No Bake Granola Bars

So I pinned a recipe a while ago for homemade granola bars and just got around to making them on this rainy Sunday!  They are super delicious and really easy to make.  The took a little longer than the Energy Balls I made a few weeks ago but this makes more servings.

Ingredients

(Recipe Credit- Money Saving Mom)

• 2 ½ cups Rice Krispies (if you want to make these healthier, you can use plain puffed rice cereal)
• 1 ¾ cups quick oats (regular rolled oats work too)
• ¼ cup wheat germ (or ground flax seed, wheat bran, or additional oats)
• ½ cup additional mix-in ingredients, optional (i.e. shredded coconut, chopped nuts, raisins or other dried fruit, sesame or sunflower seeds, etc.) I used coconut
• ½ cup honey
• ½ cup brown sugar 
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup chocolate chips

Directions: 

• Combine first 4 dry ingredients in a bowl.
• In a saucepan, mix the honey, brown sugar and salt. Over medium-low heat, stir until the mixture comes to a complete boil for 30-60 seconds.
• Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla until smooth.
• Pour over the dry ingredients and mix well.
• Let cool for 5-10 minutes before mixing in the chocolate chips.
• Press into a greased 9×13 pan and let cool before cutting into bars.

Dry Ingredients

Make sure to let this boil for 1 minute

Pour honey mixture into dry ingredients and mix well.

A Friend In Need

Hi Friends!  A really sweet friend and her family lost everything in a horrible house fire yesterday.  If you live in Nashville, I am sure you saw it on the news or in the paper.  They lost everything, including their longtime family dog.  I have set up a GO FUND ME site for them.  You can donate money to the family online through that if you wish.  Even if you cannot donate and want to share on your socials, that works too!  Also, if you would like to donate gift cards, clothes, etc. I have listed the sizes below.  You can reach out to me for pick up or drop off arrangements!

Tom: 34 pants, XL shirts, and 9.5 shoe. 
Chas (5 year old daughter!): 6-7 clothes and an 11 shoe.
Julianne: XL clothing, 8.5 shoes.
Julianne's mother: XXL, 18 and a 10 shoes.

DONATE HERE!

Warm Kale Salad

This salad is so so good!  I am sorry that I got such an awful photo, but this was the night when the flu was coming on and I was hating life!  I promise it is amazing!

Ingredients-

3 T Olive Oil

2 Cloves of Garlic

1/4 C chopped onion

Dash of Salt

3 tsp sugar

2 T Balsamic Vinegar (You can add more if needed)

1/2 bag of Kale (you can just eye this, I made enough for 2-3)

1/4 Cup Pine Nuts

1/4 Cup Crumbled Goat Cheese (Found near the feta)

Heat Olive Oil and garlic in a saucepan for about 30 seconds.  Add onion, salt and sugar and cook until onions are soft.

Place onion mixture into a mixer (I used my Ninja) and add balsamic vinegar.  Process until smooth. Pour dressing immediately over kale and toss.  Add Pine Nuts and Goat Cheese and serve while dressing is still warm.  You can make the dressing ahead of time and just heat in the microwave before you pour over kale.  You can also add golden raisins if you need something sweet.

Recipe Credit- Veggie and the Beast

Restorsea Skin Care

I hope you are having a great start to your new year....mine however, has blessed me with the flu.  I spent New Year's Eve on my couch...and now have pink eye in both eyes....super super fun times.

Anyway, I have always loved good skin care products but never been super into them because I thought I would never get wrinkles...news for me...I have them...EVERYWHERE!  So of course I will try anything to make them disappear.

My mom heard about Restorsea through a friend and gave me their skin care regimen for Christmas. The set came with a cleanser, serum, Day Cream and Eye Cream.  It was packaged in a beautiful box. The only place you can purchase this line is their website and Bergdorf Goodman (super fancy NYC department store), but my mom got mine for free for me to blog about and try out.  If you are super interested let me know and I can get a few other boxes for friends to try, with the promise of a blog post or 2. 

I have only been using the line for a week in the morning and at night.  I can already tell how soft my face feels from it.  Their secret ingredient is the  Vibransea Complex which is derived from Salmon.   I promise this does NOT smell like salmon.  It actually smells really really good.  It is a very clean smell. The product works like glycolic acid but without the reddening, flaking or dryness.  

Here is a letter from the founder of Restorsea that you receive when you get your first box.  After doing some research, I found out that Gwyneth Paltrow uses this skin care line....I mean anything that is good enough for Gwyneth is good enough for me!  There are also some press articles from Vogue, Allure, The NY Times, Shape, etc on their website.   I took some before photos so after 2-4 weeks I will let you know what I think.  Check out their website here for more information!