Nutty Granola

I'm a big fan of making homemade granola. Today I deviated from my normal granola routine and tried a simpler one. And even then I didn't follow directions. As usual.

Dry ingredients went into one large container:

- about 5 cups old fashioned oats

- about 1/2 to 3/4 cup Archer Farms deluxe mixed nuts, raw

- about 1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts with sea salt

- about 1/2 cup raisins 

- about 1/4 cup craisins

- about 1/4 cup dried cherries

- about 1 tsp ground ginger

- about 2 tsp ground cinnamon 

Whisk in another bowl (or large liquid measuring cup):

- 1/4 cup canola oil

- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

- about 1 tsp vanilla 

- about 3 tablespoons blackstrap molasses

- about 2 tablespoons honey 

Mix liquids into a dressing, pour over par mixture and combine until evenly wet. Spread on cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes at 400, stir, redistribute and bake about 10 more minutes careful not to burn the fruit and nuts.

We had ours for breakfast with plain Greek yogurt, honey and organic strawberries.

Raw strawberry almond balls

I made a mess of the kitchen. I may have broken the food processor. I didn't eat enough and am now suffering weakness, dizzyness and shakiness... But these were worth it.

My plan was to make homemade granola and put it in my breakfast yogurt.

It's 11:45. So that didn't happen.

I haven't made granola in so long I forgot the sugar and I didn't add my secret ingredient (black strap molasses). I have presented my granola in many forms on this blog so I'm only posting a photo.

But what got me completely sidetracked was homemade protein snacks... Like Larabars. Only I make balls. 

The basic mix is 1 part nuts to 2 parts fruit. Typically 1 of the fruit parts is dates. 

I purchased Baroody pressed and pitted dates at the Turkish store in Allentown for this project almost a month ago. It was $2.99 for 500 grams. And vacuum sealed so it was shelf stable. Not that dates ever last long enough in my house to rot.

I took about 1.5 cups raw almonds and ground them in the food processor. I placed those aside and mixed the following fruits in the food processor:

- 1/3 cup dates

- 1/2 cups raisins

- about 1/4 cup golden raisins and dried cherries

- about 1 cup dried strawberries

Now by the time this got mixed, the food processor was unhappy. So instead of putting the nuts back in with the fruit, I kneaded them into the fruit like working with bread dough.

Them I formed into balls. Golf ball size. Refriderate. About 125 calories each.

Variations of a breakfast

So I wanted a smoothie for breakfast and child chose my offer to use similar ingredients in a yogurt parfait.

Child had a parfait layered as follows:

- whole fresh strawberries

- strawberry rhubarb Noosa yogurt 

- homemade granola with almonds and cashews

- dried strawberries

With a glass of very vanilla soy milk to drink.

My smoothie was strawberries, the strawberry rhubarb Noosa, a splash of coconut milk, a splash of very vanilla soy milk, and vanilla breakfast powder.

Brown Granola

I have fallen out of routine. I have eschewed grocery shopping. Failed at cooking. Haven't gotten out my bicycle in more than a year. The animals no longer get their teeth brushed. I have not stuck to my physical therapy exercises.

But it is now Child's Summer Vacation.

We will commit to rebuilding routine. I like one part of this year's routine. Little Miss has taken to sleeping in. She rolls out of bed at 8:15 or later, which for a child who used to be tap dancing at 6 a.m. is HUGE.

Tomorrow is dress rehearsal. Four plus hours of being backstage with the other little dancers, probably 4:30 pm to 8:30 ish as we give it a practice run before Saturday night's big performance.

Little Miss is sleeping (8 a.m.) and I am making granola. Granola is a staple in this house but I haven't been making it. Bad me! We base our granola on the recipe from the Deirdre Imus' Imus Ranch Cookbook.

Today the only dried fruit I have in the house is one handful of dried cherries. 1/4 cup. I meant to buy at least raisins at Target yesterday but forgot.

So I call this variation brown granola, because except for that tiny batch of cherries, everything in it is boring brown. 

Dry Ingredients

- 4 cups oats

- about 3 tablespoons cinnamon

- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

- about 1 tablespoon grated candied ginger 

- that measly 1/4 cup dried cherries

- about 1/3 cup raw almonds

- about 2/3 cup raw cashews

The WET ingredients

- about 1/4 cup local raw honey

- about 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses

- about 1/4 cup warm coconut oil

- about 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Mix wet and dry ingredients until oats are all evenly damp. Spread on cookie sheet and bake in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes, stirring and flipping after 15. You want to cook it until mostly dry. But not burned. Obviously.

