Homemade Gluten Free Nutty Granola (low sugar!)

June 27, 2014June 25, 20142 Comments

Hi there! Happy Friday 🙂 I hope you’ve all had a good week. Anything fun planned for the weekend? I am SO excited to say that I have relatively nothing planned. It’s been a longgg time since I’ve had a mostly open weekend, so I’m looking forward to taking full advantage of it! Before I get to that, though, I wanted to share a recipe that I came up with a few weeks ago. Enjoy!

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During my “funemployment” (my friend JP coined that term for me) week a few weeks ago, I had plenty of time to do some baking and cooking in my kitchen. After seeing Fed Up, I was in the mood to make a healthier, lower sugar version of one of my favorite things: granola.

Although people often think of granola as a “healthy” snack, it really isn’t. Most granola’s out there are FULL of sugars and seemingly unnecessary ingredients (there shouldn’t be anything in a simple granola recipe that you can’t pronounce.), which make them a not-so-healthy or smart snack. Since I love granola so much, though, I’ve turned to making it for myself when I can. By doing that, I can pick exactly what I want in it and keep all the unnecessary ingredients out.

Knowing that I would be sharing with RM, I used my gluten free oats and kept all other gluten ingredients out of it. I loaded it up with healthy nuts, fats and super foods to help keep me full and satisfied after snacking on it. In the past, I have added in agave, honey or maple syrup as a way to sweeten it up a bit. This time around, I opted out of adding in any of those things because even though they are a “healthier” sugar option than others, bottom line is that they are still added sugars.

While the end product wasn’t as “omg I can’t stop eating this granola” as I would’ve liked (goes to show you how much of an effect sugar has on the taste of the food we eat), it was still a great addition to my daily yogurt bowls that left me feeling guilt-free. Please note that if you’re looking to make it a little sweeter, I would certainly add in an eighth to a quarter of a cup of a liquid sweetener.

Ingredients:

2 cups gluten free oats (or regular oats if you’re not looking to be gluten free)
2 tbsp. ground flax seed
2 tbsp. chia seeds
1/3 cup of each: pecans, hazelnuts & cashews (or whatever type of nuts you have on hand and would like to use)
2 tbsp. almond butter (I had a Raw almond butter, which didn’t help with adding flavor to the granola. Next time, I would use a roasted almond butter)
2 tbsp. coconut oil
1 egg white
2 tsp. cinnamon
1.5 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 325*. Combine the dry ingredients (GF oats, flax seed, chia seeds, nuts and cinnamon).

2. Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl (almond butter, coconut oil, egg white and vanilla).

3. Mix together the wet and dry ingredients and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, making sure to mix it up halfway through. *please note: it make take more or less time, depending on your oven. I checked on mine a lot and stirred it often to make sure it was cooking evenly.

Although this wasn’t a super sweet granola, it totally hit the spot for me and I still found myself going back for more handfuls even when I wasn’t hungry. What is it about granola that does that to me?! I generally pride myself for having good self control when it comes to portion control and knowing when (and being able) to stop, but when it comes to granola, all of that goes right out the window!

Looking for more granola recipes? Check these out:
Grain Free Granola
Quinoa Granola
I have a granola obession…

Questions for you: What’s your favorite brand of granola? What are your favorite granola ingredients? Do you eat it by the handful or just in yogurt bowls?

Gluten Free, Dairy Free No Bake Chocolate Coconut Pecan Oatmeal Bars

March 20, 2014March 20, 201412 Comments

Umm, yeah. How good do those sound?! I can assure you, they taste just as good as they sound. A co-worker brought these into work and I’ve been thinking about them ever since. I asked her for the recipe because I knew I had to make them. The recipe comes from Money Saving Mom.com, but I adapted it to make it gluten free and dairy free to see if I could tell a difference; I couldn’t. No worries there! If you don’t have the gluten free/dairy free ingredients on hand, feel free to use the regular versions 🙂

The recipe below is what I found at Moneysavingmom.com and my changes are in red.

