Peanut butter oatmeal breakfast bars

I got home from work last Friday without any plans, and when I saw this recipe by Emily from Sweet to the Soul, baking sounded like the perfect thing to do with my Friday evening.

I've now made these breakfast bars twice, and both times they were great!  I didn't have any dark chocolate chunks either time, so I used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead.

The second time I made this recipe, I decided to try a mashed banana instead of the applesauce to add some banana-y flavor to the already great combination of peanut butter and chocolate.  The blending of the three flavors is awesome.  And if you haven't had a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich with slices of banana in between, you should go try that right now.  It's great, as are these cookies, I mean, breakfast bars!

Updates and Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal (Boatmeal)

Sometimes when reading a post on a blog that I haven't read much or at all before, I'll check out the author's "About" section.  And sometimes even after reading only a few posts, I can tell that it hasn't been updated for a while.  The poor, neglected "About" section.  And what about us new readers?  But don't worry, if I can tell that the section might be a bit off, it's probably because the content of the posts is really rich.  So I just move on and read more posts. :)

And even though I've noticed things like this, somehow I let my "About" section become outdated.  However, there is not really much there.  But hey, I'm a junior now, not a sophomore, so I guess that's exciting. :)  Okay, and now for something much more interesting: Boatmeal!

This is another great (and easy!) recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie.  Baked Oatmeal = Boatmeal.  Since it is now definitely fall, I decided I wanted to make something with pumpkin in it, and this was a really easy way to do so.  I increased the size of the recipe (and the ingredients proportionally) and made my boatmeal in a 2-cup class container.  When I got back to my dorm room, I shared it with two of my friends.  I had bought a pack of about 10 small single-serving vanilla ice creams, so we each had the perfect amount of ice cream to go along with the pumpkin boatmeal.  Delicious!

Homemade Peanut Butter Bars

I found this recipe for peanut butter protein bars on Chocolate Covered Katie's blog and it sounded wonderful.  It has only a few ingredients and very simple directions.  I was looking for something like a granola bar, not a protein bar.  Also, I don't have any special protein powder.  So instead I replaced the protein powder with chocolate-flavored Carnation Instant Breakfast.  I haven't put the full recipe on this page per Chocolate Covered Katie's request, but here is the recipe and below are pictures and notes about my experience making these yummy peanut butter bars.  Next time I make them, I will try covering them or mixing in them mini chocolate chips and/or crushed pretzels.


Tools:
-two bowl
-spoon(s)
-knife
-gallon-sized plastic bag
-rolling pin (optional, as you could flatten it with your hands...or a textbook)
-1/4 and 1/2 cups
-1/4 teaspoon
-1 tablespoon

I first gathered the necessary ingredients and tools.

Candy Graduation Caps

My brother just graduated, and my mom and I had been working together to make some food and decorations for his joint graduation party.  As you can tell from the title, this recipe is for candy graduation caps, which turned out very nicely.  My mom had the recipe, which we then adapted to be peanut free, as one of the graduates has a peanut allergy.


Below is my picture guide of the process and at the end of this post is the full recipe.  My brother's school's colors were royal blue and white, so we found the closest thing we could to royal blue for the buttons and tassels.  And since I am at home and was working with other people, we used more tools than absolutely necessary.  That said, these could still be somewhat difficult to make in a dorm due to the lack of counter space and lack of fridge/freezer space.