German is hard. Das ich gut. Er something.

Today I got an email from Mike Posner. Yea the singer of "Cooler Than Me". Ok, not a personal email... I signed up for it. Anyway! Point is, it was a mistake, it was in German or something.

I mentioned it on Z98 today. Oh! Here Listen!


Later I got a call on Q97 from Eddie and he told me German is easy! :)
Listen to him teach me German.


Twas fun. Haha!

What makes a Granola Bar Gooey & Chewy?

Last night I made a first attempt at making granola bars. I should have made a smaller batch for sure. I have that problem often! Turned out pretty good, but not quite like I wanted them. I dream of making a copycat fiber bar you find on store shelves which get a little spendy when you like them as much as I do!

The bars I made are tasty but I want to try another round. It'll be a challenge to finish eating this batch before I start experimenting again... I'll probably run out of freezer room!

Have you ever made your own granola bars? Have any tricks and tips to share?

I don't recall my exact ingredient amounts but here's a basic idea. (All stuff I had in my cupboards already)

Quick oats 1 cup

Steel Cut oats 1 cup

Rolled oats 1 cup

Wheat germ 1 cup

Ground Flax Seed 4 Tbs

Rice Puff Cereal 2 cups

About 2 cups of the chocolate nut mix to the right. It's a really good mix on it's own so I thought it'd be great in a granola bar.

Cinnamon 1/2 tsp

Honey about 1/2 cup

Pure Maple syrup 1/3 cup

Brown sugar 2/3 cup approx.

Margarine 1/2 cup approx.

Water 1/6 cup approx.

Sea salt less than 1/2 tsp

Vanilla 1 Tbs

Sprinkled some mini semi-sweet chips 3 Tbs

I think that's it...

Mixed it all together and pressed it into a pan. Baked for 20 mins at 350°

I wonder if I have to use corn syrup to get the gooey chewiness that the store bought brands have...?

I think my next batch will have more rice cereal type stuff and fewer oats to get a lighter texture. Gotta figure out the secret to chewiness though.

-Carissa

2 Months To Go

For the last 13 weeks I've been working slowing on bettering my habits for a healthy lifestyle. I never intended to be so slow about it, but that's just the amount of effort I've ultimately been putting in each week.

August 2008 was "the good month" I was really solid about my efforts and after that 4 weeks I fell off the face of healthy-living-earth, gained weight and that's where I've been hovering since.

I'm sitting here today thinking: "Man, I'm so drained. I wish I wasn't in this work-eat-sleep cycle." I know what I have to do to fix it, a first step and little bits of consistency is all I need.

Got to break that cycle.

A couple days of waking up earlier than I'd like to after late nights will turn me intoan early-nighter faster than you can shake a tail-feather.

Exercise is the next part. I have this flawed mind set that if I don't work out for 30 minutes or more it's just a waste of time. Why get all sweaty and only burn calories for 15 minutes? Well, nights that you feel too tired to do anything are nights that 15 minutes of sweat will make all the difference right? Right!

I'm feeling really good about the small changes I've made to my eating habits so there's no sense in requiring long hard workouts either - baby steps for real!

I need this month to be another "good month". The second month will be gravy.

It's all up to me.

(That can't be good for your knees... is it?)

Thanks for reading,

Carissa