Free purse book, Valentines Day & Raspberry Oatmeal Bars!

     I love free or close to free stuff…who doesn’t! Today I ordered a purse photo book from Walgreens for free. It’s a great gift that I plan on giving my mother and grandmother, neither of them being iphone “compatible“, for Mothers Day. The code can be used multiple times, all I paid was $3.20 for tax and shipping…which means I don’t even have to travel to Walgreens for my photo book! 

(1) 4.5” x 6” Purse book = $6.99
Coupon code: Purse = -$6.99
Standard S&H = $2.99
Sales Tax = $0.21
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Total Price = $3.20 　    

For the next month I will be in “Love” mode. I will be planning Valentines Day crafts for the kids to do. I have a fun song that I sing with Anjali, along with cut out hearts that we use as visual. This teaches her color, shape, and numbers. The picture and song below are for red but I cut out every color of the rainbow to use for this song.

Hearts! (Tune: 1 little 2 little 3 little Indians) 

One red, two red, three red hearts, 

Four red, Five red, Six red hearts, 

Seven red, eight red, nine red hearts

Ten red hearts for you!

~ Repeat with all different colors.

     This weeks homemade treat is Raspberry Oatmeal Bars. They are very yummy with the original recipe but I will be altering them this weekend to include ½ cup of pureed beets. I’m a little nervous about this one so I will be posting the taste results after I do it… Stay tuned! Until then enjoy the original recipe below.

Raspberry Oatmeal Bars

2 cups Old Fashioned oats
1 ¼ cup flour
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup spread able margarine
1 cup raspberry preserves
1 cup dried cranberries (optional)1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat baking pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl combine oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Stir well. 
3. Add the margarine in quickly until the ingredients are not powdery any more. Do not over mix, some of the margarine may still be visible. 
4. Take about ½ of the oat mixture and press it into the bottom of the pan firmly. Bake about 13 minutes. The edges will be lightly brown but not fully baked.
5. Spread the raspberry preserves over the baked oat layer. Then sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over the preserves. (I like to add dried cranberries to the remaining oat mixture before sprinkling over the preserves) Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Let pan cool completely before cutting into bars. Serve and enjoy J