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Irresistible Granola

“Sometimes buying from the store can cost you much more than you’d expect.”

More often than not, packaged food at the store is priced too high for what you get. Why settle for a half-filled box of factory-made granola when you can just as easily make a huge batch of it in your own kitchen? Not only will it keep a few bucks in your wallet, but it’s also a huge plus just by knowing exactly what you put into your food.

There’s no time for mystery ingredients, people!

Don’t be fooled by sneaky advertising with words claiming a product to be “All Natural,” “Organic,” “Heart Healthy,” or even “Low Calorie.”

Here’s my rule of thumb:

Look at the ingredients before you check out the nutritional content.

- If there are more than 5 ingredients listed, ditch it

- If you cannot pronounce or recognize any of the listed ingredients, say no

- If the expiration date is more than 2 weeks from the date of purchase, sayonara…sucker!

Most store-bought granola won’t pass this test, so it’s time for some fun in the kitchen. Feel free to use whatever dried fruit or nuts your desire. Get creative!

Here’s what you’ll need:

3 cups of rolled oats

1 cup of slivered almonds

1 cup of cashews

3/4 cup of shredded sweetened coconut

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of maple syrup (sugar-free is preferable)

1/8 cup of vegetable or canola oil

3/4 teaspoon of salt

2/3 cup of raisins

2/3 cup of dried cranberries

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, brown sugar, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, combine the maple syrup, oil, and salt.

Combine both mixtures and pour onto two lined sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring ever 15-20 minutes to achieve an even color.

Remove from the oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add the raisins and cranberries (or any other dried fruit) until evenly distributed.

This is the perfect snack when you need a little something sweet or an extra boost of energy. I love eating it for breakfast with yogurt, and I always try to keep a little bag in my purse to get me through those busy days.

Enjoy!!

- Kelsey

3 Comments

Posted by strawberrymintsays on March 18, 2013 in Morning Glories

Tags: breakfast, dried cranberries, dried fruit, energy, granola, maple, rolled oats

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops

10 Sep

Everyone knows the best part of a muffin is always the top.

After years of hearing my friends rave about the “muffies” at Panera Bread, I couldn’t help but check these things out. They’re pretty good, I can’t lie, but if you want my honest opinion I’d have to say my first thought was, “I can so make these better.”

It’s not even about making something taste better in your own kitchen. It’s more about making something that is better for your body and nicer to your wallet.

It honestly doesn’t take much more than a few cents to bake up a batch of your favorite baked good. I’ve always believed that once you find something that you really enjoy, you should quickly learn how to make it yourself, enhancing the ingredients and pumping up the nutrition. I’d say close to 99.9% of the time, what you make is going to cost less than the price tag at the bakery/restaurant/etc. and will make you smile even bigger, simply because homemade is always happier.

Another thing that makes me happy is oatmeal. Refer to this breakfast post for further details. In addition to its antioxidants, immune system boosting super powers, and fiber content, something about it always seems to remind me of home.

I originally was going to make this recipe as an annual first day of classes chocolate chip cookie treat. I think every student (pre-k through college) deserves homemade cookies on their first day of school. It’s something I did for my residents as a Freshman Resident Adviser, and this year I couldn’t help but want to make this tradition continue for myself and my roommate.

After realizing that I still had a few cupcakes left over in our kitchen, I decided I should stray from baking additional desserts at least until the cupcake plate was clean. I wanted to stick with the whole cookie idea, but maybe kick it up a notch and create a breakfast favorite of so many of my peers.

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 cups of whole wheat flour

1/2 cup of rolled oats (quick cooking)

1 cup of granulated sugar

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of baking soda

3/4 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of plain, non-fat yogurt

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 egg

1 1/2 cups of miniature chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine the flour, oats, white and brown sugar, baking soda, and salt with a whisk in a large mixing bowl.

Once the dry ingredients are evenly mixed, add the yogurt, vanilla, and egg. Combine the batter with an electric mixer on low speed. Using yogurt instead of oil will not only knock out the high fat/calorie content in this recipe, but it will also leave you with a super moist and cake-like product, as opposed to a crisp cookie.

Using a spatula, fold in the chocolate chips. Do not use an electric mixer to combine the chocolate chips into the batter. You want the chips to stay in tact when baking, and a mixer will chop them up into undesirable pieces.

