Monthly Archives: January 2016

Post 37 of 365 Real Foods Series: Homemade Granola

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There is nothing quite like a nice bowl of Greek yogurt with a generous amount of tasty granola sprinkled on top. Yum! I decided a few years ago to start making my own granola since store-bought granola is not budget friendly and the added ingredients weren’t great either.

John loves peanut butter so I decided to try my hand at a version with some peanut butter added in. I like this recipe because it is not over the top crunchy and difficult to chew! Weird, I know. 🙂 It’s also easy-peasey to make!

If you can’t have peanut butter due to allergies, or you simply want something different, you could easily sub the peanut butter for almond, sunflower, hazelnut, or cashew. You could also add whatever you like for fillers or omit any of the ones I added. I like sunflower seeds, almonds, and of course, chocolate.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups old-fashioned, rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup ground flax
  • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1/4 cup chopped dates
  • 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
  • Handful of sliced almonds
  • Handful of dried fruits – cherries, cranberries, etc.
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter (or nut butter of choice)
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 5 tablespoons of butter or coconut oil
  • Few drops of vanilla extract

Directions:

  • Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
  • In a saucepan, combine peanut butter, butter or oil, honey, and vanilla. Mix well until melted.
  • Pour over dry ingredients and mix well.
  • Press the granola into a pan or baking dish lined with wax or parchment paper.
  • Bake at 300 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. I suggest stirring once, around the 15 minute mark and then pressing down again.
  • Remove from oven, stir, and let cool. It will become crunchier as it cools.
  • Once cool, store in a container with a tight lid.

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That’s it! It’s pretty easy and quite tasty. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does.

Happy Snack Making,

The Joyful Homemaker

Our Under-the-Sea Lapbook Project

Morgan Academy has been hard at work for the past four and half months. Currently, we are studying swimming creatures of the fifth day using Apologia’s Junior Explorer Series. Since Jack is only five, I have tailored it to fit a kinder level. It is a great series and it works well for various ages. Overall, the content is easy to break down for younger students, it just needs a bit of tweaking for non-readers.

I thought it would be fun to put together a lapbook of under sea creatures while focusing on God’s word. Jack enjoyed this project, especially the puppets and making his own drawings of sea creatures.

Below is a quick look at this fun and simple project. You can easily tailor this project to your own home studies and various topics. Here are the materials we used:

  1. Two file folders
  2. Clear tape
  3. Glue stick or glue
  4. Print outs. coloring pages, etc. of your topic (we used these http://www.firstpalette.com/tool_box/printables/seaanimals.html)
  5. Lined paper for copy work (if using)
  6. Scrapbook or cardstock paper
  7. Popsicle sticks (we used pieces of heavy, recycled paper)

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First, we took the two file folders and taped them together to make a four sectioned, flat “book.”

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We started working on our cover next – we used the left flap on the outside as our main cover.

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Jack completed his copy work and we assembled the right side of the outside cover.

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Our fourth step was working on the inside. I let him color, cut, draw, glue, and arrange things the way he wanted.

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We decided it would be fun to add puppets to the front cover – so our fifth step was coloring, cutting, and assembling puppets.

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We made an orange attachment to add to the front cover and tucked our puppets into the top. You could easily add whatever you wish to the front. We thought it would be a fun place to store our puppets.

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We glued scripture and a few more creatures to the orange piece.

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Here is our finished project!

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I hope you enjoyed our project! I would love to see some of your lapbooking projects. Do share! 🙂

Happy Homeschooling,

The Joyful Homemaker

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