No Bake Granola Bars ~ Gluten Free ~

  Okay so among trying to get my kids on a gluten free life style, it's been hard to get my picky 6 year old to try new things. But one recipe he absolutely loves is these home made no bake granola bars. And it's not that hard to make that's the best part! I highly encourage you to try this!!

What You Need:

1/4c butter

1/4c honey

1/3c packed brown sugar

2c quick cooking oats

1c crispy rice cereal

1/2tsp vanilla

2Tbs mini chocolate chips

Directions:

~ In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together. Set aside. In a small pot, melt butter, honey, and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce heat and cook 2 minutes. Pour in the vanilla and stir. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients. Pour into a lightly greased small cookie sheet and press down to be about 3/4 inch in thickness. (If you have a large cookie sheet like me, you pack down the mixture to one side. Press good so mixture sticks together). Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and press down into mixture. Cool on a counter top to room temperature for 2 hours before cutting into bars.

~If your mixture isn't staying together, you can stick in refrigerator for up to 20 minutes (no longer or they will become to hard) to help it stick together. Made this recipe twice and it depends on how you boil the ingredients on the outcome of how thier going to stick together,  I got different results both times. It's really a hit or miss kind of thing.

Cough Drop Suckers

   What do you do when you have a little that has a horrible croupy cough, and your so afraid to give them a cough drop in fear of them choking. Well I have found a solution, my little wild thing croupy coughed all night long last night, then he finally decided he was just going to get up for the day at 3:30 this morning. So I had plenty of time to start thinking of things to do for him to help. I remember seeing a while back on Pinterest, people making jolly rancher suckers, by melting down the jolly ranchers and sticking a sucker stick to it. Super simple, so I figured well why not do the same only with cough drops and I don't have to worry about him choking. My awesome husband kindly went to the store and bought 3 different bags of cough drops to try and sucker sticks. Its basically following the same instructions for the jolly rancher suckers, except I used a different degree on my oven. 

  So here are the simple instructions.

What you will need:

• Cough drops (whatever you or your little prefer)
• Sucker Sticks (They might be labeled Lollipop Sticks)
• Parchment Paper
• Saran Wrap

From left:

Halls Defense Sugar Free (asorted citrus)are not as strong as most cough drops

Luden's (cherry flavor) taste exactly like candy so I'm not sure if they work all that we'll

Halls Triple Soothing Action (cherry) are the strongest out of this bunch so not sure how a toddler would like the taste. 

Directions:

  Preheat oven to 300 degrees, line a baking sheet with parchment paper place cough drops spaced out (because you will be adding sucker sticks after they melt down) so make sure you have plenty of room. Bake for 9 minutes, once removed from oven immediately place sticks onto melted surface and let cool for about 5-10 min. Once cooled wrap them individually for storage and store in an air tight container. Note: oven times will vary, I have a very old oven that's why it takes 9 minutes for the cough drops to melt.

TADA!! 

IMPORTANT: These are NOT candy, they are still cough drops, so I would not recommend giving a young child a whole bunch at a time, I would do 1 every so many hours, if its needed.

Crazy New Life Style!!!

    Hey all, it has been a while since I have posted anything on here, and I wish I could say I have all this stuff to post that's why I have been away however I only have two. Unfortunately we have been noticing problems with our oldest wild thing, and we are having him tested for ADHD. The only thing is we are not putting him on medication because well I just don't believe in it. I have nothing against anyone who puts their kids on it or is on it themselves. Its just not something I want for my child. So we have been attempting to change his diet and the things he eats. eliminating things like milk, red dye, and ultimately we are now trying to transition him to a "gluten free" diet to see how that helps him. I have been stressing so much over this because well to be completely honest gluten free everything is expensive!! Snacks, cake, brownie, cookie mixes. Its all expensive and that's something we are not use to.
    I have been doing some studying however, and I am coming to a decision to try and just home make everything gluten free, right down to making my own gluten free all purpose flour so I can bake with. So I am beginning to try more recipes on my own now, so he can still have the things he loves like brownies, ice cream etc. just making it gluten free, but also something good tasting. So today I am trying out gluten free Peanut Butter Chocolate Ice Cream, super simple recipe. I am hoping to try it out on him tonight, and get his input so I can share.
    This is definitely a new life style we are not use to, and of course if one of my boys is going to have to be gluten free, I may as well do both, that way its not unfair that my youngest can have all the unhealthy snacks and my oldest has to just watch and have his own. So far this has not been so easy on either one, as they are so use to being able to have just anything from the store and now we have to read the backs of everything and they can only have so much. Its frustrating to say the least, but I know with a lot of prayers for strength, that God will guide us and help us to not overly stress and to be calm about it. I know I have already wanted to break down in the store looking at all the expensive stuff, and then I thought well I am a stay at home mom anyway, I may as well just make all my own stuff from scratch. It will be a challenge but like I said with the right amount of prayer and faith, I'm sure I wont go crazy over it!! :-)
    Cant wait to update you all on the ice cream! Be Blessed Ya'll!