Chewy Granola Bars- Tasty Tuesday 3

Today I am sharing with you one of my all time favorite recipes for 2 main reasons:
1.) They're crazy good.
2.) Maybe granola bars are like gold in your house like they are in mine-they never last long. A stockpile of 3 family size boxes last about a week in my house...for just my husband.

Personally I love chewy granola bars, I don't like the crunchy ones that make me feel like I'm eating cinnammon flavored cardboard. So I spent an embarassing amount of time searching and trying out "chewy granola bar" recipes and finally I combined a few and tweaked some things and came up with this one.
I also tell myself that I'm eating super healthy whenever I eat these, not because they actually are, but because anything with oats in them seems healthy to me. Who knows. Let's get started....


Printable Recipe
3 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup Rice Krispies cereal
And whatever else you want to put in them. I typically keep it simple and just add chocolate chips. But you could definitely add all the nuts or dried fruit you want.

Preheat oven to 325 and grease a 9x13 pan.

Now you will see why there aren't many pictures in this post. Because all you do is dump all your ingredients in the bowl in no particular order.


Stir to combine.


Then pour in the greased dish and try to press it down as evenly as possible.


Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the edges start to turn lightly golden. When they come out of the oven they will still be super soft and they may look a little underdone, but once you let them cool completely they are perfect, so wait to cut them. These also make a super cute treat wrapped in brown paper with cute colored twine or washi tape.



I really hope you try them and love them as much as we do!!!



Printable version found here!

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Year 1

This weekend the Mr and I celebrated our first anniversary. The obsessive party planner and over the top side of me spent the days and weeks leading up to this milestone feeling overwhelmed by the need to plan and the urgency to make it special. Yes we would have many anniversary's, but this would be our only first one. My mind raced to images of a fancy weekend getaway or a really great gift. Not because of a need for materialism, but because I wanted something "tangible" to remember this anniversary by. However it didn't take long for my budget to catch up with my daydreams.

We are blessed beyond measure, God has provided abundantly in the past year in ways that we still can't understand with human thinking. But let's be real...we're newlyweds. The "fanciest" vacation that we can afford is breakfast in bed. And by bed, I mean our own. See where I'm going here?

So we settled it-there could be no fancy vacations. No extravagant gifts either. But as we made these decisions we discussed how much we had grown in the past year. All that God had done in us. Looking back we realized we hardly even knew the people we were when we started this married life of our's a year ago. God has had such mercy on my stubborn heart, such grace on our feeble ways, and somewhere amid the days and weeks of the last year...He began to fix us...change us into who we were meant to be all along. Unless you've been in a moment similar to this, experienced God's transforming and redemptive power over your life like I have, you probably can't understand why I'm weeping as I type this. It was nothing by our own doing or power, all glory to God. No weekend getaway or fancy wrapped present could compare.

And you know what? I bet in the next 50 years or so...we will be able to celebrate an anniversary with extravagance once in a while. But I don't think it will be better than this one. It was simple, but so very sweet.

No we didn't have money to "go all out".
But we did exchange homemade, and very heartfelt, gifts.
No we didn't go to a fancy hotel.
But we did stay in our sweet little home and cherished each moment.

And as my husband prayed over me this morning, he broke as he said, "I praise You for her...You could not have given me better. You could not have given me more.

I need nothing more.

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Fab Friday 2

It has been a gorgeous Spring week in my neck of the woods. At the moment, Winter has taken another ugly swing at us...so I'm going to focus on the beauty of the past few days and ignore the sleet hitting my window. Sigh...Here were a few of my favorite fab things this week!!!



1.) A good book and the beginning of iced coffee weather. My current favorite combo: Carmel vanilla creamer plus a drizzle (or 4) of carmel sauce plus coffee over lots of ice in a mason jar so you can shake it up well. Carmel-ly perfection in a glass. Or jar.

2.) Evening walks full of good talk, laughs, and prayers with my man.

3.) This song on repeat.
One thing I know that I have found
Through all the troubles that surround
You are the Rock that never fails, You never fail
"Everlasting God" by the Depseration Band

4.) Mr. is kind of the best at writing, and hiding, little notes for me. I really adore it. One night this week he signed a note, "thanks for always being my crown.-Pro. 12:4". Swoon. Blessed beyond measure.

"The Best Chocolate Cake Ever"-Tasty Tuesday 2

Whenever I come across something claiming to be the best anything on pinterest, I'm typically suckered in to trying it. I know I know. Silliness. I'm also one of those people who buys food based on how "cute" it looks, even though I'm fully aware my money is actually going for the packaging instead of the product. But I digress...

So this time when I came across the recipe for the "Best Chocolate Cake Ever" on pinterest and I had pretty much all the ingredients, I went for it. It turned out to be super easy, and super delicious. Was it the best? Hard to say. But pretty stinking amazing and quite possibly my new favorite "go to" chocolate cake? Yes I think so.