Healthy Snacks

During a breakfast of open-faced Morningstar breakfast patties on half an English muffin with a sprinkle of cheese and a big glass of almond milk, my daughter looked at me and said, "I asked my teacher about the granola bars."

Now let me set the stage for this. Third grade in our little community-based elementary school (urban setting and the kids theoretically walk to school), the third graders move to what I imagine is the last lunch. 12:05.

Unlike when I was in school, they get a snack break at 10:20. The state of Pennsylvania has mandated that each school pass a wellness policy.

Bottom line: snacks must be healthy.

Granola bars, Go-gurt and pretzels appear to be the most popular choice. According to my daughter, that is.

We take carrot sticks. Or homemade corn salsa and organic blue corn tortilla chips with flax, or fruit, or goldfish pretzels with dried cranberries, or graham crackers.

Etc.

The teacher has deemed the oatmeal "breakfast cookies" inappropriate because it smells, looks, tastes, sounds and quacks like a cookie.

My daughter wants to fit in. So she wants granola bars.

I make granola bars, homemade, but sometimes they look like cookies.

So I warned daughter that our granola bars might not work for school.

She asked the teacher.

Teacher replied that if *I* said it was healthy, it was healthy.

Yeah, me!

Yogurt parfait with nuts

I made the best looking yogurt parfait for my daughter this morning. It was so good looking I had to make one for myself.

Ingredients (in the order they were layered, bottom up)
- strawberry sauce left from yesterday's pancakes
- vanilla yogurt
- homemade granola with dried fruit, blackstrap molasses and cashews (made last week, see earlier entry)
- Archer Farm butter crunch cashews
- Emerald vanilla bean almonds
- a pirouline chocolate-hazelnut cookie

Super Fruity Granola

I'm a total fan of Deirdre Imus' granola recipe in the Imus Ranch Cookbook. I am a huge fan of the cookbook even though I'm not a fan of her husband. Don, is it?

She runs a charity letting kids with cancer work her ranch, and this is the food they serve there. She considers her recipes vegan even though she uses honey and eggs-- the eggs she gets from her own chickens.

Today's granola had the following:

- about three cups old fashioned oat meal
- 1/2 cup cinnamon almonds
- 1/2 cup unsalted cashews
- a handful of slivered almonds
- about 2.5 cups dried strawberries, craisins, raisins, golden raisins, and dried blueberries
- cinnamon
- less than 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ginger

For the dressing:
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
- 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix. Preheat oven to 300. Spread across large cookie sheet. Cook about 45 minutes, turning every 10-15 minutes and mixing with the turner.

I served some to my daughter this morning with a graham cracker and vanilla yogurt parfait.

Yogurt parfaits

At Target café, we make a pretty yummy yogurt parfait with mixed berries, Land O Lakes vanilla yogurt and granola. I had a craving, but can't see spending $2.50 a serving. So after work last night, I ran through the store and got the ingredients. (well, that and some chicken for a surprise party Sunday and a bag of Veggie Lovers Salad.)

I think all in all I got 5 pounds of Perdue chicken thighs, about three pounds of drumsticks, Bear Naked granola (on sale for $3.29), Market Pantry frozen berries ($3.19), the big bottle of apple cider vinegar ($1.19) and the salad ($1.99) for $18.25.

For the café, we take frozen berries, put them in the bottom of a cup, add a scoop of yogurt, then top with more berries. The granola goes in the lid and we put the whole thing in the cooler to let the berries thaw before we sell them.

INGREDIENTS
- Market Pantry frozen mixed berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries)
- Chobani vanilla yogurt (the 32 ounce container that I got in a previous trip to Target on clearance for $4.18)
- Bear Naked Fruit & Nut granola (which hurts my teeth. Sadness.)

Back on track?

Yesterday I had one of my meltdowns. Between my health (anemia-related issues still kick myass from time to time), the final weeks of school and working too many hours, I was overextended.

And as my psychologist once told me, being overextended makes me crazy.

So I called out sick.

