Several months ago, I came across a great looking granola recipe in the Alive magazine. I was supposed to have made this granola to eat as I recovered from surgery. I simply had way too much to get done before surgery in the six weeks leading up to it from when I got my surgery date. My granola never got made.
Last night, a friend of mine posted a photo of the granola she had made and that was enough inspiration for me to start making some at 8pm last night. A friend of theirs posted a link to ReluctantEntertainer.com – Fruit, Coconut and Nut Granola Recipe.
I thought I had all the ingredients to make the granola but ran into a few empty containers along the way and had to improvise. I was certainly glad I decided to halve the recipe before starting. I knew I did not want to use coconut and instead subbed out 1/3 of a cup each of pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and sunflower seeds, added 1 cup of cranberries and 1/2 cup of raisins, and swapped the walnuts for pecans.
The wet ingredients got interesting when I found out we had no brown sugar or maple syrup. I ended up using apple maple syrup and honey in place of the maple syrup, and used maple sugar in place of the brown sugar. I am just realizing I never did top up that quarter cup and was trying not to use white sugar. I melted down coconut margarine because I did not want to use extra virgin olive oil. Then I had to heat up the concoction to get it to mix together and be able to pour it over the dry ingredients.
I was amazed at how simple it was to make granola and how great it tasted! I will have to work on making more, swapping in/out ingredients and trying differing flavours.
Part of the reason I started this blog was to chart my ventures into cooking with more whole, nutritious and raw foods. I am looking forward to modifying this recipe and coming up with a recipe of our own now that I know the basics.
Last night before heading to bed, I had granola, plain greek yogurt and some fresh raspberries and blackberries. It was delicious!
