Blue Scrub Syndrome

It all started last night when I put my blue (hospital issued) scrub top on.  Munchkie was happily playing in the living room, looked up, saw the blue scrub top, immediately burst out in tears, ran to me and clung to my legs.  She knows what the blue scrubs mean.  Mommy's headed into work.  It's really a sad time for all involved, but especially difficult for Munchkie.  When they came to pick me up from work this morning Munchkie was so happy to see me, I can see her huge smile as soon as they entered the circle drive. 

However all that changed when we got home.  She is so whiny, clinging, and does whatever she can to get your attention.  It's heartbreaking to see how my working affects her.  It definitely doesn't make it easy to go to work.  Which is probably why I need to leave in 27 minutes and I'm sitting here with her on my lap instead of getting ready for work.  Once she sees me getting ready and wearing those blue scrubs it will be all over.  So for now I'm going to procrastinate and enjoy a few minutes of clinginess.

This morning despite her crying and clinging to me I made a batch of granola bars.  A nurse last night at work ask me if I had a recipe for granola bars and thanks to Katie at KitchenStewardship I found one that seemed to be perfect.  I thought what a great idea!  I recently bought some granola like bars for Munchkie's Daddy to eat before work in the mornings and Munchkie loves to eat them as well.  I would much rather have them both eating something that I know exactly what it's composed of instead of fillers and unpronounceable ingredients.  I also found a great recipe calculator and did some tweaking to bring Katie's recipe to down to around 120 calories.  I'm going to take some into work tonight, although Munchkie's Daddy felt they were slightly too dry.  I cut down on a lot of the honey and I think I cut too much out.  He still ate it.......

Here is the recipe I used, but go to the link for Katie's recipe to see the original recipe.

1 cup quick oats
3/4 cup slivered almonds
3 cups puffed rice cereal
1 cup all purpose gluten free flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup water
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp maple sugar

1. Spray a 9x13in pan with baking spray and preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine butter, honey, applesauce and water.
3. Add the flour, then oatmeal, then puffed rice cereal.
4. Add all the other ingredients.
5. Press firmly (jam it in with your hands, a spoon just doesn't cut it) into the pan
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
7. Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting into bars.
8. Allow bars to cool completely before taking them out of the pan and serving/storing.
9. Makes about 20 bars the size of Quaker chewy granola bars.

Doesn't this break your heart?  One little tear rolling out of her sad eyes.