Monday, Monday

Goodmorning! It's back to the work week and I hope you had a restful weekend! Mine felt nice and long, though I work Saturdays (the joys of retail), because my family had been in town since last Tuesday night! I seriously LOVE when they come to town and we spend most of our time just sitting at the kitchen table talking and laughing (and when i say laughing, i mean a TON of laughing)! My husband and I try to be diligent in bringing our lunches to work, not only to save money, but also to "know" what we're eating is somewhat healthy and cooked by us! I made these granola bars for us last night to eat as a snack/better for you dessert and it turned out great! It was super fast and easy! Here's the recipe : Easy Granola Bars Prep Time: 5 Minutes Cook Time: 20 Minutes Ready In: 35 Minutes Servings: 24 "Fantastic bars that have a lot of flexibility. You can adapt the recipe to your liking. Great for hikes, long road trips and camping as they store well and keep fairly long - unless you eat them all! Use any combination of chocolate chips, dried fruit, coconut, pecans, almond slices, or any other tidbits you'd like in a granola bar." INGREDIENTS: 3 cups quick-cooking oats 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1 cup flaked coconut 1 cup sliced almonds 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips 1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries DIRECTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan. 2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sweetened condensed milk, butter, coconut, almonds, chocolate chips and cranberries with your hands until well blended. Press flat into the prepared pan. 3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, depending on how crunchy you want them. Lightly browned just around the edges will give you moist, chewy bars. Let cool for 5 minutes, cut into squares then let cool completely before serving. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2012 Allrecipes.com Printed from Allrecipes.com 7/9/2012 I don't particularly care for cranberries in my granola bars, so I took those out and added walnuts! Hope you enjoy! I'm going to continue my morning tradition of drinking my cup of joe and reading and hopefully show some family 4th of July pics and a bookworm Wednesday post this week (for some reason, i cant upload pics at the moment)! I also have an idea for a weekly post, so check back with me this week!