Between the exhaustion, the multiple open wounds on my hands from a fall I took on Saturday, minor babysitter issues AND spilling stuff all over my last clean pair of khakis, I was done. And I was in bed by 7:30 and slept until 7.

Part of my problem stemmed from not eating proper dinners because I had worked 4 nights in a row and of those four nights, the last three I ate dinner on a fifteen minute break. That gets compounded by shifts that start at 3 or 4, meaning even if I eat a good meal before I leave home, it's not enough.
Last night, I let child pick a restaurant and we went out to dinner to celebrate her report card. She selected a franchise based on her desire for chocolate pudding until I pointed out the dairy issue. She selected a kid and ice cream oriented franchise instead, saying she'd forego the ice cream if we gave her a tofutti cutie at home.

Considering the quality of our meal, I should have talked her out of that too. She ordered processed chicken on sticks that was supposed to come with salad, carrot sticks and celery sticks. It came with lettuce. I'll save my other complaints...

This morning I read the label for the apple fritter bread and as I suspected, it has milk. It has more salt than milk, but it does have milk.

Finally, in an act of desperation, I made my famous homemade granola that the child is munching on right now.

The dry ingredients measures about seven cups, with the dressing consisting of 3.5 tablespoons raw local honey, 1/2 cup blackstrap molasses, and 1/2 cup canola oil.

The dry ingredients were about:
- 3.5 cups oats
- 1/2 cup unsalted raw almonds
-1/4 cup dark cocoa dusted almonds
- 1/2 cup unsalted cashews
- 1 cup dried fruit and peanuts from a commercial trail mix
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons tiny chopped candied ginger
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon
- 1 box sour peach flavored golden raisins
- 1 cup golden raisins, dried blueberries and dried strawberries

Mix and bake at 300 for 45 minutes in a thin layer on a cookie sheet, turning every 10-15 minutes.

A variation of the Imus Ranch cookbook recipe

Monday morning update

It's amazing how fun meal planning is when you have food in the house.

My family had yogurt and homemade granola at 7 a.m.

I had my breakfast at 10:30 and made a second breakfast for daughter Bug. We eat had half a peanut butter and blackberry jam sandwich on Target's Archer Farms Honey Wheat bread. And the last of the dates, 2 each. Apple juice for her. A second cup of coffee for me. (We both had a full water bottle during our bike trek.)

Carbohydrates. Not including the jam for the PB&J, two of the items in this morning's meals have lots of carbs. Bread, that's obvious. And yogurt, may not seem so obvious. When I had gestational diabetes, I was allotted 3 servings of carbs with my lunch, not including one fruit, and 4 with my dinner.

That's why to this day I make half-sandwiches instead of whole. Because each slice of bread counts as 1 serving, and 13 doritoes/potato chips etc is also 1 serving. If I wanted the chips, I usually skimped on the bread. And I learned that a half-sandwich is just as filling, and depending what's on it can end up tasting really thick, as if you put double meat or cheese on it. I still don't miss that extra slice.

Compare this to yogurt. Because yogurt is made with milk and lactose is a sugar, and then our American palate likes it sweet so we add MORE sugar... A low-fat yogurt that has that thick creamy pudding-like taste had 2-3 servings of carbohydrates. That's an entire lunch worth. For a diabetic pregnant woman (who, by the way, gets more food than your everyday diabetic). And fat free yogurt sweetened with asparatame STILL has 1 full serving of carbs. With that choice, I'd rather opt for a low-fat oatmeal cookie. Probably leave me more emotionally satisfied.

So that's my rant.

For lunch we will probably have leftover spaghetti and sausage my husband made over the weekend with grated romano from Calandra's cheese in Nazareth.

July's granola

Ah, granola...

Thanks to some discussion with friends, I am in the mood to make granola (which is great because random odds and ends are all I have in the house so I can mix them up!).

Adapted from the Imus Ranch cookbook:

Dry ingredients:
-3 cups oats
- 1.5 cups Aldi brand peanut butter crunch cereal
- about one cup dry roasted peanuts
- about one cup mixed nuts
- about 1/4 cup dried cranberries leftover from a salad mix
- about two tablespoons dried candied ginger chopped as small as possible
- four fresh dates chopped into about six pieces each
- dried strawberries, chopped, 1/4 cup
- 1 cup raisins
- 1/3 cup brown sugar


Wet ingredients:
- about 1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
- about three tablespoons honey (omit for vegan version)
- about 1/2 cup canola oil
Mix wet ingredients thoroughly and then mix into dry

Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes, turning frequently, every 10-15 minutes

Add M&M's or butterscotch chips after baking for something decadent

New and improved oatmeal bars...

