New Toy!

So, my husband and I have always used our money wisely and I am very proud of that. I am now graduated with a bachelors and my husband will have his in a few months- and we have no debt! I consider that quite an accomplishment. Sometimes we mess up however and spend a bit (never what we don't have though). Yesterday we bought a new toy. I don't know if we should have yet, but we both love it! Now we almost have a professional kitchen. We have a kitchen aid, great knives, and now our professional series Vitamix! You can do anything in it- it may possibly be the coolest kitchen gadget yet!

Right after we bought it, before getting home, we ran to the store and got some bulk carrots, celery, apples, and spinach and made some great carrot juice. It is better and more healthier than a juicer because it keeps the pulp in the juice, which is where the real nutrients are.

Today we made soup in the blender- yes soup! The Vitamix heats up soup! I did still have to cook the potatoes and the chicken like normal, but besides that we added the ingredients into the blender, let it blend for 5 minutes, add a few more things you don't want pulverized (chicken, a few of the potatoes) and walla! We had great spinach and chicken potato soup! I also had made homemade bread bowls for the soup, even though most of them were a bit flat for bowls, they were perfect. 

We are hoping to eat lots of healthy foods and juices with this blender, with possible occasional milkshakes when needed, but we are so excited! I am very busy with work and do not have much time to cook at the moment, but in a few months I plan on being home with a new born baby. When that happens I plan to eat out of the blender for a whole month- kind of like that Julie Julia movie. The blender can make anything, it will be fabulous. 

Saturday in Teton National Park

          This last Saturday, my wonderful husband and I decided to take the drive to Grand Teton National Park. On the way it rained and was cold. We almost turned around but decided to take our chances. We stopped and bought new sweatshirts in Jackson Hole because we forgot jackets (which were much needed- I am still wearing sweatshirts from High School) and stopped at an awesome candy store. We walked around a bit and stopped in some cute shops, and even saw the biggest full petrified sequoia slab ever. It is on sale for only $250,000. I am considering going back and getting it next week.....haha, I wish. We brought lunches and ate them at a park.  Afterwards we headed into the park because the weather cleared up, the sun came out, and it was perfect. We got to the park to find out the trail we wanted to go on will have to wait due to snow, and half the trails without snow were closed due to grizzly bears. We really did not have much of a choice where to hike because of the closers, but it worked out in the end.  The elk are having their babies which is bringing the grizzlies down into the  meadows. Well, we were still going to go hiking, and we had our bear spray, so we went on. Awesome enough we got in the park for free because there was a shift change or something like that and they could not take our money. Then we went hiking!

          We parked our car where the red dot is and went around clockwise where the yellow highlighted trails above are.   To my relief we did not run into any grizzles, but my husband was disappointed. We did however find a sick ax which my husband claimed and carried back for a few miles. I think he was having a bit too much fun with that. This is a lower altitude hike and is not in the Teton range, however I do recommended it. You have great views and in June it is amazingly green! One note however, some of the trails we could not find and we had to double back and go a different way to get to our car. The small trails leading back to the parking lot (if you can call it that) have seemed to vanish.

Tasty Granola Bars!

          Here is a tasty granola bar recipe! I found this recipe online, tweaked it a bit, and now I don't want to eat store bought granola bars again. I have decreased the sugar it originally called for, use wheat flour instead of white, and added some more ingredients to make it more tasty!
          This recipe is great because you can change it based one what you  like and what you have in the kitchen. For example, you can add nuts and chocolate if you want, or even melt chocolate and drizzle it over the bars.

Ingredients:
   2 cups oats
   1/2 cup packed brown sugar
   1/2 cup wheat germ
   1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
   1 cup wheat flour
   1 heaping cup raisins and or craisins
   1/2 teaspoon salt
   1/2 cup honey
   1 egg
   1/2 cup canola oil
   2 teaspoons vanilla (I always add a little extra)
   2 tablespoons flax seed
   1/2 cup applesauce (this makes it chewy)
      Optional ingredients we like to add:
   sunflower seeds (or other nuts)
   coconut
   chocolate chips
 
   Preheat the oven to 350. Generously grease a 9x13 baking pan.
   In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins, and salt. Make a well in the center and add the rest of the ingredients and mix with your hands. Pat the mixture evenly into the pan. I usually just cover 3/4 of the pan, otherwise I find the granola bars to be too thin.
   Bake for 30 - 35 minutes in the preheated oven until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes then cut while still warm.

