Granola bars - another failure

So the second batch of granola bars is a failure too, but at least it's an edible failure. They're just really sticky. Apparently, in my effort to make sure they'd be sticky enough, I over corrected. I have tasty but messy granola bars.

Maybe it will work after all.

So today at work I was relaying to story of the snack bags to Lin, and she said that oil cloth ought to be fine after, so now I'm not sure what to do. Plus I have all that plastic that I can't use for snack bags because it sticks to itself too badly. And I still haven't gotten the granola bars cut up and wrapped.

I spent all weekend busy getting not much done and now it looks like this week won't be much more productive. Awesome.

Granola Bars - 2 bad ideas in one day.

A few weeks back, I picked up a ton of different grains and stuff from the farmers market and a couple of health food stores. I bought amaranth, brown teff, chia, rolled oats and millet, among other things, and we started making our own granola-type bars.

I pop the amaranth, toast the millet on the stove and the oats in the oven, throw the chia in raw and sprinkle the teff on top. I use honey cooked to soft ball stage (about 244 degrees F) to hold it all together and then I press the mixture in a cookie sheet lined with wax paper to a bar-type thickness and then once it's cooled cut it into individual pieces and wrap them with wax paper.

The first batch got a bit sweet, and we learned that we probably shouldn't use blueberry honey anymore. They had Hunza raisins and roasted pumpkin seeds and were kinda chewy.

The next batch we wanted to be a nut bar. So I added crushed raw almonds, pumpkins seeds and roasted, salted sunflower meats and when I sprinkled the teff on, I also sprinkled toasted sesame seeds.

This time around, I wanted to do vanilla, cranberry, almond. So I toasted the stuff that needed toasting, crushed the almonds, popped the amaranth mixed everything together in a bowl. Then for the vanilla part, I used corn syrup flavored with vanilla extract instead of honey.

Apparently, this mixture does not behave the same as honey does, because the bars got very crumbly. I couldn't actually cut them into bars. But I'm thinking, well, we're just crumble it and put it in baggies, no big deal. Except it won't come loose from the wax paper either.

So I threw them out. But that aggravated me because I really wanted cranberry almond granola bars. So I went back out to the kitchen and started over. Toast the millet, pop the amaranth, mix in the chia (oops! poured in way to much, scoop some back out), add the toasted oats, crushed almonds, dried cranberries.

I figure, since I know honey works, we'll use honey. Cook the honey, mix it with the dry ingredients, press it on the cookie sheet.

But I still need vanilla, so I add white chips. I'm fully expecting the chips to melt when I press them in, because the bars were still hot, but it never occured to me that it was too hot to work with white chocolate yesterday. They melted, alright, and never hardened.

So I had to put them in the fridge. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if they actually turned out or not.

Oil Cloth Snack Bags - Fail!

Awhile ago I saw some girl on Etsy was selling oil cloth, reusable snack bags. Now, it's not that I don't want to support another artist, it's just that I'm loathe to buy it and pay shipping if I could make my own. So, I decided that I'm going to make my own. I figured one 6" square folded in half for a snack bag, two 6" squares sewn together for a sandwich bag. Velcro closures on all of them.

So I go to Joann's for the oil cloth. I get there and they don't seem to have it. I asked the girl at the fabric table and she tells me it's hard to find and that I should try Fabric.com. I told her I was gonna try Fabrics by Allen out in the Kmart Plaza to see if they have any.

I browsed around some more and found a remnant of red checked flannel back vinyl and I'm thinking, that this could make a super cute lunchbag, and then at least the trip to Joann's isn't wasted. When I checked out, I mentioned my project to the girl up front, who proceeded to inform me that they don't make oilcloth anymore - this is completely untrue, we carry bags made of it where I work.

So then I drive out to Fabrics by Allen. They don't carry oil cloth either, but they're intrigued by my idea. I ended up buying some nylon mesh to make a bath puff, and some lightweight clear plastic that we're thinking may work for my bags. I promise them I'll let them know how my bags turn out and head off to finish my errands.

Then I come home and go online. Fabric.com does, in fact, carry oilcloth!! Yay! But, I'm not totally in love with any of the patterns, so I start Googling oil cloth. And I find out that the jury's still out on whether modern oil cloth is actually foodsafe, because it's cloth impregnated with vinyl.

So I look into traditional oil cloth, which is canvas or cotton duck, impregnated with Linseed oil. Which also may or may not be foodsafe. But you can make your own. With linseed oil from the healthfood store which is produced to by eaten as a supplement of some kind or another. Which means it's food safe. But probably a huge pain in the ass to make.

So now I don't know what I'm going to do, but I know that as much as I hate throwing them all away, I am not going to start washing zippy bags. To me, that just screams crazy person. I mean no offense to you if you wash yours, I just can't quite bring myself to do it.

What exactly is a Diva Cup?

After much consideration, I finally bought a Diva Cup, so far so good. Honestly, I love it! I bought it earlier today, and I'm already thrilled with it. I have "good" timing, having puchased it when I could immediately use it.

So, what is a Diva Cup exactly? It's a menstrual cup, a tampon replacement, an environmentally friendly feminine hygiene product, one of the best purchases I have ever made. It collects your flow rather than absorbing it (it's a silicone cup), and it's re-usable. You wash it up and keep using it. It does cost about $40, and may need to be ordered online if your local health food store doesn't carry it or can't get it.

I had Sign of the Bear, in Allentown, get me mine. Here's the thing - it's FDA approved for a year of use. In other words, $40 once a year, rather than $5-10 every month for pads and/or tampons.

If you want the details or more information, please look at the Diva Cup website, or check in with the girls at LunaPads.