"I made granola" is a very Earth-mother, hippy-dippy, peace-and-love thing to say, and I relate to none of those things. I suck at separating my compost, I get road rage, and I don't want to share the land.

But I do love a little granola sprinkled on my yogurt, and I don't necessarily like it to be laden with fat, sugars and crazy chemicals.

Mixing it up.

Granola is so easy to make yourself, and so simple to modify to however you like it, there's not really any need to buy pre-packaged stuff from the cereal aisle. I was able to whip up some applesauce granola on Saturday using ingredients I already had on hand at home, with a few little adjustments to a recipe I found online, and it turned out great.

Here's a link to the recipe I used, and here it is with the modifications I made, just because I didn't have some of the stuff in the cupboard but I really, REALLY had a hankering for granola:

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups oats
• 1 cup nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds) (I used almonds because that's what I had on hand) 
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds (I used pumpkin seeds instead. Work with what you got, kids!) 
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds (I skipped this because I didn't have any) 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 TBSP honey
• 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup raisins (I didn't have raisins so I used craisins instead - any dried fruit/berries would work well)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 300F.
• Mix together your dry ingredients, minus the raisins, in a large bowl. 
• In a small saucepan, warm the applesauce, honey, and oil over low heat. 
• Mix the applesauce mixture into the oat mixture and stir to coat everything. Spread the mixture onto a 9x13 baking pan. 
• Bake for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until granola is a deep brown. Remove from oven and stir in raisins. Let cool before eating! (I didn't)

Crunchy yums!

I spent some time yesterday watching The Hills and making a little collage for bambino. It was a rainy, gucky day - perfect for crafting. This was SO easy to do even for a spaz like me and the end results will look pretty nice on baby's wall (once we get the nursery painted, that is).

I picked up some plain, paint-your-own frames from Michael's (on sale three for $2 - I chose three square frames and three rectangular ones), a bottle of white tempera paint, and a book of Martha Stewart baby-printed scrapbook paper. I got the pad made for baby boys just because the baby girl's was suuuuper pink and girly - the boy's paper at least had some neutral sheets that will work for a boy of a girl. I'll probably add a couple girlier prints to the collage just in case the little one turns out to be a she. The joys of decorating a gender-neutral nursery!

In addition to frames, paint, and printed paper, you need a pen or pencil and scissors. That's it!

First, paint your frames and let them dry while you marvel at how Heidi ever ended up with Spencer in the first place in spite of Lauren's wise warnings (it was season 2 of the Hills I was watching).



Get your paper ready!



Choose the pages you want to use and line them up within the frames.



Use the cardboard inserts from the frames to trace around the paper you want to use, then cut it out.



Pop it into the frame.



Repeat x6 (or however many you choose to do).



Voila! You now have a nice, coordinated collage to hang in baby's room.





We'll probably add to this with some real prints and photos. You can also use magazine ads, wallpaper, wrapping paper...any pattern you like. It would work in any room too and I've already got plans to collage a few other spots in our house. I think the matching frames help it look like a set, and buying a pack of scrapbook paper is an easy way for the colour-coordinationally-challenged (me) to make sure everything matches.

My favourite kind of craft. Cheap and easy. Just like your mom.