Great Grains Granola Bars!

I'm always on the quest for things I can make the kids for snack for their lunch boxes.  You must understand that this comes with tremendous pressure to put in there what's "normal" food, like their friends eat.  I get repeated requests for string cheese (nope, too much packaging and growth hormones in the milk), rice crispie treats (I don't really even think I need to explain this one, but processed cereal and high fructose marshmallows), crackers and cheese packets (that don't contain real cheese, too much packaging, let's just not even go there), etc, etc, the list goes on and on.  So, I decided after Little Red's 24th request this month for something "normal" in his lunchbox for snack (is there something wrong with baby carrots now?), I decided to set about trying to perfect a good and mostly healthy granola bar for them.  I had to come up with one that is peanut and tree nut free because, though they aren't allergic,  they have nut allergies in their school.  I think I did pretty well with this one...

Great Grains Granola Bars
Makes 24 bars

2 cups whole oats
3/4 cups wheat germ or ground flax seeds (or a bit of each, which is what I did)
3/4 c sunflower seeds
1 cup peanuts (or chopped pumpkin seeds if you can't use nuts, I increased the sunflower seeds to 1 cup and chopped 3/4 cup pumpkin seeds as a replacement)
2/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c honey, maple syrup or agave
4 T butter or coconut oil
2 t vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 tsp kosher salt (like table salt, not coarse grind)
8 ounces of dried fruit (I used cranberries, raisins and dried apples combined)

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2.  Line a 13X9 inch pan with waxed or parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
3.   If using, crush peanuts in ziploc bag with rolling pin or other heavy item.
4.   Mix the oats, wheat germ and/or flax, sunflower seeds, and peanuts if using on a cookie sheet and place in the oven.

5.   Toast them in the oven for about 10-12 minutes.
6.   In a medium saucepan mix the brown sugar, honey, butter or coconut oil, vanilla, cinnamon and salt.

7.   Cook over medium heat until butter and honey melt and the whole mixture is bubbly.  This will be the "glue".
8.   After removing your oats from the oven put them in a large bowl, then add your "glue" and the dried fruit.

9.    Mix all the ingredients well.  You want everything to be well coated with the "glue".
10.  Dump all into the prepared 13x9 pan and using another sheet of waxed or parchment paper, press the mixture into the pan (I like to use a pot holder on top of the waxed paper as the mixture is quite hot yet).  You want to really press it into the pan or when you cut them into bars they will fall apart.

11.  Cool completely in the pan, the remove, peel off the waxed paper and cut into bars.

12.  Wrap the bars in either plastic wrap or waxed paper and then you'll have individual granola bars ready to go.

Lots of good for you things along with a bit of sugar.  They are chewy and pretty good.  And, most important of all for the boys, they passed as "normal" food.  Phew!  We've got a winner!

Enjoy some oat-y goodness, ~Peacemom

Spring is Springing!

Hello All!

Ahhhh, spring is springing up here in our parts.  Though we've still snow on the ground, there is definitely signs of springs eminent arrival.  There is melting, the sun has tilted and days have become longer, the chickens are itching to get out of their coop in the earlier daylight, the garden beds are almost uncovered, seeds are ordered.  One of my very favorite harbingers of spring is definitely the return of the birds from their winter vacation.  We've had sitings of gold finches, robins, morning doves, sparrows, red winged black birds, many types of woodpeckers and several different hawks.

This was the lovely bare ground we had showing on Sunday when I started the post.  I went outside to take these pictures and the router for our internet decided to reset itself. It took 2 days for the tech support people to solve our problem, and in that interim, we are currently having 12+ inches of snow predicted to fall today.  We're at about 6 inches currently, and they are wanting snow until about midnight.  Sigh.  So. Very. Tired. Of. Winter. This year, ready for it to be gone and us onto green pastures.

 

Well, in order to cheer myself up, I'm gonna continue posting the pictures that showed us closer to spring. I need it for my mental health as we're all snowed in today.  The boys are home from school on a snow day and Music Man is taking the day to work from home.  It makes the stress level much better in that we don't have to worry about him driving in this or getting out of our very vertical driveway.  But, to be honest, it increases the stress level because the kids playroom is in the same space as his home office and so it's never quiet for him when they are home.  Ah...the challenges of living in a small home very close together with two loud boys.

 



When I went out to check on the chickens, I found two eggs.  We routinely get only two eggs each day, even with the increased sunlight.  This beauty is one of my layers, her name is Rosie.  She's Little Red's chicken, an Auracona. A real beauty, isn't she?  She's also the one who will chat the whole time she's out there with us, giving us the scoop on the soap opera in the coop.  She's very talkative and will make her little moaning chits over and over while she's emphatically conveying her world to you.  It's really quite endearing and I love her, she's the one who will let us pick her up without a fuss and pet her.  She's a sweetie chickie pie.

