Sunday 30 January 2011

SUMMER IS FINALLY HERE

and now it's too hot!!!!!

This is our first day at over 40 degrees and I'm sure there's more days like this to come. We finally get to try out Darren's and my Christmas present to each other, it's a evaporative air cooler as we don't have air conditioning in our home. It works really well when you put ice in it.

I woke at around 6am this morning and went straight out into the garden to feed and water the chooks and pick 4 large zucchini, 2kg of tomatoes and some asparagus. The asparagus came to grief yet again since Heidi the wonder pug wasn't guarding it very well and Dante the million dollar cat got up on the bench and ate it. grrrr, I was so looking forward to asparagus for dinner too. By the time I came back inside it was already heating up, so I declared the last day of school holidays an inside day. That didn't last long, Daniel is at a friend's house and they have a pool and Lachie went to the movies and the public pool with a friend.

I wanted to do lots of cooking today for school snacks but decided against heating up the kitchen and just made some yummy muesli bars instead.

I make our muesli bars nut free as that is our policy at school.

Here is the recipe from The Thrifty Kitchen changed slightly by me:

Fruity Muesli Bars
125g unsalted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup dates
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup sunflower & pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 180, add butter and line a 20cm by 30cm lamington tin with baking paper.

Melt butter with the sugar and honey over a medium heat. Stir without letting it boil until sugar has dissolved. Stir in the remaining ingredients

Press the mixture firmly into the pan and bake for 30 minutes. Leave to cool in pan before lifting out, then cut into bars.

I have enough snacks in the freezer for a few days, so wen t cools down again I'll stock up.

There you have it, a very simple snack without the nasties.

3 comments:

  1. 'Twas a bit hot yesterday, wasn't it? We headed to the beach after lunch and Southend was lovely. I had my first swim for the year.

    Will be trying those muesli bars - I love the fact you can add whatever fruit you like (I'm partial to the cranberries and She's Apples have dried blueberries also - yum!).

    Wow, the start of school again - seems like ages since the kids broke up.

    Cheers - Joolz

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  2. Sue we got Mum one of those coolers a while back and it really makes a difference. I make heaps of ice in summer and it really cools her down in weeks like this -- we might all be in there with Mum this week!

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  3. The muesli bars look good. We are freezing to death here right now, I would gladly take some of your heat.

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xxxSue