No-Bake Chewy Granola Bars

So I stumbled across this recipe and made it the next day. They sounded so easy and delicious, and they were! You can put any toppings you want s'mores (graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate chips), cinnamon raisin, anything!! I combined my new obsessions: butterscotch chips and coconut and added chocolate chips because it was in the original recipe. But feel free to customize them with whatever floats your boat! 

Taste: SO good! Mine came out a little too sweet so I might add some cinnamon and more chocolate chips
Texture: Really soft and chewy, they bend while you are holding them.
Would I make this again?: Yes! I will probably make another batch for next week! 

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
yield: 10 bars
found: lauren's latest

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups quick cooking oats {not rolled oats!}
1 cup crispy rice cereal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

additional toppings (butterscotch or any flavor chips, coconut, pretzels, etc)

Directions:
In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together. In a small bowl, stir together your desired toppings. Set both aside. In a small pot, melt butter, honey and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes. Pour in vanilla and stir. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients. Pour into lightly greased small jelly roll pan {about 12x8x1} and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness. Sprinkle with toppings and press down lightly. Cool on a countertop to room temperature for two hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

getting life in order

I recently found this website mint.com that tracks all of your money! I know some credit card websites do this, but bank of america doesn't break down your spending my category. Mint.com is easy. You link it to all of your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, investments, etc, and can track it all in one place! You can see pie charts and graphs of spending by category, compare to previous months, and even make budgets.

 I haven't used the budget function, it automatically created one for me by category. But one of these days, I'm going to sit down and create an actual budget and attempt to stick to it.

 One of the most helpful functions is net worth. I didn't realize that I've been spending more than I'm making the past couple months. I've never been good at tracking my money, and this is a great first step! 


Another great tool that my friend recently introduced me to is My Plate on livestrong.com. 

You can track everything you eat and it calculates the amount of calories you need to achieve a goal. It's really cool, and has pretty much every single food you can think of! And you can also track your fitness and amount of calories burned. Check out her post here!