This is not Rosie's egg, hers are blue-green.  This is our Black Sexlink's egg, she is a black beauty names Irish.  She is the other consistent layer in the bunch.  I'm not sure what's to do about the other 5 girls that aren't currently laying, and haven't since they started to molt last September. It's costing me about $50 in organic feed each month for me to get about 50 eggs....hmmmmm...currently that's $1.00 per egg. Now, I don't care how good they are, no chicken egg is worth that investment.  Going to have to do something about that soon.  We may be culling a few.  I'll give them a little more time to get back on the spring laying schedule, but if they don't start to do more then eat all that feed and pick each other's feathers out, they will be on the fast track to the stew pot. Sorry, I know it's harsh, but honestly, I'm not keeping pets here.  They need to earn their keep around these parts.

The white lilac bush is budding already.  We had a bit of a stretch of warm weather for a few days and it seems to have jump started the process.  I know we're currently getting buried under 12+ inches of snow, but hopefully it will melt fast and we'll start to see some of the spring flowers peek through that snow. I'm needing the joy and cheer of crocus', tulips and purple hyacinths.

Look at all that bare ground!  This was the field in the back of our property a mere two days ago...just waiting for the loveliness of spring to continue and green up those fields.  Right now, outside of the lovely shade of blue of our skies, our surroundings are quite monochromatic.  And it's getting a bit depressing to say the least.

And here are two of the garden beds...almost uncovered!  The ones in back of me while I took this picture are actually under much deeper snow as it had drifted on that particular part of the field.  I can just taste the tomatoes that will be coming up soon!

The little goldfinch in the sage is just waiting for spring as well.  We're all ready, aren't we?  It's time for the grass to show it's green, the leaves to present their colors and some warmer sunshine!

I'll leave you with Snowball, our proud and handsome rooster.  Warm spring wishes and garden dreams to you all, ~Peacemom

What Do Your Leftovers Look Like?

I had a moment to smile this morning as I opened the fridge and this happy sight met me back.  This is the current leftovers on the shelf.  I was happily struck with something rather important.

I have worked very hard to change the way our family eats.  Back when I was couponing a few years ago, that same door opening would have been greeted me with a much different view.  There would have been jars of Ragu spaghetti sauce and jelly loaded with sugar because that's what I could have gotten for nearly free.  Food containing lots of preservatives and more sugar and salt then anyone could possibly want in their body.  I started reading about how bad all of that mass produced food is for the planet and our bodies and decided I wanted to go another way.  To keep myself and my boys as healthy as possible, some changes were going to have to be made. 

This shelf also greets me with leftovers that were nearly free as well.  And so much better for our bodies.  This shelf contains strawberry jam with strawberries I picked from a local CSA and made into jam using almost no sugar.  The flavor is unlike anything you will find in the grocery store.  It tastes like fresh berries spread on toast.  The tomato sauce is from a mix of tomatoes I grew in our garden, costing me only the price of the plants.  Some of these plants were even free as my friend overgrew and gave them to me.  The yellow wax beans I grew in the garden, again costing me the price of seeds.  Behind the jam is a bag of freezer cucumbers, which I grew myself along with the onions that were included in the recipe.  The little jar of wild Maine blueberry preserves in the front was not canned by me, but by Music Man's aunt, who has a business home canning her local products and selling them.  Yes, indeed, this is the sight I much prefer to greet me when I open that door.  Now, we're not perfect, and I'm not an all or nothing girl.  We do still have Cheez-its in the house because I can't get Music Man to give them up, and there's plenty of things like the almond milk you can also see in this picture, but so much less then there used to be for certain.

The shelves in the basement that store the food look a whole lot different now as well.  When couponing, they would have held boxes upon boxes of processed cereal, crackers, rice mixes, pasta salad boxes, peanut butter made with sugar and salt, jelly with too much sugar, and more ingredients that I couldn't pronounce then I even want to think about now.  Now, those same shelves contain rows of home grown and canned tomatoes, sauce, jams, beans, corn, apples, apple sauce, peaches, chicken and vegetable stock and salsas. 

That is a much more comforting sight then ever.  I grew it.  I canned it.  I can feed my family no matter what.   That coupled with the fact that our internal organs are no longer steeped in chemicals, high fructose corn syrup, sugar and salt makes all the difference in the world to me.  And I know we are healthier for it.