          *Great tip! When you are measuring out honey for recipes, measure out the oil in the same cup if the recipe calls for oil (or coat the cup with oil). This way the honey slips right out and you have less of a mess!

Valentines

          Happy Valentines day!.... not like I actually believe that it is more than a Hallmark holiday. I believe you should love each other and do cute things for each other all the time. Besides, if it is a random act on a surprise day instead of a marked day, it is way more fun!

          However, I did break down and make something for my hubby with my extra time. In the past he has always asked me why I loved him, or if it was just because he was cute. Well, I came up with over 100 reasons I love him and I put them together for him. To my surprise he actually liked it, and he is not a man that just flatters for the ladies!

Healthy Pancakes!

          This is a recipe that I have fallen in love with! I found the recipie online and have switched a few things to make it better. It is healthy and delicious! I recommend this to everyone, whether you are in search of just a switch up from your old breakfast or changing to more healthier options. They are moist, have flavor, and you can always add chocolate chips which makes them the best ever!

          I recommend at least doubling the batch because otherwise this makes about 2 pancakes. 

Ingredients 

   1/3 cup whole wheat flour

   3 tablespoons oats

   1 tablespoons flaxseed

   1/2 teaspoon baking powder

   1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 

   1/8 teaspoon baking soda

   dash of salt

   1 egg

   1/2 cup buttermilk (I always use plain milk and it turns out fine)

   1 tablespoon brown sugar

   1 tablespoon canola oil

   1/2 teaspoon vanilla

   1 T wheat germ

   some applesauce to make pancakes more moist, approximately 2T - 1/4 cup

   CHOCOLATE CHIPS! (optional)

          You can always play around with the recipe so you can make it with what you have in your kitchen. Enjoy!

          Random Note: Whenever I think of pancakes, I think of "panclocks" from the movie 50 first dates!

A Must Read: Death in Grand Canyon

          My husband said I should blog more. He wants this blog to be all about hiking and backpacking, which I am okay with, but we will see. I did not really know what to blog about until I thought I would share this book with you that I am currently reading:

 Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon

by Michael P. Ghiglieri & Thomas M. Myers

          I came across this book on my last visit to the Grand Canyon in 2010. I had finished a day hike to roaring springs and back with some friends and stopped in the gift shop on the way out. I thought it looked cool, listing all the deaths in the grand canyon and bought it. 

          I finally have had some time to read it and I decided it is not just interesting, but it holds a lot of truth. I love hiking and I always have considered myself safe, but this book has opened my eyes to yet more dangers of hiking. It goes over how important water and food is. It reminds you to tell people where you are going before hand, talks about flash floods, and many other things. 

          Now, the first part of the book goes over some silly but serious accounts of death in the canyon, many of whom simply fell to their death. The authors give some statistics how many of these deaths are male and how men need to think more and yadda yadda yadda. A sentence I enjoyed, being a girl, is the following:  "A possible culprit in many of these fatalities may be the male urge to urinate off high places combined with dizziness."
          Anyways, the book is a little silly and sad at the same time, but I really believe it would be a wise book to read in order to grasp the reality of how dangerous the outdoors can be.
          The following are just some photos of the canyon that I have take in the past. the first three are actually from a geology field trip I attended in 2008 and the last 2 are from 2010. The last two are also examples of places where people have died in the book by slipping while taking photos. I honestly do not think I would have stood that close to the edge if I would have read this book at the beginning of that trip instead of the end.

   

The signs say don't feed the squirrels. Don't worry I didn't, i just taunted him.

Granola

          We enjoy hiking and backpacking and trail mix is essential to those activities. For the most part when buying it from the store it is either unhealthy and does not give us the real essentials needed during the strenuous activities, or is expensive. We have been making our own granola and making that into trail mix. Sometimes we eat just the granola for a tasty cereal. It is very yummy and I thought I would share it with you.

   

       

Amylyn's Granola
Dry Ingredients:
15 C Oats
1 C coconut
2 C nuts (We use 2 cups peanuts and then add some almonds as well)
1/4 C sesame seeds
3 T cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
1 3/4 C honey
2/3 C molasses
1 1/4 C oil
2/3 C water
4 t vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients together. Heat the wet ingredients on the stove until all is one solution. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix. Cook at 350 deg. spread out on cookie sheets on about 5 to 6 sheets for: 8-10 minutes for soft granola, 12-15 minutes for crunchy granola.

After the granola is made we add raisins, crasins, m&m's, more coconut and peanuts, other nuts, and whatever else we want.

The last time we made this we added some flax seed and wheat germ into the dry ingredients to add more nutrition.