recipe ~ peanut crunch slice

Hello everyone.

Yes I  know I am not supposed to be eating this kind of food, but I couldn't resist! And then I thought you would all love to know about this scrumptious slice too. 

As I don't eat animal products, I have marked with a star what I substituted for the butter. I also did not have peanuts so subbed for peanut butter. Raisins were replaced by dates.  I love a flexible recipe.

This yummy slice recipe comes from a new to me blog. 

Linda lives in beautiful New Zealand, and shares posts about her simple life, faith, recipes, gardening, youtube videos, her lovely soap and so much more.  Why not pop over and visit Linda at The Little Homestead.

Paula's Peanut Crunch 

{copied and pasted from The Little Homestead}

In a saucepan melt  - 2 dessertspoons golden syrup and 150grams butter * {I used Nuttlex}. Remove from heat and add 2 teaspoons vanilla essence.

In a bowl mix: 

1 Cup self raising flour

3/4 cup coconut

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup raw peanuts - smash them up a little *{I used crunchy peanut paste}

1/2 cup raisins *{I used chopped medjool dates}

1 cup cornflakes

Add the butter mixture to the dry and mix well. Bake at 170 C for around 30 minutes, or until golden.

Optional Icing: (this goes on the slice as soon as it comes out of the oven) 1.5 Tablespoons golden syrup, 50g butter, 1.5 cups icing sugar. Melt butter and syrup together. beat in the icing sugar, and put back on the heat a little until the sugar melts some and the mixture just gets easier to spread. Remove from the heat and spread over the hot base. Cool and cut into slices/squares. Enjoy with a cuppa :)

Let me know if you make this yummy slice J

Enjoy!

xTania

op shop happiness

Hello again.

Last weekend on my usual jaunt to see my parents, I stopped off at my favourite little op shop, a weekly event for me. My daughter also met me there (think she is getting hooked too).

This is what I came home with;

A cute little velvet bag with ribbon embroidery on the front. Inside is beautiful smelling potpourri.

This scrap of lace that is quite large.  I will make produce bags from it and use some for craft.

A pretty vintage apron in really good condition.

A pink cotton pillowcase to use for beeswax wraps.

And this cotton pillowcase for the same purpose.

A lovely small vintage embroidered tablecloth.  I am thinking of unpicking the lace sewn around the border and add some crochet to finish it off nicely.

Loving this small sized table runner.

I always grab vintage pillowcases with embroidery on, simply because I love them.

A little girls vintage quilt cover. Love the old fashioned design. This has a few old stains that I am hoping to remove after much soaking. Any age old tips welcome.

A complete queen sized quilt set in perfect condition.

 Not sure if I will use this for making other things or keep as is.

Little girls vintage Holly Hobby single quilt cover set. There were two of these. I really don't know what I am going to do with the quilt covers, I just couldn't bare to leave them there lol!

Five dollars for all of these. The little op shop is very cheap and open seven days a week. My mum volunteers in there once a week or when required. All profit goes back into the community to spend around the town.

I have freshly washed all the linen, and now just needs to be ironed. 

Do you op shop? What is your favourite find?

xTania

health, fitness and busyness

Hello again friends.

I hope you are all settling into the new year and safe from the fires that are ravaging our country. These are horrific times for Australia. So many people left without homes, and so many of our beautiful native wildlife perished or badly injured, same with livestock.  I sit here feeling helpless while all the carnage is going on. We are safe where we are, although getting smoke from the Kangaroo Island fires.

In case you were wondering where I have been, I will be back posting soon. I really wanted to post earlier but had some health issues appear so I haven't felt in the mood, instead I have been back and forth to the doctors and hospital for x-rays. 

After a few worrying days, it turns out that I have fatty liver and acid reflux problems. Thank goodness I found out about the liver as left to build up, it can have serious consequences. The doctor thinks that having my gall bladder removed about twenty years ago may well be the cause of fat deposits in my liver. The other issue I have suffered for years is indigestion and stomach problems, but this time it decided to flare up into burning pain that would not go away, so off to the doctor I went and he ordered a blood test. This came back showing that I had elevated liver enzymes and low white blood cell count, so this is why there were xrays taken. 

This now means that my year and the rest of my life has been laid out for me. I have to keep healthy by eating low carb and low fat food. This sadly means no more cakes and biscuits etc, or at least a lot less. Boohoo! And with acid reflux, I will still have to avoid food that can set off an attack, even though I have medication now. The other thing is to increase my exercise from a casual walk to a bit of cardio, I need my heart to get pumping because this helps the liver dispose of fat.

Anyway, that's enough of my woes. It is hot here today (44C) and hubby and I have been organising what we call the rumpus room. It is a room that we built off the side of the shed, where my crafty things are kept plus a myriad of other things, including junk and lots of it!. As the room has air conditioning, we decided to go out there and get busy. So after much rearranging and sorting of stuff to go to the op shops, it is now up to me to finish off by packing things away.  I have gym equipment in there and will be needing to use it everyday for the rest of my life, so this was a job that needed doing. I will also be able to craft until my heart is content once all my sewing gear etc is sorted and organised. Oh my goodness I cant wait! 

A smoky sunset. The sun was actually blood red, but it did not show up in the photo.  It was quite eerie.

The smoky haze laying over our town after sundown.

I'll be back soon with another post and I might even show you where I am at with the now newly named "craft" room.

Take care all.

xTania