granola love

I am in love. In the last week, I've made these granola bars THREE times. And I ate almost all of them myself. Each batch yields a lot of granola bars, so you can imagine how much my waist has expanded in seven short days.

The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and these hefty, nutritious and yum-studded granola bars are to die for.

The recipe is quite versatile and Deb doesn't dictate the fruit/nut combo, though she gives gentle recommendations. I've been using pretty much every dried fruit and nuts in my pantry: cherries, prunes, raisins (golden and thompson), cranberries, mango, almonds, cashews, walnuts...you name it, I put it in. I even tossed in a handful of mini chocolate chips. Divine.

The result is a complex and wholly satisfying mix of sweet and salty. Plus it's easy to whip up and makes my heart go pitter patter -- in fact, I just finished off the last bar last night. I think it's time to go for batch number four. I hope I can find a pair of jeans that still fits.

Oh, and my reference to jumping into something new? It's nothing fancy or exciting. It's just a new sense of determination to make and surround myself with things I adore. I am a design/craft blog junkie and spend countless hours oohing and aahing over other peoples beautiful finds, homes and creative talents. Though there's nothing inherently wrong with that, I feel that I've been living too much in other people's virtual worlds and not doing so much in my own world. I haven't sewn or drawn (for myself) in months. Though I've baked some, I've fallen into a routine of cooking the same seven recipes every week. It's time to shake things up a bit.