Once the chocolate chips have been evenly distributed throughout the batter, use a large spoon or an ice cream scoop to place golf-ball sized portions of dough onto the greased cookie sheet. This recipe should yield about 20 muffin tops. You don’t want the dough to be in perfectly round spheres. Instead, drop them down on the pan without rounding out the edges. This will help them to come out in the shape of muffin tops.

Bake the muffin tops for 9-11 minutes, or until they are slightly firm with when touched. The tops shouldn’t turn golden brown like normal cookies would.

These muffin tops are seriously to die for. The only way my friends could describe these healthy treats were with one word: amazing.

The texture is so perfect and cakey – not too dense, and not too airy. I loved heating these up for a few seconds in the microwave for a quick breakfast with a glass of milk.

Oh, and don’t forget – sharing is caring!

- Kelsey

Honey Wheat Bread

31 Jul

These days, even the loaves of bread that are advertised as the “healthiest” in the supermarket are far from that. What’s worse is that there seems to be a strong correlation between health and cost.

The breads sold in the store that are actually made with whole grains (check your labels people!) are well over $4.00, some even reaching $5.00 in cost. The most affordable bread costs about 99 cents, but the twenty-something ingredients are close to not even being edible.

I love this post from a “Word of Wisdom Living” blog:

Would you want to eat 99-cent bread? It’s a trick question, because you can bake your own perfectly healthful bread for about this price, not counting the cost of firing of the oven. Yes, I know what you’re thinking—this presumes the cook isn’t getting paid for her hour of work. But we know the answer to that—the pay she (or he) receives is dearer than money.

With that being said, I decided to bake my own loaves of delicious homemade bread in order to satisfy my carb craving.

Keep in mind, bread is not bad for you! In today’s “carb-free” obsession and “bread is the devil” attitude, we tend to avoid it at all costs. Remember that bread is good for your body when it’s made with real ingredients.

Here’s what you’ll need:

3 cups of warm water

1 (.25 ounce) packages of active dry yeast

1/3 cup of honey

5 cups of bread flour

3 tablespoons of sugar-free, organic applesauce

1/3 cup of grade A maple syrup

1 tablespoon of salt

3 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

3-4 tablespoons of organic rolled oats

First, combine the water, yeast, and honey in a large bowl. Allow the yeast to bubble for a few minutes.

Add the bread flour to the yeast mixture and stir. Let the dough to sit for at least 30 minutes until it is bigger and bubbly.

Next, mix in the applesauce maple syrup, and salt with your hands. Once everything is evenly combined, the dough will be very wet. Mix in the whole wheat flour with your hands until the dough comes together.

Knead the dough on a floured surface just until it is no longer very sticky. You may need additional flour – be sure to use the whole wheat flour. Do not knead the dough for too long; excess kneading will result in a tough and dry bread.

Form the dough into a ball and place it in a large bowl greased with non-stick cooking spray. Be sure to roll the ball around to coat the entire surface.

Cover the bowl with a damp towel, and allow the dough to rise in a warm place until it has at least doubled in sized. I usually allow mine to rise for at least 5-6 hours.

Once the dough has risen, punch it down and divide it into three loaves. I divided mine into two large loaves and two small loaves. *This would probably be the best time to preheat your oven – 350 degrees*

Place each loaf of dough into bread pans that have been prepared with non-stick cooking spray. Brush the tops of each loaf with a small amount of olive oil and sprinkle the with oats.

Bake the loaves of bread for 25-30 minutes. The bread should rise past the tops of the pans and should be golden brown in color.

When the bread comes out of the oven, lightly brush the tops again with olive oil in order to prevent the crust from getting too hard.

Remove the loaves from the pans and serve immediately or save it for anytime throughout the week. This bread freezes well and also makes great gifts for the ones you love.

One of the greatest things about this bread (other than the fact that it’s absolutely delicious) is that it has less than one gram of fat per slice and only 2.2 grams of sugar with over 7 grams of protein. This bread is not only good for your body, but it’s good for your soul. You’re going to love it.

Strawberry Mint

Tag Archives: rolled oats

Irresistible Granola

Honey Wheat Bread

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