Hi, my name is Angel and I can't follow a recipe to save my life.

This is the original oatmeal bar post:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/09/oatmeal-bars.html

This is what I combined and pressed into an 11 x 7 pyrex dish:

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats
  
• 1/4 cup chopped dates
• a handful homemade granola (leftover)
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup dried strawberries, chopped
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

And then after I pressed it into the pan I trickled a stream of blackstrap molasses across the top.

Okay, so last time I thought I didn't use enough butter. So I stuck to the recipe in that regard this time and used all the butter. Now they turned out too buttery and still won't stick together, except for the corners that looked brown and overcooked. They stuck. Does that mean I have to leave it in the oven longer? Hmmm....

Now, they taste delicious but like butter candy or some sort of oatmeal fudge... Let me tell you, the strawberries are the best. Next time, I'm going to make oatmeal cookies loaded with extra oatmeal and lots of fruit. Because if I want them to stick together, let's use good old-fashioned flour and egg.

Yogurt

My family loves yogurt. I try to buy it in the 32 ounce containers and I carefully read the labels to find the yogurt with the most nutrition, the least sugar and no artificial sweeteners. But yogurt is a very high carbohydrate food. And I can't get into the plain yogurt, maybe someday we'll get our tastebuds down from that sweetened preference. I try to balance out the sugar with some nuts, for my daughter cashews (her favorite) or by mixing in better foods, like real fruit (ack, more sugar) or my homemade granola... but recently it's been trumped by mixing in reduced fat Daisy Go Rounds. Because that cinnamon flavor mixes so well with yogurt.

Good morning, World

We started bread this morning... some honey-wheat French-style bread to lift our spirits. My husband and daughter had his mom's apple pie for breakfast (I'm saving my slice for this afternoon). It's now snack time, otherwise known as Mommy's breakfast time. My daughter and I split a Nature Valley almond granola bar (and I should have a nice plate of scrambled eggs but I'm not). I might make scrambled eggs for lunch, especially since my daughter is currently enjoying some strawberry-blueberry-raspberry no-sugar-added applesauce right now. I'm trying to keep her vitamin C levels up since the school is experiencing its first wave of serious illness. Plus, my college has swine flu going around. Fun.

Oatmeal Bars

I'm not quite happy with the breakfast selections around here these days and we can always use something quick, easy and nutritious. I love those Quaker Oatmeal Bars (not the breakfast cookies, those don't have much in the way of nutritional content) and thought maybe I could make something similar at home.

I searched "oatmeal raisin breakfast bar" and found the following:

http://mummam.blogspot.com/2006/10/oatmeal-raisin-breakfast-bars.html

Oatmeal-raisin Breakfast Bars

Ever since I discovered this recipe in a Vegetarian cookbook (published by Barnes & Noble), I hav decided to replace my breakfast porridge with these nutritious and tasty bars and a glass of cold milk!

Makes: 14 bars
Preparation time: 30 minutes

1.5 Cups rolled oats
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried raisins
1/2 cup melted butter
oil for greasing

Preheat oven to 375F, grease a 11x7 inch tin.
Stir oats, sugar and raisins together in a bowl.

Add the melted butter and thoroughly stir.
Press the mixture into the pan.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden.
Remove from oven, cut into bars and cool in pan for 5 minutes.
Store in air-tight container for 15 days.

Now, this looks frightening similar to my tried-and-true granola recipe from The Imus Ranch cookbook. And of course, I can never stick to a recipe. So, I mixed up the following:

4.5 cups oats
1/3 cup sugar
2 + cups trail mix
some cashew crumbs from the bottom of the container
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup butter
1/8 cup honey
1/4 cup oil

Eliminate the butter and the honey and this recipe could easily become vegan...

Mine are cooling now... and I bet I end up with three or four bars and a big pile of granola...

I was right, and the reason my bars didn't maintain their shape is because I didn't use enough butter. You know, good old fashioned butter. And butter is what cools and hardens and makes them keep their shape.

