Stretching our Dollars

This particular pay period is longer than most of ours.  5 weeks instead of 4.  Uf-da.  And still playing a bit of catch up from Christmas along with being in the process of buying a house.  It makes things a bit tight.  Anyway, I was reading a gals blog and these homemade granola bars looked like a good thing to try for breakfast and/or snacks.  I had to modify them a bit since I didn't have everything so here are my changes:

Instead of Almond Flour I used Brown Rice Flour

In addition to the oats I added a cup of Honey Nut Cheerios (because that was what was in the cupboard) and a 1/4 cup of ground flax

Instead of the dried fruits listed on her recipe I substituted some dried currants, dried apricots and a tropical trail mix I had that included almonds and cashews.  I just made sure my measurements came out about the same.

I also added about a tablespoon of chia seeds.  Again, it was something that I had in my pantry.  I used fake maple syrup, salted butter, and added a tablespoon or so of Agave nectar.

Part of my problem with following recipes is that I seldom have everything they call for and I'm usually either too broke or too lazy to go to the store for that one ingredient.  In this case several.  Now that I think about it though peanut butter would be a nice addition to something like this too.  I'll try that next time.

Tonight's menu includes beans and homemade bread as well.  Nothing fancy.  Just stretching the food budget and Tom isn't eating here this evening.  He tutors in another town on Thursdays so the kids and I get to have our choice on dinner.