With all our cold weather we've been having, our appetites have been very particular. Soups have been our favorite for dinner while we watch the Winter Olympics. Last night, it started snowing as we watched Lindsay Vonn's last Olympic race in the alpine combined. She was ahead after the downhill portion but then she made a mistake early on in the slalom and didn't finish. She was the last one to go and it had just started to snow right before she went. Sort of a sad finish for her but she said she was just grateful to be there at all. I mean, after all, she is 33 years old! She said she doesn't think her body can take another four years. Really? My body couldn't have taken any of it, regardless of age. LOL. It started snowing there about the same time it started snowing here. We were eating our leftover gumbo in front of the fire trying to stay warm, as big puffy snowflakes fell outside our window. This morning we woke up to a beautiful, sunny, snowy morning, my favorite kind of day.
Our favorite breakfast, for whatever reason, is granola. We are addicted to it right now. You'd think that hot oatmeal or something like that would be our breakfast of choice but no. It's granola. Maybe after eating hot soup for dinner, we don't feel like hot cereal for breakfast but regardless, we LOVE this granola. We even munch on it while watching TV and I'll have it with my yogurt, sprinkled on top. We were buying a lot of granola when the urge first hit but we were going through it so fast. I decided to start making my own in larger batches so it would last longer. Turns out, my recipe is so much better than any store-bought version, there is no going back. I use the recipe on my blog that Barbara gave me from Orangette, a blog from a local food blogger, Molly Wizenberg, here in Seattle who also has two restaurants. Why I didn't start making this sooner, I do not know but we are addicted to it now. I've made five batches of it so far. I'm posting this new version of it because it is lower in sugar. It was hard to find a low sugar version of store-bought granola which actually tastes just fine to us with only 3 grams of sugar per serving (1/3 cup). Marge Granola is one of my favorite store-bought granolas so I tried to adapt the sugar level of Orangette's recipe to Marge's version. I omit the dried fruit which lowers the sugar content more which still tastes fine to us. Aside from the sugar, granola has so many good nutritional aspects to it with all the fiber from the oatmeal and nuts and rich in nutrients. It's just that it is so loaded with sugar. I've put less than half the sugar of the original version and it still tastes plenty sweet. Once you make this recipe, you'll never go back.
Makes 7 cups
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raw hulled pumpkin seeds
1 cup raw hulled sunflower seeds
1 cup unsweetened coconut chips (not flakes)
1-1/4 cups raw pecans, whole and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup olive oil
dried cherries, optional (My sister used dried blueberries which I love)
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine the oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut chips, pecans, light brown sugar, and salt. Stir to mix.
3. Add the olive oil and maple syrup, and stir until well combined.
4. Spread the mixture in an even layer on the prepared sheet pan.
5. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes, until the granola is golden brown and toasted, about 45 minutes. Remove the granola from the oven. Cool completely on a wire rack. If you'd like, stir in some dried cherries (or blueberries). Store in an airtight container.
Note: Will keep at room temperature for up to a month but believe me, it won't last that long...
Yum!!! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete