Homemade Granola Bars

These are so yummy. I wanted to go all "mommy blog" and take pictures as I made these last night, but I was just too darn tired. So all you get is the recipe.

The "glue":

2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup extra crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Bring to a simmer, stirring almost-constantly. Then pour the glue over:

2 cups whole oats
1 cup rice krispies (or similar)
1/4 cup flax seed meal
3/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup crushed almonds

Stir well, make sure all of the dry ingredients are well mixed and well coated. Line a 9 x 13" pan with waxed paper, and press the gooey mixture into the pan. Make sure to compact it good, I use a second sheet of waxed paper over the top. Sprinkle a few carob or mini chocolate chips on top as well and press them into the granola bars for a little extra treat. Let the bars cool completely (I usually refrigerate them overnight, but it really doesn't take that long, a couple hours will do), then cut into bars. You can individually wrap them or just store them in the fridge. I imagine they'd keep for at least a couple of weeks, but they never last that long at our house! Makes 18-20 bars.

These are calorically dense, so keep that in mind. They make a great pre-workout fuel or mid morning snack, just only have one (that's the hard part for me!) They're about 180 calories each, but very healthy!

The Races You've All Been Waiting For

Somewhere in the back of my mind I figured this year would be the year of the triathlon, as I finally felt like I knew how to do a marathon. Sure, a PR of 4:34:40 isn't anything to write home about (however, knocking over an HOUR off of my first marathon is!), but I figured out how to train to accomplish my goal, and I think I could conceivably cut more time off a marathon if I so chose. However, when I was contemplating what to do for this year, another year of marathon training just didn't sound appealing. It sounded to me like a "been there, done that, time for something else" proposition. So I contemplated triathlons. And I'm still contemplating them.

However, in the meantime, I've tentatively decided to ride the East Canyon Road Race on April 24th. Yes, I said ride. It's a real life, honest-to-goodness bike race, with pros and everything (and non-pros too, no worries there! Not going pro!) It's 60 miles with a couple of decent climbs, out-and-back style course.

Additionally, I plan on doing the Art City 5k again (probably with the family again), and hopefully I'll be able to PR there again for the 3rd straight year. Also, I plan on doing the Pepperwood Triathlon on the 3rd of July, so while I may hold off on the pool membership for right now, there will be some swimming happening. I may even try to figure out flip turns. We'll see.

Then there's the fall race. I'd like to do the St. George Marathon again, and will probably enter the lottery again. There may be lodging issues this year, however, so that's not entirely certain. If I end up not running it, I may run the inaugural Layton Marathon instead, which is the following weekend. This is a little up in the air, but there's lots of time to decide. Yeah, I say that now...

So that's the plan for 2010. Hopefully 2011 will see me doing a couple more triathlons and maybe even a 70.3... but there's really LOTS of time to decide on that. Yeah. Lots.