Granola is so yummy, and a nice transitional food for the accustomed morning cereal eater, as it is a food that can be prepared simply and eaten with milk. However, the downside of granola, is that it is often made with refined oils, concentrated sweeteners, rancid nuts and seeds, hot spices, and generally just kinda heavy, greasy and overly sweet. What is the solution? Make your OWN with good ingredients! Here's how I do mine:- DRY pan toast some almonds and pumpkin seeds until aromatic (do NOT burn!)
- Add some oat flakes and stir quickly - not too much toasting time for these guys. If they are over-heated, it will not be good for your liver or heat condition, and generally not recommended.
- Chop in some fruit, like apple slices, or stir in some blueberries. The fruit may sweat and add moisture to the dish, but if it doesn't, add a TINY bit of water, or better yet, a little bit of orange juice (fresh squeezed is best).
- I usually stop cooking at this point, even before the fruit usually, and put it into a bowl, however you can add spices and continue baking it for a little time to make it more warming.
- Add spices like cardamom, green stevia, nutmeg, etc, but cinnamon tends to be too hot, and if eaten before bed can cause things like night sweats, or worsen inflammation, etc.
- I put the warm granola into my bowl, (this is where I add the OJ, fruit and spices actually), and then pour over a little flax or hemp oil to give it some richness and greasiness.
- I was a little extra hungry, so I broke up some brown rice cake into as well and stirred it.
- I was also gifted a little dark chocolate, so I chopped that up and stirred it in as well too!
- Since I make my own goat kefir, which is really my only animal product, I topped it off with that, or I might add a little homemade almond milk with it as well.
NO sweeteners, refined or cooked oils, no salt, no flours, no junky nuts, and all fresh! YUM!
