:
- Bright Primary Colours for balloons, streamers, etc
- Tablecloth made of plain butcher or white paper (for kids to decorate!)
- Your child's artwork strung up or hung at their eye level

- "Welcome to Sophie's Arts & Crafts Party!" sign OR "Art Area" OR "CRAFT ZONE" signs

Food:
Create your own Pizzas (use bread, pizza circles, or english muffin halves)
Decorate your own Cupcakes

Ice Cream Sundae making station - colourful toppings like strawberries, blueberries, pineapple
regular type of party fare (meats, cheeses, fruits, etc)

CAKE:

Artist's Palette - use a round cake pan, frost white. Blobs of paint in primary colours made with icing, fondant, or little piles of m&ms!

White Sheet Cake - let the kids decorate at the party!

Shape & Decorate to resemble a BOX of CRAYONS!

*Check out the craft supplies at your local dollar store for inspiration! Maybe they have some cute wooden birdhouses or neat purses to decorate - pretty much anything goes for this theme!

i created the invites on picnik.com

decorations included lots of colourful balloons & streamers and this a banner that says "I 'heart' CRAFTS"

kids helped decorate the cake first with Wilton Food Markers (but my fondant was too warm and therefore soft) and then went crazy with Scribblers Icing

once cut a rainbow was discovered!

activities included painting picture frames, making bracelets, and Juice Box Kids (covered a juice box partially in paper and kids glued on hair from feathers or paper, strips of paper for arms & legs, googly eyes, and drew a mouth and nose)

LootBags were from the Dollar Store and had a pad of construction paper, markers, stickers, stencis, lollipops and a homemade thank you card. Under $5 for each box.

Our Airplane Birthday Party Theme - for our 1yr old

We celebrated my sons first birthday today and Airplanes were our theme. See a previous post with more ideas for an airplane theme, these are the ideas we used but there are more you could do!

Decorations:

I painted several little posters to hang throughout the house using old maps. I freehanded the airplane & letters as they are simple shapes to copy.

I bought some cheap foam glider airplanes and hung them in a grouping from the ceiling. I also hung some clouds my daughter had made (cloud shapes cut from cereal boxes and cotton balls glued on) (the Happy Birthday banner is one I made a few years ago from felt.)

I cut out airplane shapes and taped string on to create the Airplane Garland.

There were also other various airplane items out like a large floor puzzle that is a map of the world and a fabric basket made with airplane fabric that held some airplane themed books.

Loot Bags:
Aiplane Cookies, Airplane Soap, Airplane Stickers, Luggage Tage, Thank You card, and some candies.



The loot bags were put into a carryon bag beneath a sign (painted on an old map) labelled BAGGAGE CLAIM - Thank you for flying with us!

Soap - purchased airplane mold from etsy.com and bulk soap from Michaels Craft Store.

Luggage Tags - made them with scrapbooking supplies

Thank You Cards - the Birthday boy's handprints with the thank you message written over top.

*Any or all of these items could be purchased or handmade if you are the crafty sort.

I used old maps as tablecloths which made for easy clean up (GARBAGE!) and looked festive.

ACTIVITIES:

I put out a suitcase filled with airplane toys (many I owned and some I had borrowed). I had emptied the livingroom of the majority of toys usually kept there to keep the chaos to a minimum. Kids had free play for an hour. During that time there were also colouring pages if they wanted.

CAKE:

I couldnt find an airplane cake mold in our area so used 2 8" circle pans. One pan I freehand cut the airplane body and cut wings from the other cake. In retrospect should maybe have just used a 9x13 pan as much cake was not used. Its in the freezer and will be yummy to eat later.

My intent was to have the airplane cake sitting atop the 9x13 cake that was iced with Cool Whip & vanilla pudding mix that looked like fluffy clouds. I then had made a small banner to 'fly' behind the plane. Well my sizes were WAY off and it didnt work out. Oh well!

Spring Flowers Craft with Cupcake Wrappers & Easter Grass

My daughter enjoyed making these spring flowers this morning. She flattened some different sizes of cupcake wrappers and then coloured them. She glued to thin pieces of green paper onto the blue paper and then glued the wrappers at the top. Some of the smaller wrappers she glued into the center of the bigger ones and then glued a button at the very center. Some green easter grass was then glued at the bottom.

Materials: Easter Grass or Green paper cut into strips, Cupcake wrappers (various sizes if you have them), buttons.

Easter Bunny or Rabbit Puppet Craft

So easy!

Cut a rabbit shape from paper (or for a sturdier version use the cardboard from a cereal box!).

Let child colour.

Let them glue on eyes and a pompom nose and then a popsicle stick to hold it with.

this one done with cereal box cardboard, and decoupaged with tissue paper and cupcake wrappers. Eye holes cut out. Pompom & Craft Stick glued on. Details drawn with black marker. Great pretend fun!!

Handprint Easter Bunnies

Check these little bunnies out! Paint the palm and two fingers of the hand and print on paper. A dab of pink paint for the nose and some little eyes, whiskers, and mouth down with a black marker.

We also added our coffee filter Easter Eggs we made earlier in the week.

