Homemade Granola Bars

Pin It I got a job. Actually I'm already on my second awesome job since my last post. So to recent Econ Ph.D. grads having a tough time finding a job right now, there is hope! That explains the long silence. I figure I'll try posting via mobile. Keeping it short and simple for stuff I think is worth sharing. 

I've been buying breakfast/"health" bars to take to work. But I realized they can be quite pricy. They're tiny bars that are nearly 200 calories each and contain ingredient that I would rather not have for breakfast. I, thus, decided to make my own so that I can control the ingredients that I put in them. Found this recipe from another blogger: http://www.spain-in-iowa.com/2012/08/homemade-chewy-dark-chocolate-cherry-with-almond-granola-bars/. I decided to do some of my own tweaks. 

I basically followed the spirit of the recipe, but skipped the sugar. It is a breakfast bar, not dessert. I think it's sweet enough with just the honey. Here are some other changes I made (mainly what was already in my pantry): instead of dried cherries, dried cranberries; instead of almonds, mixed nuts that I chopped up in my food processor; used bittersweet chocolate chips instead of the bar; and finally, switched the coconut oil for canola oil (coconut oil has a much higher fat content, I figured I can give up the coconut flavor for a healthier bar).

Some other tips that would have been helpful before I made the bar was to use wax paper. Despite a generous spraying of Pam, my bars stuck to the pan so was a bit challenging to take out. Wait about an hour for the bars to cool and set before attempting to remove from the pan. Also, I'm going to try cutting up the bars before I put them in the oven next time as cutting them without crumbling was another challenge. Other than that, these bars seem to hold pretty well. Finally, a small thing that will make the process a tad easier is that Used the measuring cup for the oil and then the honey. The honey slid right off the cup! Et voila, you have yourself a breakfast bar with no mystery ingredients!

A Happy New Year to Everyone!

Pin It This year has been filled with challenges and heartaches for many people. But I also remember the blessings that came to us throughout 2012. I hope to write about our experience with the hurricane soon... And the fact that I finally got a full time job. For now, I wish everyone a very blessed year to come!

Pinterest Project: Hammock Seat Cover for the Pup

Pin It Needless to say, this blog has been neglected. I live very close to a beach town and so it seems that everything happens in the summer. Come the colder months, it seems almost like a ghost town! Thunderstorms made today an indoor day and I take advantage.

The seat cover on our love seat.  Photos with it used in the beach car would not have been very pretty. :-)

This is a project I completed about a month ago and inspired by a pin originally from the blog, excapes. Total cost of materials probably adds up to $40.  Now, I know there are less expensive hammock seat covers that can be purchased online (especially since I got my materials full price) but I went for this project anyway.  First of all, I was pretty excited to make it.  Then, the reviews for the less expensive ones online seem to consistently comment on the chemical smell.  Now my pup's hammock smells like Downy, just as he likes his bedding to be.

The bub checking out his seat cover.

I had followed most of the instructions. But since our puppy is going to be a bigger dog (he's nearly 50 pounds at 10 months) than the blogger's, I decided to use a stronger canvass fabric that I got from Amazon and make some reinforcements. This is not at all waterproof, but may be a little bit resistant to moisture due to the two thick canvass fabrics on top of each other. Our Cally gets nauseous in the car and the excessive drooling does not soak through (we're talking drool fangs here) .  I also believe that the hammock style has helped the pup relax in the car because he doesn't look like he has trouble balancing in the back seat.  He used to look so stressed and moved around so much when he could see the car floor. Although he still drools, he is now able to just sit calmly in the back seat. 

So here's the reinforcement that I was talking about:

I just cut extra fabric and sewed it onto the back of the handles.

So far, it's holding up and keeping the pup calm and the back seat relatively clean (except for the mess that us humans make!). This was a fun and definitely useful project.

Summertime Eats: Tuna Ceviche

Pin It Well, maybe I can eat this all year round.  But this is just a perfectly light yet flavorful appetizer for the summer.  It's also another dish you can make with frozen tuna.  Now frozen is obviously of a much lower quality than sushi-grade tuna, that's why it's so much cheaper.  But because you are basically cooking the fish with acid instead of heat, any fishiness from the frozen tuna will be cleaned away by the fresh lemons and limes that you'll be using.

about a pound of frozen tuna, sliced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 medium white onion, chopped
juices of 1 lemon and 1 lime
fresh cilantro (about 1/2 cup chopped)
salt and pepper
red pepper flakes

Mix tuna, onion, lemon and lime juices, and cilantro together.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add red pepper flakes (or even chopped jalapeno pepper) according to heat preference. Mix and let sit in the fridge overnight for maximum flavor infusion.  Serve with tortilla chips.