This weekend, I will be sitting down to plan what is going in the garden this year.  And what will be sitting on those same shelves in those same jars in the autumn and winter. Lots of work?  Yes.  Genuine life?  Most certainly.  Healthier?  You bet. 

Spring is springing soon, what's going in your garden?  What's your favorite food to put by in the fall? 

I'd love to hear your plans for full shelves come autumn,  ~Peacemom

Now, That's Some Trophy

Pretty big thrill for the boys last summer.  They got to see the Stanley Cup at the Verizon after our home team, the Boston Bruins, won it again.  This was some serious highlight for these guys.  And a definite life highlight for their Dad.  He's never gotten that close to it before, and he's been a Bruins Fan for many years now.  I don't actually think that either of these is the Cup, because it seems to be it was much larger and kept guarded.  Not sure, though, but either way, it was a "way cool" excursion for them.   Music Man actually got interviewed for the local news station, WMUR, which they actually filmed and showed on the broadcast of the news.  We have it saved on our DVR.  Fun stuff.

Probably one of the things that is amazing to me is the amount of time Music Man dedicates to his children.  In this day and age, I supposed it's a bit more normal then it used to be to some extent.  Mothers, well, we're expected to be there for the boys and nurturing and all that.  And I take that job very seriously and do the best I am able for them.  We are both at their games, scout activities, concerts, plays, whatever we can do.  And I'm the one home with them all the time.  A foundation I know can't be replaced in any other way.  But wow, what lucky boys they are to also have a Dad that is so involved with their lives and there for them.  He assistant coaches both boys sports teams, whatever it happens to be in that season.  He attends all of Maestro's scout activities and meetings and is Little Red's den leader.  He's the one to take them to sports activities that they are fans of, like Manchester Monarch's hockey, or Fisher Cats baseball.  I will attend a few of them with them, as I've grown to like sports since having boys (really, what choice did I have?).  But our budget is such that we have to limit what we do and so I will stay home so they can go.  These things mean so much more to them then me, so it's good.  Plus, what wonderful bonding time and experiences they have with their father.  He's the one sleeping out in the back field with them in tents.  I'm the beach mom, the easy hiking trail mom, the after school activities mom. Music Man is their wonderful male role model.

And it's something I marvel at.  He did not have this in his own life.  Let's just suffice it to say his own example of how to be a good father was basically non-existent.  His mother did the best she could, but a boy needs his father.  Most of his life, he wanted a mentor, someone he could look up to and learn from.  He had a grandfather and uncles that were involved in this life, and he's very thankful for that.  But, they weren't his father.  And so, when I see the dedication he has to his own sons, the love he shows them, and the sacrifices he makes for them, I know how deep that goes.  It's not that he does it because he has to, he does it because he didn't have it and because he knows how much it means to his sons.  Even when they don't recognize it, and don't understand it now.  They will someday, when they are older, and maybe it won't be until they have children of their own.  And perhaps in those moments of being a great dad, he's healing the deep wounds left by his own father.  I hope for that all the time.   And, I'm enormously proud of him.

~Wishing you family love of your own, ~Peacemom 

I was having an interesting conversation with Music Man yesterday.  We were discussing our home search.  We've been involved in this for a long time, it feels like forever. 

See, Music Man was never what I'd call a country boy, even though he grew up in a small town once they landed from his military brat years.  He moved all the time until he was 12.  My parents moved us to northern New Hampshire, "the sticks" if you will, when I was 10.  I never looked back.  We lived in a city in Florida before moving to NH.  It was okay enough for me as a kid.  But I was horse NUTS back then, long before my parents relocated us to a mere mile from a large boading farm.  I was living right where I was meant to be then.  As a child, I didn't recognize that, I just knew it was where I wanted to be.  The old farmhouse where we originally settled was in the middle of a surrounding milk cow farm.  We also did not have any neighbors close by and so I spent a lot of time outside hanging with my dog and the cows.  I learned to love the land and the animals.  Waking to soft moos and cowbells in the field, smelling fresh cut hay, letting the calves suck my fingers, feeling the cows soft breath and peering into their soft brown eyes behind large eyelashes.  I found a feeling of "home" that at the time I did not recognize, but now know that's because I was where I belonged.

Music Man would have been happy living in an apartment in the middle of Boston before he met me.  He's a musician and loves the vibe of the city and gets a renewal of energy from that vibe.  After living years in a large city,  being in the city sucks the very life out of me now.  What he can view as exciting, I see as exhausting and draining, loud and annoying.  Living in the middle of the city is slow soul death for me.   But, Music Man also loves the outdoors, is a hiker of many trails and enjoys camping and spending time on the water.  Since meeting me, he's embraced that country boy part of him and now enjoys the country as much as I do. I think it was always in there, but it took having someone in his life embrace and encourage that for him.  I also still encourage the nights in the city to see music, but he goes with friends rather then me.

