At SFO!

We went to Israel! It was so much fun — the food, the weather, the people, the places. It’s our last international trip for awhile, and I’m happy we pick Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, there was a lot to experience. Though…I won’t recommend going over a 7 day period — switching our internal clock around twice in a short time was painful. Worth it, but painful.

Anyways, one of the best parts of what we did was how we packed — we each took just a backpack, and I took my crossbody purse for carrying around. It made travelling from place to place so much easier, and we didn’t have to check bag, and we didn’t have an extra stuff to lug around. I packed this northface backpack with:

• Underwear/socks
• Two T-shirts
• One pair of jeans
• One long skirt (for religious sites; wore it on the plane)
• One long sweater jacket (wore it on the plane)
• One tank top (wore it on the plane)
• Flip flops (for the dead sea)
• Hat
• Sunscreen/face lotion/makeup/face wipes
• Toothbrush/toothpaste
• Superga sneakers (wore it on the plane)
  

  Turkish Coffee

• Scarf (wore it on the plane)
• Kindle
• Notebook/pen
• Wallet/phone
• Earrings/jewelry
• Headlamp (for the Masada Sunrise tour)
• Workout clothes (sports bra, leggings, one shirt)
• Running shoes (tied onto the side of my bag)

That seems like a lot of stuff but it all fit in the backpack and it was amazing. I cannot recommend more just packing not a lot of stuff, and going for it. While you’re planning your incredible trip..make these bars! I can’t describe how good these are. They have the right amount of chew and crunch. You get a bite of corn flake just coated in caramel perfection, and then the spiced taste of the biscoff cookies. It’s incredible. I made these because I kept seeing pictures about it on cupcake jemma’s instagram but no recipe so I just tried to deconstruct it. Hope you like it!

Caramel Cornflake Crunch

1 box cornflake cereal
Two batches of salted caramel sauce
1 package biscoff cookies (found mine at Safeway)
1.5 sticks butter, melted and cooled
16oz dark chocolate
Salt
Optional: 2-3 tablespoon malt powder

Make up the two batches of the caramel sauce, while it’s cooling use a food processor to grind up the biscoff cookies into a powder and slowly add in the melted butter and 1tsp salt. Take a 9×13 pan and press it into the bottom of the pan into a thin layer. Then some of the melted caramel and lay down a thin layer onto the cookie base, just enough so the cornflakes will stick when you put them on.

After, put your cornflake cereal into a bowl, and pour the rest of the salted caramel over top, and add in the malt powder if you have it. Then get in their with your hands and mix up the cornflakes really well, try not to crush it too much, just coat the cornflakes. Then scoop it onto the cookie base press down really well to form the bars. Allow to set.

Then melt the chocolate and spread it over top of the cooled bars. Top with more cornflakes and some sea salt, and allow to cool. Cut into bars with a sharp, warmed knife and enjoy!