went to sainsbury's today

• diet coke, 6pack X2 £2.85, bogof
• basic yogurt .45
• choc cookies X2 £1 bogof
• loaf of bread .72

total spent £5.02
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not the most exciting cooking day. husband is  having leftover meat manicotti. i have veg soup and the kid will most likely have a combination of leek soup with turkey.
i did do an apple and plum sauce: peel and chop 1 apple. peel 1 plum and chop. leave skin on 1 plum and chop. put in a sauce pot with a little water and simmer until soft. blend together with a stick blender. you can peel both plums or leave the skin on all the fruit, whatever makes you happy. i like to peel because the skin can be a little tough and i hate when a bit gets stuck in your teeth.

i also did another batch of the granola bars. they have been a huge hit.

granola bars- experimental version 2, golden syrup and more cinnamon

• 2 1/4 cup oats
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup of butter- melted
• 1/4 cup of golden syrup
• 1/4 cup of chopped nuts
• 1/4 cup of raisins
• 1/4 cup of dried apricots chopped up
• 1 small apple
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

i peeled and cut up the apple. put it in a sauce pot with a little water and let it simmer until it was soft. i then used my potato masher to squash it up. i put in the vanilla, golden syrup and butter then stirred it all together. since the apple sauce was still warm the butter quickly melted

in a large bowl i mixed together the other ingredients. i just used a fork to stir everything around. i then added the apple and melted butter mixture to the large bowl. i mixed everything together- still with a fork. i dumped it out into a 9x13inch tray which i had lined with baking paper. with a spatula i firmly pressed the mix out until it was very thinly spread across the tray, it didn't quite cover the whole area but pretty close. i put the thing in the oven at 325 degrees for about 20min. i wasn't really paying attention to how long it cooked. i did the dishes. when the top was starting to get brown i turned the oven off. i took the tray out and cut the bars. i then let the bars completely cool in the tray. i gave one to my son to try and he declared them- delicious.

it would seem my toddler is going through a growth spurt or something. the past few days he's been constantly begging for food. normally he just has breakfast, lunch and dinner. i used to set snacks out for him so he could have something if he wanted them but i ended up throwing them away after they got dumped on the carpet and stomped on. lately he's been begging for cheese sticks and crackers or sandwiches. i thought i would track down a granola bar recipe and make something like that for him. i found a recipe on allrecipes.com that had a load of good reviews. i wrote down the basic ingredients and then set about editing it to better suit my needs. below is my experimental granola bar recipe

granola bars

• 2 1/4 cup oats
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup of butter- melted
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1/4 cup of chopped nuts
• 1/4 cup of raisins
• 1/4 cup of dried apricots chopped up
• 1 small apple
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

i peeled and cut up the apple. put it in a sauce pot with a little water and let it simmer until it was soft. i then used my potato masher to squash it up. i put in the vanilla, honey and butter then stirred it all together. since the apple sauce was still warm the butter quickly melted

in a large bowl i mixed together the other ingredients. i just used a fork to stir everything around. i then added the apple and melted butter mixture to the large bowl. i mixed everything together- still with a fork. i dumped it out into a 9x13inch tray which i had lined with baking paper. with a spatula i firmly pressed the mix out until it was very thinly spread across the tray, it didn't quite cover the whole area but pretty close. i put the thing in the oven at 325 degrees for about 20min. i wasn't really paying attention to how long it cooked. i did the dishes. when the top was starting to get brown i turned the oven off. i took the tray out and cut the bars. i then let the bars completely cool in the tray. i gave one to my son to try and he declared them- delicious.

note the americans: since americans are used to way more sugar in their food these will seems rather bland and tasteless. try adding 1/3 cup of brown sugar and a little salt. i made these for my son and stuff for him i try to cut out all added refined sugar and salt.