That being said, we are both always trying to figure out a way to live the life that we consider "right" for us and our family.  We want a place to grow our own food, raise our own livestock and be more self sufficient.  But for me, it's an actual drive to do this.  I feel this drive on a level that is much deeper then the average joe.  I know I'm meant to be a farmer.  I'm meant to be connected to the land and seasons and miss having that in my life.  I know it like I know my own name, it's part of my very being.  And I knew it since I was a child, but at 44 am no closer to making that a reality then I was then.  Renting it on someone else's land just isn't gonna work.

Until I can get my own home, where I'm able to plant things that need years to develop and can stop feeling temporary about where I'm doing all my outdoor work, I won't feel deeply happy or settled.  We've lived for years now feeling temporary...never doing what we'd like to do, painting the walls, setting up the garden beds, planting the rhubarb, fruit trees, asparagus and blueberry bushes, getting the dog we want.  Because if we do those things, then it's time to move, we've done it for nothing and we stand the risk of having to have to get rid of our dog.  Our current landlords are great.  Farmers themselves, they let us do what we want, but we moved in here knowing our time would be limited to some extent.  He purchased the house for his inlaws to retire to, and we know they eventually will want to retire and we'll need to go.  There are many things about this house that don't work for us, but we accept it because it's at least providing us a way to stay in the town that we all love.  Though we didn't know it at the time, we had to pick one of the most expensive towns in the state to settle in, make friends in, and develop a community with.  And now, unless we can find a house that we fit in, that doesn't need a ton of work, that has at least two farmable acres, we're facing leaving the town and people that we love.  Our kids love it here and for us that's a huge part of why we want to stay.  Music Man having moved so many times as a kid, never developing friendships and feeling he belonged has stayed with him his entire life, and we don't want to do that to our kids.  Maestro has already been to 3 different schools and he doesn't want to leave.  Plus this school has the programs for gifted kids that he needs as well.

So, we keep waiting and hoping.  There are so few homes in our area that are in our price range, that work for our family, that fit our financing.  It's getting to look more and more like we may have to leave the place we love and feel we belong.  None of us is anxious to have that happen, so we wait.

Still hoping for the little farm, ~Peacemom

Big. Giant. Suck. Pill.

"God may give you more then your poor bones can ever take"...Iron & Wine's got it right.  See this horse?  This is Sassy.  She resides at the farm adjoining the Olson House in Cushing, Maine.  Made famous by Andrew Wyeth and his many paintings of this homestead, most famous perhaps is "Christina's World".  Sassy spends hours and hours each day she's able to get out to visit the house standing right there in that doorway, just waiting to be let in the house.  She never is let in.  I know how she feels.  We've lost two houses we were trying to buy in two days, one of which we wasted the last 9 weeks trying to make work.  After last years devastating loss, well, this is not welcome news.

In my next life, I will be independently wealthy, I'm ordering it up right now.  Before I meet my new self, I'm putting that order in well ahead of time.

I'm sick of struggling.  My friend Diane tells me I'm an old soul and that's why I have the challenges in my life that I do.  Great.  Glad to know there is some greater reason, because the immediate one sure as hell isn't apparent.

Poor Sassy, I feel your pain, girlfriend.

Tomorrow's gonna be better, right?  ~Peacemom

I Got The Blues

 

After having been almost 7 weeks with but one visit to my girls up the hill in the coop, I'm lonely for them.  I miss the bbbbrrrrccckkkk bbbrrrccckkk that Rosie gives when she's chatting with me when I went up to feed them.  A favorite moment for me in the morning or when I would dump treaties at their feet.  I miss the feel of warm eggs fresh from the nest, and shavings always stuck in my sweater.  But, I'm not so much missing the frozen waterer or frozen poop on the tops of the nesting boxes.  Hey, you take the bad with the good, right?

 

But, it's official.  I miss my girls.  Stupid ankle and leg aren't healing very well and I'm still restricted in what I can safely do, especially at a steep incline on a snowy hill.  I miss my girls and I think they miss me, too.  When I call to them, they get excited and look for me.  Maybe it's just wishful thinking but I feel that they do.

 

Though I am thankful for Music Man and Maestro picking up the slack, I am a farmer without her farm.  Sigh, one long winter, this.

 

 

Wishing for some clucks to return to my days,   ~Peacemom