Friday, June 16, 2006

Heather’s Wholegrain Granola

And here's the recipe I promised to post when I received it. {g} Thanks, Heather.

Combine in a LARGE bowl:
1/3 cup expeller pressed coconut oil (melted if solid)
½ cup pure Raw honey
3 Tbsp Dark agave nectar or maple syrup
1 Tbsp unsulfured, blackstrap molasses
3 tsp pure vanilla extract (no sugar added)

Add to top ingredients:
4 ½ cups old fashioned oatmeal
1 cup Uncle Sam Cereal or more oatmeal
½ cup hard white wheat flour (King Arthur or Hodgson Mills)
2 Tbsp Freshly ground flaxseed (optional)
1 Tbsp Freshly ground Unhulled sesame seeds (optional)
½ cup dried Unsweetened coconut
2 tsp cinnamon
½ cup chopped nuts Raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, raw pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc.

Mix all well with a large spoon. May need to smoosh the ingredients together a bit. Turn all out onto 2 jelly roll type cookie sheets. Bake in oven @ lowest temp with oven door open at least 12 hours to maintain nutrients & enzymes or @ 300° for aprox 20 minutes, changing out pans from top to bottom. (Keep an eye on the granola; it shouldn’t get to dark brown.) Remove to cool & spread ½ cup to 1 cup dried fruit over top of granola while cooling. (I use dried pineapple, usually) Once cooled break up with a spatula into bite size chunks & distribute fruit evenly. Store in an airtight container. (Depending on the humidity level, you may need to increase all liquid type ingredients just a bit.)

To make as a hand held snack increase all wet ingredients, more nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews) & more dried fruit (banana chips, cut up dried apricots, raisins)
De'Etta's Granola (Kristine in SA - it only APPEARED that I'd forgotten)

*12 C Oats
1 C Grape Nuts (we like the clumps and crunch but if you don't use more seeds/nuts or oats)
1 C Wheat Germ
1 C Flax Seed
1 - 2 C of Cashews (I get these raw and in bulk from the co-op)
1 - 2 C Almonds

I use 4 C of crunchies (nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds - whatever I have)

**1 1/2 C Oil
2 C honey
1 T pure vanilla flavoring
2 T pure almond flavoring

I heat the oil and honey in the microwave until boiling. Meanwhile mix all else but the flavorings. Add the vanilla and almond to the liquid mix. Pour the liquid mix over the dry mix and combine well. Pour onto two greased cookie sheets (big ones) and bake at 350* for 20 - 30 minutes stirring every 10 min....OR dehydrate for 12 - 14 hours......Cool and store in an air tight container.

Comments:
This is good to snack on, eat cold or heat up with milk in the microwave.

*This makes enough to fill a big Rubbermaid cereal keeper with a couple of bowls left over...guessing most would want to 1/2 it?

**I used olive oil and it is fine - coconut oil would be really good in it. We like crunchy and this hasn't been turning out as crunchy as we like it down here....so I plan to decrease the oil to 3/4 - 1 C of oil next time.

I don't put dried fruit IN the granola because some in my family like it plain. You could add coconut, raisens, dates, pineapple....

I love Golden Temple Vanilla Almond granola and am aiming for that. Like that infamous Andes Mint Chocolate Cheesecake - it's a recipe still in the creation stage. BTW I plan to tackle THAT recipe before the summer is out and see if I can make it healthier. I bought the real peppermint oil last month....need to try some honey substitutions out.
Oh goodness....Zander is getting upset at the options I'm offering him. He's been asking very nicely but I still keep telling him no. He just said, "Mom.....you are giving me a little headache". :::snort::::

OK came home today from HEB and discovered that this fella had fallen out of a tree. They had the poor dog on the leash as she now has a reputation of chasing birds and CATCHING them.

Here he is - a grackle...with a face that only a mother could love....

It really is sad when they keep falling out of the tree. They cry and cry for their mamas.

I know it’s been busy when I’ve not blogged for two whole days. {G} Stacia is in bed, it’s 10:00 p.m. and Mike is still at work - this is his day off :::snort::J Josiah is at work, we watched *The Kid* and now the older boys are finishing up with some *Hogan’s Heroes*. I’ll quickly update the blog.

THURSDAY – We found ourselves at a local park at 9 a.m. THIS is a better time to go to the parks than our typical after lunch time. It has been really hot here…over 100* all week. I think it was 105* one week – at least someone said it was. The kids had the choice of going to the park or the pool on Thursday and they chose the park. I had only had 3 hours of sleep. After the park I went and bought some things that Mike needed for a staff party. Then we headed home and I took a nap. I made a double batch of granola (oh yeah Kristine – still mean to post those recipes). I threw it in the dehydrator – worked well. I do think some mesh screens would make it a bit less messy. {G}I rounded out the day by attending a Heart 2 Heart Mom’s Night Out at a local restaurant. It was a nice break to get out and get to know some new women. I’ve been meaning to attend since Feb and have never been able to break away. I noted I’d not heard from Ray, the mechanic, for 2 days and hoped that meant they were fixing the van.

