Hi everyone. I am pretty saddened by the passing of Whitney Houston. My friend Lincoln Bilancia gave me her first tape in high School , pictured above, and it was a big part of my life, as it was for many of us, in the mid eighties.
As I watched the Whitney Houston funeral on T.V. today, held in neighboring Newark, I was struck by how little the service was directed at Whitney’s 18 year old daughter. I decided to google her and, to my dismay, found out that she herself is abusing drugs and has been for years. She is 18 years old.
How does this happen? With all the opportunity in the world, all the money and even with all the success and adoration, we can fall prey to negativity, insecurity, temptation, peer pressure and convenience.
Addiction is a disease and as I reread this post last night, I wanted to make sure you know about my friend Pam’s organization Relate 2 Us :
http://www.relate2us.org/
Pam Cytron is determined to make sure that children are supported and educated by their community to do the best we can to avoid future generations of children who may struggle with addiction. Please check out her site and “like” the page on facebook.
No matter what we tell our children, they will very likely model our behavior. We can use this to our advantage, too.
You know where I’m going with this by now so I’ll leave it at this: Fruit and Nut bars for snacks for ourselves and them instead of Doritos and pop tarts. I hope you like these. R.I.P. Whitney and good luck Bobbi Kristina.
Fruit and Nut Health Bars:
1 cup almonds, sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
1 cup cashews or peanuts
1 cup dates
1 cup golden raisins or any other finely chopped dried fruit
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 TBS chia seeds (can get at Whole Foods and health food stores)
2 TBS brown rice syrup (can get at Whole foods and health food stores)
Place nuts or seeds, chia seeds and dried fruit in a food processor, pulse until well ground
Pulse in vanilla and salt
Add in brown rice syrup
Remove mixture from food processor and press into an 8×8 inch baking dish lined with parchment paper
Refrigerate
Cut into inch sized squares and serve
2 Responses
I finally made them and they were a huge hit! I used only dates (no other dried fruit) and almonds and walnuts. Yummmmmmmyyy! I will be making again and again.
So glad you like them! I have now started making these into round balls, covered in chocolate for a healthy, yet delicious treat 🙂