homemade crunchy granola

I have been looking for a homemade granola recipe for quite some time now. I recently purchased How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. One of my best vegetarian purchases to date. Most of the recipes are simple and all look pretty delicious. In the book he has a super granola section, among others, that has maybe the best granola recipe ever. I have been looking for a recipe that doesn't use oil or butter. This is not an easy feat as most recipes I have found use one or both. So last night after dinner I decided to make some granola. Man was that a good decision. This granola does not compare to any store bought kind at. all. Here are some of the adjectives Kevin and I have been using to describe it: salty, crunchy, sweet, buttery (so strange since it has not butter), salty, roasted, and delicious among other things. It's so fresh and the flavor has so much depth. I was so amazed at how it tasted that I was eating dry last night by the spoonful, standing up at the stove. As it cooled it became crunchier and the flavors mixed together. Since last night's stand at the oven and scoop in your mouth moment, we have had it with vanilla soy milk. I look forward to having it with our greek yogurt and in pancakes. Oh the options! Here's the breakdown. Enjoy!

First, I added 3 cups of rolled oats to a cake pan. It called for a 9 x 13 roasting pan with 6 cups of oats. I cut it in half. I put my pan directly on top of my stove top. I roasted (?) the oats on medium heat until they were fragrant (kinda smelled like pop corn) and started turning dark. I then added slivered almonds and roasted for about 2 minutes more. Then I added coconut and continue cooking, about 2 minutes. Side note: I really do not like coconut but in this recipe it is delicious. When roasted the oils release, flavoring the granola nicely.  After the coconut I added cinnamon, salt, and honey for my sweetener. Stir throughout the process. 

After all is combined I baked it for 20 minutes. 

When I removed it from the oven I place it on a wire rack and stirred in raisins and cranberries. 

I let it cool to room temperature- while I ate spoonfuls- and then bagged it up. Sooooo easy and soooo worth it. There's no comparison!! 

From our kitchen to yours :)

Crunchy Granola (Full recipe)

I halved mine. 

6 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking or instant)

2 cups mixed nuts and seeds like sunflower seeds, walnuts, pecans, almonds, cashews, etc.

1 cup shredded coconut

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste

dash salt

1/2 to 1 cup of honey or maple syrup, to taste

1 cup raisins or chopped dried fruit

Preheat oven to 300. Put a 9x 13 roasting pan over medium-low heat. Add the oats, stirring occasionally, until they become fragrant and start changing colors. Add the nuts/seeds and continue to stir/cook for about 2 mins. Add the coconut and continue to cook for 2 more mins. Add the cinnamon, salt, and sweetener. Stir and bake for 20 mins, stirring once or twice. Add the dried fruit and cool on a wire rack continuing to stir while the granola reaches room temperature. Transfer to airtight container and store in refrigerator. Will keep indefinitely! 

In the cookbook, Mark has some amazing variations on the above recipe. I'll share a few with you. 

- peanut butter granola with chocolate chips

- tropical with macadamia nuts, coconut milk, chopped dried papaya, mango, pineapple, banana chips

- real vanilla granola with vanilla bean

- spiced granola with ginger, ground anise, more cinnamon cardamom, grated nutmeg, ground cloves, and vanilla extract

- ginger-molasses granola with crumbled gingersnaps (yum!!) 

- almond-orange granola with orange zest, almond extract

Also, is a no bake granola bar using the above granola. The original recipe was so good I can't imagine what adding any of these additions will do! I might eat the whole thing before it makes it out of the pan. 

losing my inner carnivore

So Lent happened. No meat for 40 days. Then Sunday happened.


Anyway, I have surprised myself with my lack of desire to eat any meat products since "being allowed to" now that Lent is over. I thought that Sunday's meat-a-tastrophe was merely a blip on the radar screen in my journey to return to eating meat. Now I'm not sure so. I've had the opportunity to eat meat since Sunday but the thought of doing so makes me sick to my stomach.


Which begs the question: Is my current lack of desire to eat meat simply a product of Sunday, or a bigger thing related to changes in my body and preferences over the course of my vegetarian Lent? I'm think this is closer to the answer. And if so, what an amazing occurrence.


I was never a huge meat eater but trust me, I enjoyed my meat ("I'll take sentences one can easily take out of context for $500, Alex"). And, even when I was vegetarian, I never ever thought I wouldn't have a desire to eat meat. I don't right now. At all. If someone offered me a Ruth's Chris steak I'd turn it down. I'm serious.


I don't even know who I am anymore.


So if I can self-defeat my desire to eat meat, something I enjoyed, in 40 days... What other habits can we make/break in 40 days? Can I get addicted to running? Can I learn to love trigonometry? Can I improve my vocabulary or become better at a foreign language?


40 days. Whew. Who'd have thought they'd be so consequential?


-Kevin

sweet potato and leek casserole

This is also a really easy recipe that would be good served as a side dish around holiday time. We had ours as our main dish with a side salad. It is super healthy as I omitted all the oil the original recipe called for. Because it didn't have any oil or butter in it I could really taste the naturalness of the veggies and fresh rosemary. The sweet potatoes were sweet and tender but balanced out by an mild onion taste given by the leeks. All around a very delicious dish. 


I had never cooked with leeks before so naturally I googled how to chop a leek and found a wonderful video. It said to cut the leafy green part off and use only the white stem part.

Then to cut it long ways, turn and cut again, making sure to not cut off the root part or the vegetable will fall apart. When the leek is cut this way it makes it much easier to clean.

Next, I sautéed my chopped leeks, fresh rosemary(from my garden), garlic, and cooking spray with a little vegetable stock to keep it moist.

I then layered my sprayed casserole dish with peeled, cut sweet potatoes and my leek mixture. 

Topping it all off with Panko bread crumbs and a little vegetable stock poured over it. I baked it at 400 for about 20 minutes covered and then uncovered for an additional 10 minutes. It came out crispy on top and moist inside. 

From our kitchen to yours :)

Adapted from Ultimate Everyday Cookbook by Kim Barnouin (also known as the Skinny B*&^% but I just don't like that word :))

Sweet Potato and Leek Casserole 

3 medium leeks

1 garlic clove, minced

3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

salt and pepper

2 medium sweet potatoes

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1/3 cup vegetable broth

Preheat oven to 400. Spray casserole dish with cooking spray (or rub with olive oil).

Sauté the chopped leeks with the garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper until soft. Arrange one-third of the sweet potatoes across the bottom of the dish. Spread one-half leek mixture on top and alternate ending with potatoes on top. Sprinkle bread crumbs and pour vegetable stock on top. Cover and bake 30 minutes. 

homemade black bean burgers

This was my very first experience making any sort of bean burgers (i know what have I been doing with my life!?) They were SO DELICIOUS! I'm so excited to have found a hearty recipe that is quick! I have to say I feel like a legit vegetarian now :)  They are NOTHING like the store bought black bean patties i.e. moist and flavorful and so much healthier. I did figure out to make sure they are cook thoroughly before flipping or they fall apart. Go make these today! They are wonderful.


All I did was combine my ingredients in the food processor and pulse until chunky but not pureed. 

It was a little runny at first so I put it in the refrigerator for about 15 mins. I then shaped out my patties and but them back in the fridge for about 15 more mins. Next, I fried them up in the pan. The recipe called for olive oil but I just sprayed cooking spray in the pan to cut out the fat. It worked great!

We ate it with broccoli. Does anyone else love broccoli as much as I do? 

Bon appetite! 

From our kitchen to yours:

adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

Black Bean Burgers

1 14 oz. can bean (black, white, red, chickpeas, or lentils) drained

1 medium onion quartered

1/2 cup raw rolled oats

1 tablespoon chili powder or spice mix of your own

Salt and pepper

1 egg

liquid if necessary

Combine all ingredients in the food processor till it's slightly chunky but not pureed. With wet hand shape patty and let rest. Spray pan with cooking spray and cook until nicely brown on one side, about 5 minutes; turn carefully and cook on other side until firm and brown. Serve with any buns. We use sandwich thins and sriracha chili sauce. 

Note: I  didn't make these vegan because of time and ingredients. But it looks easy enough and seems like it would still have the same taste. To make these vegan obviously omit the egg. Instead, you could add any one of the following: 1/2 cup mashed potatoes, 1/2 cup cooked oatmeal or short grain rice or 1/4 Vegannaise or 1/2 cup tofu. 

White Bean and Swiss Chard Fettucine

I have been scouring my cookbooks/magazines lately to find new vegetarian meals. I found this recipe in this months issue of Shape magazine. It was really simple and very delicious. 

Wouldn't you know that I forgot the beans. I used soy beans instead of white beans because it's what we had. But I almost used chickpeas as well. Any white bean would probably be delicious. 

How beautiful is this? There was one pink among the yellows. I combined everything in my saute pan. I will say that I used Pam spray instead of the oil to saute the garlic. Because of this we squeezed lemon juice on ours before we ate it. 

And bon appetite! 

From our kitchen to yours. 

White Bean and Swiss Chard Fettuccine

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp oil

1 large bushel, swiss chard

1/2 medium red onion

1 can white beans (rinsed and drained)

3/4 box whole-grain fettucini
Lemon to taste 

Saute garlic and oil. Add swiss chard, onion, and beans. Saute until chard is wilted, about 6 minutes. Toss with cooked whole-grain fettucini. 

The gods of vegetarianism smite me

Kevin here. Hillary's husband who completed the vegetarian Lent challenge with surprising ease. I endured the occasional meat craving and the constant mocking of What-a-burger billboards (there's one on I-30 who is a particularly evil little bastard) without cheating with a chicken wing or even being tempted too all that much.


We got initially pointed towards the vegetarian thing by my sister Karen who is in college. She converted to the green side sometime in late summer/early fall '10 and has been going strong ever since. She proved, to me at least, that one can be a vegetarian without being preachy and annoying about it. Hers is a vegetarianism that is about health, diet, and self-preference and not about saving the world from the horrors of the farm or meat industry. That was something that not only did Hillary and I find admirable but also easy to get on board with. Of course, the idea of eschewing beef and pork in an area of the country where they'll chicken-fry any animal part you want and serve it under gravy made from the drippings got the contrarian in me very excited. Along the same vein, it was amusing to watch my family's reaction to my sister's diet choices over the holidays-- the "I-don't-know-how-to-process-this" faces were great, and if she had come home covered in a headdress asking which way faced Mecca, I'm not sure the faces would have been too much different.


Fast forward to today, Easter Sunday, and the culmination of our Lent vegetarian challenge. I learned so much, ate well, and felt great during my 40 days on the green side, and I will write about those ongoing lessons a lot in this space. But I am returning to eating meat, albeit much less meat than before. I could go on and argue my ethical, Biblical, and dietary cases for why I think it is perfectly fine to eat meat in moderation. But my choice really boils down to two incredibly deep, philosophic points: Its delicious and I want to.


Let me qualify that by saying that I plan returning to somewhat normal frequency in eating chicken, seafood,  and turkey. I will not swear off red meat, but eat much less of it and grass-fed when I can. Also pork will be a special occasion type thing as well.


So today we went for Easter brunch at Blue Mesa, which is a great Southwestern/Mexican place and ironically enough, very vegetarian friendly. But it was Easter, the end of Lent, and Christ had risen and removed the stone blocking my access to the butcher counter (that's called a really bad mixed metaphor for the kids learning to write out there). Sundays at Blue Mesa mean buffet. And not lukewarm, been-sitting-for-hours-in-a-hospital-pan-under-a-dim-lit-sterno, very questionable Chinese food type buffet. I mean an actual, fresh, high quality buffet.


I think it was the overstimulation that got me. So many meats. So many missed days eating meat. So little time to make up for it. I grabbed my plate and moved right past the waffles, chips, and rice that normal people who did not have to go without tasty morsels of meat for 40 days were lined up to get. No, I told myself it is time for a treat. At this point, if my intestines could play instruments they would have been playing some eerie, scary, Scream 4 horror movie music.


Chicken enchiladas? Yes. Steak fajitas? Why stop at one. Carnitas? Oh how I missed you. Tomatillo chicken tacos? Hello new friends. Salmon? Sure, why not. Make my way back to the table (read: near full sprint) and minimize conversation to enjoy my meal.


First plate down, feel fantastic. Meat, you are so good. Why did we ever try this trial separation?


Second plate. More of the same, add huevos rancheros a personal favorite.


Getting full now but feel great.


Dessert. Coffee. End of spectacular meal.


I move to get up from the table and it hits me. My abdomen burned with the fire of a thousand suns. No gag reflexes or bowl movements, just logjam. The feeling continues, worsens even. I do the customary change out of nice pants and into elastic when we get home (something which coincidentally I never had to do in my 40 vegetarian days). Oh how I miss the easy digestion of vegetarianism. I would sell my 42 inch flat screen to redo the last 2 hours and opt for maybe a little quinoa salad and broccoli. Gods of vegetarianism why must you smite me so???


It as at this point I will stop with the details (they only get worse), and get to the story's resolution. Suffice to say with some "My-first-tequila-on-prom-night" style upchucking, a little pepto, a little rest, and some sugary carbonated drinks, I felt much better. We later read online that you're supposed to ease back into eating meat a little at a time and under no circumstances have more than 1 kind of meat your first time back (Who has two thumbs and had 4 types? This moron!). Apparently your stomach produces fewer meat-digesting enzymes when you stop eating meat. Shock. And you can't just go 0 to 60 on your stomach like that and expect it to perform (we've since talked and made up).


Serves me right for gluttony. On Easter no less.


Anyway, I look forward to easing back into meat and letting you know how it goes. Based on today's happenings if I'm eating pureed chicken from a Gerber jar by next week that'll be huge progress!


Here's to a week of healthy eating and digestion!


-Kevin

easter and a little background...

First of all Hoppy Easter (couldn't resist :))! This is one of our Easter puppies. What a face :)


The Lord is indeed risen. This sums it up from a song we sang at our wonderful church today:

I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You're beautiful, you're beautiful

When we arrive at eternity's shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
We'll enter in as the wedding bells ring
Your bride will come together and we'll sing
You're beautiful, You're beautiful, You're beautiful

I was overwhelmed with gratitude, excitement, and awe as we worshiped in church today. He is indeed beautiful, gracious, loving, and awesome among other things. I'm so grateful to be His.

Now on to the veggies :)

It all started about 40 days ago. I wanted to give up meat for Lent mostly as a challenge but also to be healthier etc. So I propositioned Kevin...as I usually do....to gage his interest. After a little thought he said, "OK I can do that for a week." After the first week we decided, "wow we feel so much better!! This wasn't so hard after all!! We can do this and it's fun!" Yes we were that excited or just surprised :) So we gave it a go for Lent. 40 days later we look and feel so much better, eat healthier, and have tried things we never thought we would. So I am going to continue on my vegetarian journey and I will document it on here. Hopefully I can share some healthy recipes or items that you might love even if you eat meat. Most everything I try to eat or make is healthy.  So welcome and stay a little while!






-Hillary :)