The bottom part of my dehydrator was cracked during our move. It didn’t bother me to use it but now that I use it almost every day….and I was planning on buying more trays….well I got to thinking it may be time to replace it. It seemed fine for occasional use…but it can’t be safe to have the housing totally unscrewed and cracked. My friend Heather’s husband is a deputy fire chief. I have begun to think that it would be “wrong” for one of Heather’s friends to burn down her home with a defective dehydrator. I’ve begun researching a new one on the internet. The one I have “American Harvest snack master” has worked fine….but I’m using it all the time now and think maybe one with more wattage would be good. I’m not sure. If anyone’s done research I’d love to hear which brand/model you would buy if you could get ANYTHING and which one you’d buy if money were a consideration. {G}

FRIDAY -
Got a nice bike ride in this a.m. If I can figure out how to get a ride in tomorrow I will make my goal of 250 miles. The problem will be that the Sr Prot has called a PAC meeting for 9 a.m. tomorrow. I can’t be to upset since my one and only is the culprit who called the meeting.

After working out and showering I drove Jamin over to Ian and Becky’s to water the lawn and flowers. Stacia goes. Zander and Nolan wanted to come. I agreed. I’ll rethink that in the future. Somehow Stacia lost her pacifier. It will be interesting to see where it turns up. The lawn took longer than expected. I read for the first 1 ½ hours….then I got bored and vacuumed (but not their bedroom – I wouldn’t invade their privacy). I read more from *Nourishing Traditions*. I had hoped our library would have a copy but they don’t. I may have to buy the book. The library did have Rodale’s book on natural cooking or some title close to that. They’re sending it to our local branch. I want to buy a good one with basic info on various oils, enzymes etc……Read about enzymes today. Had to laugh that one book said not to cook anything over 105* (a cookbook Becky had) and the other one said nothing over a dry heat of 150*. Both had some great looking recipes in them…..I’m having fun experimenting with new things.

When we returned from watering, I got a call from Ray the mechanic. Seemed the van was “as ready as we can get it”. That wasn’t a good sign. I really did NOT want to drive out to Robert Lee again…..because it sounded like the van was not fixed which means I’ll be going back out again with it as soon as it dies again. Ugh.

I made a quick trip to HEB. The produce manager there has let Adrienne and I buy a case of JAZZ apples for .80 a lb…..and they are on sale for $1.49. They are GREAT apples! Really yummy. We got a case last week or maybe it was earlier this week for $32 and I picked up another case today for $31…..but he said they were a special promotional deal and they won’t have them on a regular basis. I think apple season is waning. I got quite a hankering for artichokes today. I called Heather and asked about the chance of ordering some from the co-op. They come in bags of 4 and there are 10 bags in a case. I know I can’t use a full case but she will take a bag and Adrienne will take a couple of bags so maybe. They were only $1.30 for 4 and they are $1.99 EACH in the grocery store. Good grief I should not update a blog when I’m tired this is starting to sound like the Food Network. :::snort::::

I dehydrated some apples today. I also made a graham cracker crust that was fairly HEALTHY….organic graham crackers with no preservatives etc, maple syrup and a bit of olive oil. I’ll use coconut oil when I get some. Then I made a strawberry pie with it….I had two choices and Jamin told me to choose the easiest. LOL.

Mike and I drove out to Robert Lee. Just as we expected, they did not fix the van. They can’t figure out what is wrong with it. They are fixated on the idea that there is some radio signal or microwave signal from McDonald’s that is scrambling the computer in the van…but then why does it restart???? AND where are these towers? We don’t see any. They installed a BIGGER black data box. This will hold 8 incidents on it. The van was only stopping every week – month…..it did die twice last weekend. We’re praying it dies a LOT this weekend so that we can record it and get the van back in. We really want this resolved while it is still under warranty and before our trip to the Girls’ graduation.

Mike came home for pizza night and then went on back to work. Hopefully all the details are coming together and we’ll have a very smooth and quick PAC planning meeting in the MORNING tomorrow and it won’t stretch to the AFTERNOON. LOL

Just heard from friends this week: it’s PCS season in the military. The time when new orders come down and we begin shuffling around. Melanie and family are going to Germany and Julie and family are going to England…..and we keep requesting overseas and going to TX. LOL BUT TX really IS “a whole other country”. LOL
A few pictures from our Wednesday evening duck feeding excursion. This city has some gorgeous river walks/parks.
The kids called this one "gothic duck"



Father's Day Contest

We entered Mike in a Father's Day Contest. He was chosen as a daily winner. Today at 3 p.m. PST they will put all the daily winners in a hat and draw a winner. It would be so cool if they picked Mike....but if not, he still was chosen as a daily winner. LOL

Click here for details...and scroll down to see our NAME as a Tuesday daily winner. If he wins it a trip for two to Southern CA...working on the pit crew at a NASCAR race, Knotsberry farm tickets, hotel, air fare, rental car......I can dream. LOL

Here's the picture that we sent them: