The other day I saw a granola at the supermarket that caught my eye, it said 'paleo' which quite often falls within my food intolerances, I took it off the shelf and had a look at the ingredients and, besides a bit of canola oil and an awful lot of coconut, it was do-able for me, so I paid the $7 for the tiny bag and brought it home. Look, as a quick, can't be bothered breakfast, it wasn't too bad, but it had been overcooked, it was very high in coconut, quite sweet, very oily and it had a bit of a nasty aftertaste, so I thought, hmm. Okay, now that I have finished uni for the year and have a spare two minutes, stop being lazy and whip up one of my own.
In Australia we call this muesli, though usually it will have rolled oats in it, but for me oats are a no-go, so we go-without instead. I think that this is what is called a granola in America but feel free to send me a message if this is not correct.
The ingredients in this can be tailored to your individual tastes, just keep within the ratios and it should all balance up quite nicely. Next time I make this I will use dried apricots and pecans as those are Mr T's favourites, but this time I made it the way I wanted.
Oooo! Doesn't that look delicious? And it was too!
Ingredients
2 cups mixed seeds, I used sunflower, pepita, chia, linseed and sesame
1 cup nuts, I used almond and macadamia
1/2 cup shredded coconut, if you use desiccated reduce to 1/4 cup
1/4 teaspoon turmeric (yes really)
two pinches or two good grinds black pepper (again, yes really, turmeric is really good for you and black pepper helps the body absorb it as well as adding a lovely warmth to this muesli)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground wattle seed (optional)
1 heaped tablespoon honey
pinch salt
1 1/2 cups chopped dried fruit, I used dried cherries, cranberries, dates and sultanas
Combine the seeds, nuts, coconut and spices in a large bowl, heat your honey so that it is very runny and drizzle on while stirring through, try to get a nice even coating. Spread out onto a baking tray and pop into the the oven for 20 minutes at 150 degrees C (fan forced, if you are not using fan forced bake at 160 degrees C, but stir an extra time to prevent uneven baking), give it all a good stir at the ten minute mark to make sure it bakes evenly.
While that is in the oven chop your fruit and pop it into the bowl. As soon as the seed mix comes out of the oven, all lovely and hot and fragrant, stir it into the fruit, this is important, we want it to go in hot so that the flavours mingle and marry. Give it all a very good stir, set aside to cool.
While it is cooling, give it a stir from time to time so that no condensation builds up and it doesn't clump. When it is cold, pop it into an airtight jar and store in a cool place.
When you want to serve it for breakfast, scoop half a cup or so into a small bowl, top with milk of your choice and done! Healthy breakfast, easy peasy.