Trail mix, augmented

As I have reported in the past, I make a pretty awesome homemade granola, but with the intense heat and how busy we've been I haven't had a chance to make any.

My mother (Mimi) had brought some huge containers of Swiss Trail Mix that had so much butterscotch chips and chocolate candies that it didn't really qualify as a snack in my mind. It did have some peanuts and some dried pineapple and raisins but nutritional it was more or less dessert.

Normally I mix this 50/50 with my own granola. Today I took a container of it that was 2/3 empty and added a container of White Mountain trail mix from Aldi. This is very similar stuff, just more peanuts and more cranberries, and white chocolate instead of butterscotch and chocolate candies.

Then I added what cashews we had left.

Then I added a sample box of Honey Bunches of Oats I was given.

Now the container is full again, with "stuff" closer to the way I like it.

Granola and Swiss Trail Mix

I made a simplified version of the Rio Grande Granola from the Imus Ranch Cookbook. The Imus Ranch Cookbook is primarily vegan, except they do use eggs because they have their own chickens. My stepmother bought the cookbook a long time ago, because she likes Imus and the ranch provides kids with cancer a chance to see what they're capable of.

My previous batches of granola are listed under granola, if you need the original recipes.

I like making granola. It's yummy on yogurt and a great light snack. With the right ingredients, it has protein and carbs to keep you going. It takes about an hour start to finish and you can make enough for a month way cheaper than the bulk bins, boxed granola or processed granola bars. Though I do keep a box of Nature Valley Granola bars from the werehouse store as "help yourself" breakfasts when my daughter gets up early on weekends. Nature Valley is the only granola bar I've found that actually has some nutritional value and protein and decent carbohydrate levels.

Today I wanted to combine my homemade granola with some of the Swiss Trail Mix my mom gave me. She gave me three HUGE containers with raisins, peanuts, butterscotch chips, chocolate and dried pineapple. Nutritional content fairly negligable. And while it tastes great, it's mostly sweet.

So yesterday I mixed it with little graham crackers, cashews and yogurt covered raisins. Better, but still sweet.

Hence, the granola today. I took three cups of old-fashioned oats, 1/4 cup organic sugar, about 1.5 tablespoons cinnamon, 1.5 teaspoons oriental five spice, about 1/4 cup cashews, about 1/4 cup graham cracker pieces. Then I made the "sauce": about three tablespoons honey, 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 cup canola oil, whisked. I poured the sauce into the granola and spread it thin on a cooking sheet once well stirred.

Bake at 300 for 30 minutes, turning every ten minutes.

Then I put one third of it into a big bowl, added an equal amount of swiss mix, put the lid on the bowl and shook it. I did this in layers until the granola was gone. The butterscotch chips melted but got into all the oats and granola.

More granola

My daughter and I made granola this morning. It's in the oven as I type. Our basic granola recipe is from The Imus Ranch cookbook and if you click the granola link below you'll see some of the previous incarnations and instructions.

Today's mix:

(and remember, I use granola to use up some of the stuff that has become unpopular around here)

• dried papaya (which my daughter decided she did not like)
• oats
• plain cheerios 
• sliced almonds
• crushed graham crackers
• raisins
• dried cherries
• honey
• blackstrap molasses
• oil
• sugar
• cinnamon
• ginger
• nutmeg

Yogurt Mixins

Baked oatmeal for breakfast. Man oh man, am I getting sick of that. Today my daughter and husband will have one of their Tuesday picnics. Somehow, the groceries are getting slim around here and lunch seems to be the area where supplies are lacking. Especially with the crowd I'm packing for today. So, I decided to make lunch an activity.

Each person got a Nature Valley Peanut Butter granola bar. Then I packed a small dish of vanilla yogurt, but I included the following mix-ins:

• banana
• raisins
• rainbow sprinkles
• a couple chocolate covered raisins 
• sliced almonds
• homemade granola
• pretzels

And a juice box! Can't beat a juice box. And some random carrot sticks.

Snow Day Cocoa

homemade granola, chocolate covered raisins and some rich mint cocoa, from Jill's Jams I think. One of these days I'll make my own. I have a fabulous and seductive recipe for hot chocolate that can also be served cold. The trick is buying good quality European bittersweet chocolate.