Homemade Granola Bars

So this has to be one of the easiest things I've ever baked, its hard to screw up, has easy prep, simple steps, smells FANTASTIC, and tastes amazing! I'm not a huge fan of granola bars because I find them to be too sweet, but this recipe was perfect and I cant wait to share it with you.....Right now =)

*Preheat oven to 350*

Ingredients 

2 Cups rolled oats
3 TBS butter/margarine 
1/2  Cup honey
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1 & 1/2 TSP vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

(Optional)
1/2 Cup  shredded coconut
1/2 Cup mixed nuts or trial mix
Chopped dried fruit or chocolate chips

For my granola bars, I added in Trader Joe's Texas Hold'em Mix because it has a nice variety of things I personally think would go great in a granola bar. the ingredients include peanuts, sunflower seeds, currants, pumpkin seeds, cashews, and almonds. I chopped a handful of the mixture and just added it to my oats. I  Also crushed up some vector cereal for some added flavor and texture. I added this after I combined my wet and dry ingredients. 


So to begin take your oats, and/or coconut and trail mix, pour onto a baking sheet and mix together. Place in the oven for 10 minutes. Watch this closely as you don't want the oats to burn. After 10 minutes take out your oats and transfer them into a mixing bowl. Turn your oven down to three hundred and start prepping your wet mixture. This mixture is what will hold your granola bars together.

In a sauce pan, add butter/margarine, honey, brown sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir until all ingredients are melted and combined. You want this mixture to just barely come to a boil. 

So once that is done, pour the mixture into your bowl of toasted oats, at this point you can add your dried fruit and vector cereal like I did. Mix thoroughly!   
  

                           

After you're done mixing every thing together, get out a cake pan and lightly grease the bottom and sides of the pan. add a piece of wax paper to the bottom. make sure it lays flat. Next, add your oat mixture into the pan and flatten it out to make sure it's even. Press down firmly. Once you think it's flat and even, go ahead and place the cake pan in the oven for 20 minutes. This was my favourite part because in about 5 minutes a warm, earthy and vanilla scent took over the entire house. Very satisfying! After 20 minutes, take your almost granola bars out of the oven and let it cool off for about 10 minutes. Gently flip your pan over and your granola bar will fall right out. Mine looked liked this.

Cut into desired shape and size and enjoy! 

To store these I just put them on a plate and covered them with plastic wrap, but obviously you can store them anyway you like. these will last up for one week if they don't get eaten before that!  

So that's it. That's all there is to it. Like I said it's simple and I guarantee you'll love them so make sure if you try this recipe you let me know how you liked it and if you changed anything. Bon Appetit, Everyone. 

Xoxo - Katie

                                                                          

My Favourite Winter Nail Polishes

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So winter is fast approaching, for many of us, we already have snow so I thought, instead of complaining about the cold weather how about a blog post about some of my favourite winter nail colours! So I've gathered five polishes that I've been using the most these past few weeks. So enough talk, lets get right into it!


OPI - Just A Little Rosti At This

I LOVE THIS COLOUR! I'm currently wearing it as I type this. It's the perfect burgundy shade for fall. This is such a warm, luscious, and creamy colour, I cannot get enough of it. This shade is so pigmented you could get away with one coat but two just makes it SO much better. Other than the colour another reason I love this polish is because it's pretty much the same shade as my favourite lipstick from Rimmel London #107 From the Kate Moss collection. I love when little things like lips and nails match, so naturally this made me super happy!

OPI - Give Me Moor!

This shade reminds me of a strong unopened bottle of cabernet sauvignon. which kind of makes no sense because the actual colour is way more purple. I really enjoy this colour when I feel like wearing my (fake) leather coat. It makes me feel like some sort of rebel vampire. Don't judge! 
This polish needs two coats since it's a bit translucent, but that second coat packs a mean punch and really gets dark. I love wearing this polish and then adding the next polish over top so add a little something special!

Morgan Taylor - Fame Game

I wouldn't classify this polish as a glitter polish, even though it is, but rather a shimmer polish since the sparkles are so tiny, AND it's easy to remove. Wait what? A glitter polish that's easy to remove? Yup. It's true. they actually exist! Morgan Taylor is a fairly new brand to me, I only ever started working with and seeing these polishes when I was in school. They were decently priced and had a great range of colours so I picked a few up. This polish looks good on it's own but I find that it looks best with a white base coat, or as an overlay. This polish reflects blue, green, yellow, and orange so it goes over top of top of pretty much any colour! It adds just a nice little pop of sparkle and reminds me of fresh fallen snow, you know.. the kind that glitters. =)

Morgan Taylor - Where's My Crown
This is my go to Christmas colour for my accent nail. two coats of this and your nails are evenly coated. Even one coat to add a little shimmer to your nails looks amazing. I love the amount of glitter in this polish and the fact that the glitter all the same size and shape, it makes the nail look so flawless because there is never a space without glitter. I love to pair this polish with my OPI Just a little rosti at this. Adding it to my accent nail over top of the OPI makes my nails scream Romantic Christmas! haha Because this is a glitter polish, it lifts off of the nail quite easily so I highly recommend a base coat and a top coat.

 Last but of course not least

Morgan Taylor - Sapphires, Rubies, and Emeralds Oh My
Honestly the name pretty much says all you need to know! what makes this glitter polish so incredible besides the glitter is the base of it. The base of this polish is a sheer dark purple so when I got it I instantly fell in love but I was a little nervous to use it because I thought the base would cover up the sparkles and the polish would just look chunky on the nail but I couldn't have been more wrong, the glitter shines through the base effortlessly! The glitter is purple, pink, blue, gold, and green, it's like a little bottle of Mardi Gras and totally remind me of Esmerlda from the hunchback of Notre Dame. I chose this as a winter colour because of how dark of a polish it is, you can wear this without a dark base and get away with it the base colour and the amount of glitter make it possible. Like the polish above, this does need a base coat and a top coat although this never lifts off my nail like the glitter polishes above. but still base and top coat are always a must for longer lasting polish!

So I hope you all liked this blog post, I'll be back with some more of my favourite polishes for the winter season in an upcoming post so stay tuned for that. and like always if you have any questions, comment below or ask me on any of my social media pages which you can find along the side of my blog! enjoy your day everyone! Thanks for reading =)

Katie - Xxoo