Our new Food experience

Well, let me be honest. It's not entirely new. We have been working sloowwllyy towards a more healthy eating lifestyle for a while now. But now I'm doing a Thirty day "real food" Challenge with a group of ladies I met online. (and a few I know IRL). We are all doing our best to follow the rules found HERE On this great website full of amazing information. (Really, go check it out... I'll wait...) My oldest, who is 8,  has volunteered to do it with me. Todd says he is glad he works at Starbucks and can get his fix at work. LOL. I'm sure not going to force him to stick to the rules around all that yummy temptation! So the trick is to find things to satisfy my pregnancy sweet tooth and still stay within the basic guidelines.. Toast with honey did it today, but I'm not holding my breathe on that one! Thankfully we have an awesome chocolate vendor at our local farmers market who sells fair trade chocolate made ethically right from the cocoa pods. There is no added sugar so that will take care of my chocolate cravings!! So anyways, I have looking for a great snack to have on hand so I didn't switch to auto-pilot and grab and handful of pre-packaged crackers for a quick snack fix and I think, after looking at a zillion Granola recipes I made one that I really like. I just sort of took the things I liked the most out of a bunch of recipes I liked (and I can't remember them all.. sorry) and mashed them together. So here is my version.

Granola

3 1/2 C rough cut oats

Enough water to cover oats in a bowl

2 T vinegar (I used cider 'cause that's what was easiest to grab)

appx. 1 cup each of

Almond slivers

Dried cranberries

Peanuts

unsweetened coconut shreds

sunflower seeds

(I think if I could have found pumpkin seeds I would have thrown those in too. But they weren't at the bulk store I went to this last trip.)

2T flax seed. (next time I would soak these first, but they were a last min addition)

2 t Cinnamon (plus the bit that "spilled" while I was scooping)

1 1/2 t ground Ginger

1/2 t nutmeg

1/2 cup honey

6T butter

2 1/2 t Vanilla Extract

OK so first on the soaking.

I have been informed, and it makes good sense, that because Seeds are meant to reproduce the plant they are not really all that meant to be eaten. and if you do eat them, They are build to be passed through your system. They have a layer built on the outside that stops them from being broken down by the human system. So, all thought we know that there are oodles of awesomeness inside seeds (and nuts) for our bodies, Lets be honest, If you can't absorb them, it's kind of a waste (Ahem). So In order to break down this barrier we need to soak the seeds and nuts to kind of confuse the seeds into saying "Hey! Lets grow a plant!"And that they signals the seed to begin to germinate. At that point our bodies can break down all that great stuff that makes your body strong.

Ok enough yapping.. On with the granola.

First the night before I put the Oats in a bowl and filled it to cover with room temp water. I then added 2 T of vinegar. I Think the exact instructions for soaking I read said 1T to 2C water.. I'm a winging it kinda girl though so I didn't remember exactly. This really only have to soak for 6 hours. I'm lazy, so overnight it is.

the next day I drained the oats, I just left them in a strainer lined in coffee filter for a while while I made breakfast and cleaned up... and I'm pretty sure half way through breakfast to.

Mix in with the oats all your dried ingredients. So al the way down to the nutmeg on that list up there.

Take a smal pan and melt together the butter and honey. then add the vanilla extract.

Dump the honey/butter mix into the oat mix. Mix well.

in a Lightly Greased baking sheet spread a layer of the granola mixture approx. 1.5cm thick. Pop into a pre-heated 250 degree oven. Now heres where is gets tricky..

If you want it kind of a chew granola bar texture. you only need it in there until the top is really firm but you can still push into it if you really try. This is how my kids seem to like it the best. this will take about 30-40 mins. If you want it crunchy granola you will need to keep it in the oven for about 60 mins. These times are not exact. (in case you haven't noticed, cooking for me never is!) And I strongly suggest you don't stray to far. They will burn fast once they start to go. (Ask me how I know....) if they hit a med brown colour pull them out otherwise you will end up throwing them all out too.. Keep in mind that it will cook for a few mins after you take it out of the oven.

I hope you like them. Really you can add anything you want to them. I'm sure mine will vary a lot to keep us from getting to bored. If I come up with any spectacular one's I'll update here!!