Chocolate Cake
Printable Recipe
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-2 cups sugar
-3/4 cup cocoa
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon espresso powder
-1 cup milk
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-2 eggs
-2 teaspoons vanilla
-1 cup boiling water

Chocolate Frosting
-3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) butter
-1 cup cocoa
-5 cups powdered sugar
-1/2 cup milk
-2 teaspoons vanilla
-1/2 teaspoon espresso powder



Preheat oven to 350 and prepare 2-9 inch cake pans by greasing and flouring. For the cake whisk together (or use a stand mixer with the paddle attatchment) the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder. (I didn't have any espresso powder and was too danged impatient to wait until I got some. Remember? It said it was the best-I was in a hurry).




Next add the milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla and combine well. Then slowly add the boiling water and beat on high for about 1 minute to add some air into the batter. (This sounded made up to me. I did it anyways. Actions shot for proof I guess.)



Next pour the batter evenly, or as evenly as possible if you're me, and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.



This is one of those nice cakes that you can frost while it's warm. Don't you love it when that happens? Let's be honest by the time the cake cools and I can frost it I've already cleaned the kitchen and dread going back and making a whole new frosting mess. So on this one? Let's make life simple and make the frosting while the kitchen is still dirty and the cakes are baking! For some reason I forgot to take pictures of this part. Who even knows at this point.

So add cocoa to a large bowl and whisk through to get out any lumps. I suggest a mixer, or at least a hand mixer for the frosting. I guess this day I just felt like getting my arm workout in early and decided to go manual. It's totally do-able, not exactly pleasant. After the cocoa is nice and fine, melt the butter and combine it with the cocoa. Then alternate adding 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon milk, mixing on high until well combined after each addition until all the powdered sugar and milk has been added. Add vanilla and espresso powder and combine well. If frosting appears too thick add milk, or if too thin add more sugar. For me it was perfect just as the recipe called for. Once the cakes have cooled for about 10 minutes go ahead and frost them!

This cake was delicious. Super moist, which is always a must for me. And that frosting? Totally worth the sore arm the next day. It was like a creamy fudge. The hubby and I were just too tempted to wait until it cooled to cut a slice, thus the following not-so-pretty picutre...

After it cooled, it looked a lot better. Wait until it cools, or eat it with your eyes closed and enjoy it entirely. Either way make this cake asap.

Printable recipe found here

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Deep calls out to Deep

Today's post is a bit lengthier, for which I apologize. But when God does something so big, so dramatic in your life, you can't help but share it. Grab a good cup of coffee. This is a good story of a really big God and a really fragile girl.

Nostalgia has overtaken me these days as the Mr and I are about to celebrate our first anniversary. My mind cannot help but travel back to what was happening a year ago. Sure it's normal for the weeks leading up to your wedding to be stressful with the last minute to-do's and such. I experienced my fair share of this as I made list after list every day. But deep down I was dealing with something deeper than flowers and dresses and music. I was about to face one of my biggest fears-marriage. I grew up in a wonderful family, but with a very, very, bad example of marriage. To me, marriage meant anger, violence, temper, fear, insecurity, and trying to just survive. Growing up I told myself that would never happen to me. But after teenage and early college years when I found myself stuck in an abusive relationship of my own, my eyes were painfully opened to the truth. I wasn't exempt. Nobody was. Nobody had the gurantee that their marriage wouldn't end up like my parents. I had already lived in fear for the first 18 years of my life, I was determined to not step back into it. No matter what. So I made a promise to myself that I would never get married, I would simply never take that risk.

Fast forward 2 years, when the Mr walked into my life. I finally agreed to being friends with him as long as he agreed to never date me and never ever fall in love with me. (I may or may not have said that the first time we ever hung out. Charming I know.) One night he told me he had been lying to me and he had always committed to 100% honesty in our friendship. He was in love with me. Even though it wasn't allowed. So slowly-very slowly-we started dating. I kept one hand on the door at all times if I were completely honest. But then he had to go on a trip for work, for 3 long months. It almost killed me, or so it seemed. As soon as he got back, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him and somehow I never hesitated. It wasn't until the wedding got closer that I started going back to those promises I made to myself. I remembered the pain and the tears that I had vowed to protect myself from. So what was I about to do? I freaked. I almost didn't do it. It had nothing to do with my love for him, I've never knew I could love someone like I love him. It simply came down to the fact that I was facing 2 huge fears-marriage, or a life without him. I cried myself to sleep night after night.

I did marry him. With much trembling, I vowed forever. And I never looked back. The fear of losing him over losing myself and my "protection" did not compare. Mr has taught me what marriage was, what love was. No life is not perfect, but it is so so very good. He is patient and loving and gentle and slow to anger. Every morning before we start the day, he holds me and prays over me. The times that I would run far far away from me, are the times he holds me closer and loves me more than ever.

A year later, I'm still trembling. But not because I married him-but because I came so close to not marrying him. I came so close to missing out on this life that we share. I think about it almost daily as I look around in the simple moments of shared looks, morning prayer time together, laughing til we cry, doing dishes together, or evening kisses and remember these moments are gifts from God that I almost said, "no thanks" on and missed completely. So I live in such a humble state of gratitude as I think about the stubborn feet that God had to use to get me to where I am now-maybe more this week than other's. He has made all things new indeed. And with deep pain and deep risk has brought forth deeper joy than I could have ever even fathomed.

Praise the Lord, O my soul, all my inmost being praise His Holy Name. Praise the Lord all my soul and forget not all His benefits-who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. -Psalm 103:1-5

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