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter-I used almond butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 cups old fashioned oats-I used gluten free oats
1 cup shredded coconut-I used unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 chopped nuts, raisins or dried cranberries-I used chopped pecans
1 1/4 cups dark chocolate chips- I used gluten free/dairy free milk chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine the peanut butter/almond butter, honey and coconut oil in a sauce pan. Heat over medium/low heat and stir constantly to make sure it doesn’t burn.

2. Once the peanut butter/almond butter, honey and coconut has melted, remove from the heat and add in the oats, nuts, chocolate chips and vanilla. Mix until everything is combined and the chocolate is melted.

3. Pour into a greased 8X8 inch pan and let it cool in the fridge. Store in the fridge or freezer.

Oh. My. Goodness. These things are amazing- even with the changes that I made.

If you’re looking for a good party treat or office treat, I really suggest making these because they will NOT disappoint!

It’s taken serious will power to not eat bar after bar after bar. Luckily by giving most of them away and keeping some in the freezer, it helps keep my hands off of them. I suggest you do the same!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite no-bake recipe? Are you a dark chocolate or milk chocolate fan?

Grain Free Granola

February 21, 2014February 20, 20143 Comments

It seems like grain free/gluten free is all the rage these days. I’m stumbling across recipes using almond meal or coconut flour in place of white or whole wheat flour almost daily, so last weekend I decided to stock up on some Bob’s Red Mill items while at Ocean State Job Lot (they have the best selection!!) so I could have the necessary ingredients to make some of the recipes I’ve been drooling over.

I had 2 grain free recipes on the dock for last weekend:

Grain Free Granola

Grain Free Upside Down Apple Bread

While I followed Gina’s recipe for the Grain Free Upside Down Apple Bread to a T, I did change up the Grain Free Granola recipe a bit so that’s what I’m posting for you today!

Ingredients

1 cup raw pecans (or walnuts)– I used raw cashews
1 cup raw pistachios (or almonds)– I used raw almonds
1 pinch sea salt
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons butter, ghee, or coconut oil– I used coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut– I ran out of this so I skipped it. Next time I’m adding it because I think it would make a great addition
2 tablespoons chia seeds (optional)– I used these- chia seeds make everything better!
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots– I added these because I love dried fruit in my granola!

Directions

1. Soak the nuts in water with a pinch of sea salt for 8 hours. Apparently this helps release enzyme inhibitors that make digestion difficult. I don’t have an issue with digestion, but wanted to follow the recipe so I did this. I think you could leave this step out since it does add a lot of time to the recipe.

2. Place the nuts on a cookie sheet and let them dry in a warm, dry space for another 8-12 hours.

3. Heat oven to 225*. Place the nuts in a food processor or blender and process until nuts are roughly chopped.

4. Combine the coconut oil, honey and vanilla and heat until the oil is melted. Add to the chopped nuts. Add in the chia seeds and coconut. The directions said to pulse these in the food processor again, but I didn’t think that was necessary as I like my granola crunchier.

5. Bake for 45-60 minutes, stirring halfway through. Add in your dried apricots (or other dried fruit) once the granola has finished cooking. Serve with almond milk/milk/on it’s own.

I think I could’ve added a little less coconut oil, as the end result was a bit oily, but otherwise, I thought it was delicious! The beauty of this recipe is the fact that you can change it up based on what you have on hand- nuts, dried fruit, other additions, using maple syrup or agave instead of honey… I love that part of the recipe! Next time I would try using maple syrup instead!

I’m looking forward to putting this in my yogurts all week!

If you’re looking for other granola recipes, check these out:

I have a granola obession…

Quinoa Granola

Granola is one of my favorite snacks and I’m happy to add this recipe to the rotation!

Also, here’s a pic of the apple bread- it is delicious! I was very surprised… it’s got just the right amount of sweetness and doesn’t taste “healthy” at all. I love it!

Questions for you: Have you made any grain free changes in your life? Any grain free “must try” recipes you want to share? What’s your favorite dried fruit?