Baby & Toddler Handprint Lambs

Sweet little handprint lambs - one made solely by my 3yr old (except for tracing & cutting the handprint out) and the other one I made of my 11m old's handprint. Cute!

Easy Toddler Easter Decoration Craft - Coffee Filter Easter Eggs

You've probably seen many variations of these coffee filter stained-glass-look decorations. We've done them as snowflakes for winter and hearts for Valentines. Here is our Easter version!

Cut coffee filters into an egg shape.

Decorate with markers

Lightly spritz with water (this will make the markers bleed and the lines of the filter disappear

Let dry (happens fast) and then hang up!

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We also made some using Paper Towels & Highlighters and them worked great too!

*I think we will make an Easter Bunny with paper & cottonballs and use these eggs to make an Easter Diorama*

Toddler Easter Art

Have your child help with the Easter decorations by making a HUGE Easter Egg!

Cut an egg shape from very large paper (tape 2 pieces together if needed to make a large egg)

Decorate with markers or crayons or paint

Decorate with stickers

VOILA!

Easter Playdough Basket

Just wanted to turn our Playdough fun into an Easter theme so I made this cheap recycled basket for my daughter to play with. A emptied & clean applesauce cup with an elastic (taken from broccoli bunch) around it and a pipe cleaner wrapped on the elastic. Not very fancy obviously but she had fun with it. Here's a pic of the basket filled with Easter Eggs & Easter Snakes (every playdough activity MUST have snakes included!)

Rainbow Craft Projects - Toddlers & Preschoolers

Rainbows are a fun craft for St. Patricks Day, Easter, or celebrating Spring or Summer!

*see the bottom of this post for alternative suggestions and an easy way for a toddler to make a Rainbow Shape*

FRUIT LOOP or MINI COLOURED MARSHMALLOW or SMARTIES RAINBOW - Craft or Snack!! Fruit Loop Cereal or Mini Coloured Marshmallows Glue Construction Paper Have the child glue the coloured cereal or marshmallows into a rainbow shape**. Stress the importance of only eating the cereal that DOES NOT have glue on it! :-D

**Turn this into a RAINBOW SNACK by omitting the glue! Maybe use cream cheese to attach them to a plate and then enjoy eating your Rainbow Snack - another option for the rainbow could be Smarties! Create your rainbows on Sugar Cookies or Cupcakes or Graham Crackers!**

TISSUE PAPER RAINBOW Different coloured strips or squares of tissue paper Glue Stick Construction paper shaped like a rainbow Put a thick layer of glue stick on the construction paper. Stick the tissue paper on randomly.

YARN RAINBOW Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple lengths of yarn Glue Construction Paper Glue lines of glue in a Rainbow Shape** onto the construction paper. Lay a appropriate coloured length of yarn in the glue.

MOSAIC PAPER RAINBOW Red, Orange, Yellow, Green Blue, Purple Construction Paper (just a small strip of each) White Construction Paper Glue Cut the strips of coloured paper into small squares. Have the child glue them into a Rainbow Shape**

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**Rainbow Shape** To make it easier for a young child, draw the rainbow stripes with the appropriate coloured crayon (remember ROY G BIV or Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet) Then they can glue their paper, yarn, or cereal onto each line.

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*Any of these projects could have half a Paper Plate subsituted for the constructions paper to change it up a bit!

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*Any of these projects could have CLOUDS added to the ends of the rainbow! For the Fruit Loop or Mini Marshmallow rainbows, use large white MARSHMALLOWS! The other rainbows could have COTTON BALLS!
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Natural Diaper Rash Remedy

My poor little boy had a nasty diaper rash (which I think came from putting too much bath soap in his bath the other night)

So after doing some research, this is what worked for us.

Warm bath with some oatmeal (I put a handful of oats wrapped up in some cheesecloth and held under tap as I ran the bath)

Towel dry. Attempt to use blowdryer on the affected area (he didnt really care for this part!)

Spend some diaper free time to let the air flow on affected area. (I let him wander around & play in the bathroom while his sister had her bath. This is fun for him because I dont let him play in the bathroom normally and clean up would be easy for any accidents - after awhile of that I laid a towel on the livingroom carpet and put some snacks and his drink there)

Apply a natural diaper rash remedy of a blob of olive oil shaken with a few drops of water.

**I am not a doctor so take this for what it is worth! **

In the summer (or if you are very worried about accidents in the house) the child could go diaper free with some loose airy shorts on. This would help prevent any "spray" and keep grass & dirt from getting all over his sore area if outside.

Recycle / Reuse Baby Food or Spice / Seasoning Jars

Im getting a collection of baby food jars and small jars from spices & seasonings.

Im also looking into ideas for my kids upcoming birthday parties and have come up with the plan to use the little jars to package up candies for the loot bags!

I can decorate the lids with fabric or have my daughter decorate with stickers.

This will save on the plastic baggies I am trying to live without!

(of course they could also be used to make snowglobes, storage for nuts/bolts, hair elastics, pushpins, bread bag tags, musical shakers, large shot glasses, small vases, or small drinking glasses)