Pinteresting a Welcome Barbecue

Pin It It's been quite a while since I last blogged.  I don't know what happened to the past three weeks! Anyway, last week was definitely a hectic one as one of my best friends from the Philippines came over for a visit.  Naturally, because it is her first time in the US, she had to be taken on a whirlwind tour of NYC.  I'll save the tips on how we did it way under her budget for another post.

Ever since I got hooked on Pinterest, I had sworn that I would try to do as much of the pins as I can.  I found the perfect opportunity to do so when we had an intimate barbecue to welcome my friend to NY.  While I decided to keep it simple by having a salad, burgers and hotdogs for the main "entree", I (with a lot of help from our guest!) put a little more effort on the appetizers and dessert.

For starters, we had tuna ceviche (recipe in the next post), chips with mango salsa (recipe here), and my Pinterest-inspired mini tacos.  I topped off the mini tacos with mango salsa and they were incredibly easy to assemble and looked impressive on the table.  We made the taco-seasoned ground turkey and mango salsa a day before so we only needed to assemble it before the party.

Finally for dessert, we made what would be my third attempt at banana pudding pie, coconut cupcakes a la Ina Garten frosted via Pinterest instructions, and another Pinterest-inspired dessert of red velvet brownies.

The photo sucks... and so does my frosting skills.  But I imagine with practice and a little bit more generosity with the frosting, my cupcakes will be much prettier in time.

 I followed the red velvet brownie recipe to the letter, except I took them out of the oven about 5 minutes earlier because of the much warmer weather.  They were just fine.  Also, the recipe calls for a white chocolate frosting, which I'm not a big fan of because I find it way too sweet.  So I decided to use Ina Garten's cream cheese frosting, along with some changes as I wrote here.  I also used 1/3 less fat Philadelphia neufchatel cream cheese with no noticeable change in flavor.

All desserts, except for the banana pudding pie, were done ahead of the party so there really wasn't much to do on the day itself.  And most importantly, everybody seemed to enjoy our little gathering and we had an awesome time reminiscing about high school.

Pinterest-Inspired Fabric Basket

Pin It I am in a sewing frenzy! And it's good...

Having scraps of canvass from the doggie hammock seat cover that I'm making (also Pinterest-inspired) and fabric from my damask window panels, I thought these would be perfect for a fabric basket.  This would be a cute storage for our doggie poop bags that we buy by the case.  And it would be coordinated with my window panels! We got them months ago and were still sitting in the original box they came in.  Not very attractive.  For the body, I mostly followed the instructions from Pink Penguin, with a few modifications.  I wanted the damask to also accent the top of the basket but didn't have enough fabric to actually make a lining out of it.  So I basically made a bias out of the damask fabric to close the top of the basket and used an old men's shirt as lining.  And because I wanted it to be a hanging basket, I changed the handle as shown below.  

I didn't have batting, so I used Pellon woven fusible interfacing, which was all I had.  But because the canvass I used was thick, the basket is able to hold its shape pretty well as you can see in the photo below.  As a value-added to the Pink Penguin tutorial, you know how Land's End canvass bags can stand sturdily on their own? I believe the trick is not to cut the corners of the box ends.  What I did was I folded them up and sewed the corners to the side seams. I did this both for the lining and the main basket.  As you can see, my basket stands up without a problem! So with a few changes, you can definitely use these techniques to make your own sturdy tote!  If I had a serger, I wouldn't even need the interfacing and the lining to make a tote.

Now once I hung the basket on the wall and actually put stuff in it, it was drooping.  But that was easily resolved with a cardboard at the bottom of the basket.

It feels awesome to actually create something from all these scrap materials! Why don't you try it?

Sharing Another Men's Shirt Refashion

Pin It

After

 I scored a couple of good fabrics from my hubby's recent purge.  A great one was this linen shirt that would be perfect for a summer top.  Using a combination of techniques that I've practiced with my previous projects, I came up with this simple top that was relatively easy to make.  I wish I had spent more time with the measurements, though, as I screwed it up somehow and now I need a solution to the front giving a little peek-a-boo.

Before (It's inside out as I was too lazy to turn it back when I realized I forgot to take a photo.)