Apple Spice Granola

Everytime I look at this picture I took my mouth waters... dammit.

Honestly. If you buy and eat store bought Granola and like it, it is only because you know no better. I do not eat Granola unless I make it myself. Apart from all the (excuse my French) shit they add to it, making it totally unhealthy! The amount of times I've imagined rather eating the box for enjoyment or almost breaking a tooth on a rock hard nut or raisin (no I do not know how they get them that hard either)… It is all rather annoying and exhausting for something which is meant to be delicious, moreish and enjoyable. So I make my own. And it is goood, and healthy. You can eat it plain as a snack, or with yoghurt or milk or even on ice-cream! It is so yum that I double this recipe because it is not enough for a week of eating… I need more. Hope you like it! Let me know what you think!

Ingredients: 
(all organic, raw and unsweetened if you can)

• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 8 dates, chopped
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut
• 2/3 cups of raw oats
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ground ginger
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce (Woolworth Grannysmith is the best)
• 1/3 cup macadamia nut oil
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup (preferably the Lyle's Golden Lion Syrup in a can, it is just better)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with wax paper.
Add nuts, dates, coconut and oats to a food processor and pulse to slightly chop nuts. Add spices and salt and pulse again to evenly distribute.
In a small bowl whisk together apple sauce, oil, syrup, and vanilla. Place wet ingredient into the food processor with dry ingredients and pulse to combine.
Now take off your rings ladies! Evenly distribute granola (using fingers) on prepared baking sheet. Try not to get it too thin at the ends because this can burn very quickly and will ruin the whole taste… smoked granola is really not great.
Place in oven for 30 to 35 minutes until golden.  Stop to stir / check ingredients halfway through the baking so the edges do not get over brown.  It will allow things to cook evenly.  The granola will harden up once cooled completely.
I recommend keeping your Granola in a Tupperware in the freezer.  It keeps the granola crunchy! On nom!

Happy munching little squirrels!

Xoxo

PS. You don't HAVE to share... ^_^

Yes, Julia, yes!

Leave a Comment Apple Spice Granola, food, Granola, Lyle's Golden Lion Syrup, recipe

Weekend Learning's

Pretty, flowers, sculls, white, wood, tusks and pillows... lets stay in.

Third detox weekend has come and gone and it was spent relaxing to the max. Literally, we were bed ridden. This is what I learned;

• The weather is definitely a determining factor on my mood and social skills. Water falls from the skies, I retire, call it the cat in my star sign, but I do not like to get wet and especially not cold, EVER.
• "I can't get out of bed. These blankets have accepted me as one of their own and If I leave now I might lose their trust." - Alan, The Hangover.
• Breakfast in bed is such a rare commodity when you get it there is nothing better and it was very well received. I am a spoilt Coco, best boyfriend!
• Love is not about finding the right person, but creating the right relationship. It is not about how much love you have in the beginning but how much love you build till the end.
• I love noodles!
• Soho beauty salon gives epic mani and pedi's in Sandton City. And let me just tell you… the Reflexology! Good grief! Ask for Elizabeth and be prepared to be educated through your feet, heavenly!
• Always pray to have eyes that see the best in people, a heart that forgives the worst, a mind that forgets the bad, and a soul that never loses faith.
• I am totally addicted to The Walking Dead. Oh my gosh, I forgot how much I love to be scared! Little Sister was right! Best. Show. EVER! Addict here!
• January Curse, as I know it, is when my mind is constantly ticking. It is literally  planning the next 12 months, sorting, filing, diarising 2013 into categories so that by February my mind, body and soul will naturally take the steps in order to perform smoothly. For example: Point 125b: "Take winter jackets to dry-cleaner in mid March before Autumn chill sets in…" Type A my darlings, Type A. Does anyone else out there do this?
• Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.
• I forgot how delicious homemade Granola is. I made one of my favorite recipes this past Sunday, Apple Spice Granola. Healthy and totally moreish it is amazingly easy and inexpensive. Coco's recipe to follow this week!
• I can't wait to move into my little house. I really do not care how tiny it is or how small the garden is or how empty it may be at the beginning. All I know is it is mine and the memories I create in it will be the best yet. Maybe I will never leave… except to go to work to pay for that little roof over my head… YAY tiny tin roof YAY! *Coco jumps for joy!

Have a special and star-bursting week my shining lights.

Xoxo

PS. Petrichor (n.) the smell outside after the rain.

...pretending to be your friends... A lesson from Walking Dead!

Leave a Comment boyfriend, Coco's Cottage, family, Granola, January Curse, Reflexology, Sandton City, sister, Soho, The Hangover, The Walking Dead, Type A Personality, weekend