Another week down

After a long hiatus (since before my Christmas work break) I finally made Sunday treats to bring into work on Monday. I was just minding my own business, perusing gluten free cooking blogs when I came across a recipe that I had everything for and look really simple to make. Let me introduce you to toffee granola bars;

The base layer was an oatmeal, a little bit of gf (gluten free) flour, brown sugar, melted margarine, and chopped walnut mix baked for about 15 minutes. While it baked, I heated a can of sweetened condensed milk with a little bit of margarine on the stove until it slightly thickened.When the oatmeal base came out of the oven I covered it with the milk mixture and then stuck it back in the oven for about another 10 minutes (if memory serves me right).

Next was to sprinkle some mini chocolate chips (so they melt faster) on top of the hot, baked toffee and wait a few minutes for the chips to start to melt before spreading them out into a smooth chocolate top layer.

Once it had cooled, I stuck it in the fridge to really harden the chocolate before cutting it into bars. Huge hit at work, and I could have some too!

Tuesday night we spend getting ready for bible study here on Wednesday. Clean, clean, clean, make dessert, and prep as much of the dinner as possible.

One of my favorite sights - a man doing chores.

For dessert I made a turtle cheesecake.A crustless, low-fat cheesecake made with non-fat cream cheese and non-fat Greek yogurt, topped with crushed gf chocolate cookies (in place of chocolate graham crackers), chopped pecans and light caramel dip (the kind you buy in a tub to dip apples in). Though I may have slightly overcooked the cheesecake (I'm always scared when any of it still jiggles), it was still wonderfully tasty - even for the next couple of days' worth of leftovers.

It was my Friday to work so I made the most of my time in P-town by also getting my mullet trimmed and having lunch with C. to finally exchange Christmas presents. Yeah, I'm that bad. They're still shooting to be leaving for Papua New Guinea (PNG) in April, they just have to finish all the work visa paperwork and get that last bit of funding support in place (they're at about 86% right now and have to be at 95% to get the tickets to go). She was telling me about all of the legal paperwork they're having to complete with a lawyer before they go - designating power of attorney (her mom and myself for everything except medical decisions), guardianship for their children should something happen to them while in PNG (definitely NOT us), and medical power of attorney (two of her family members). It's quite a daunting task when you have to sit down and actually make these decisions.

No big plans for the weekend other than to sit down and run church reports (ugh) and finish planning for S.F. next weekend (yay). I'm in charge of figuring out where we're eating since I'm the hardest to accommodate. So far we've decided on a Turkish restaurant by Golden Gate park for lunch on Saturday and an Italian restaurant for lunch on Friday when we arrive that is doing an all day food and beer pairing as part of S.F. Beer Week. I've still got two dinners and two breakfasts to figure out, though I did find a gf bakery on the Embarcadero that I want to stop at on our way out and stock up at. They've got buns, bagels, and some sweet treats I've got my eyes on. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather holds until we get there.