Gringerbread Granola

Hello everyone,

can it really be that it’s already Monday again? Time rushes so quickly. Now it’s already September and I feel that in the course of minutes it might already be Christmas and the year will come to an end. It’s a little frightening. Sometimes I have the strong feeling that I miss my life while I am busy doing stupid things. Like work for example. I like my job but I think I could do with a sabbatical every now or then. Or I would love to work part-time. That would be fantastic!!!

But enough of the nonsens. It’s Monday and so it’s time for a new recipe. I’ve been making my own granola for a while but I came up with a fabulous fall/winter version of it last week and it’s so darn delicious that we already ate 2/3 of it in only one week. It normally lasts about 3 weeks. Ooooops 😉

I love to do my own granola. Even when you go for the “healthy” granola in the stores you always get oney that contains a holy lot of sugar and other artificial additives. Trying to eat as clean as possible this is simply not an option. Making my own takes me about 10 minutes a week (or better 30 minutes in 3 weeks) and gives me a good feeling about what I eat. And it’s really easy!

Gingerbread Granola

Ingredients

• 2 cups oats
• 1 cup almonds, chopped
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup cashews, chopped
• 1/2 cup seeds or nuts of your liking (I tried walnut but as I told you before I am not the biggest fan – this time I had pumkin seed and I liked it a lot)
• 2/3 cup honey
• 1tbsp coconut oil
• gingerbread spice
• cinnamon
• 1 cup pitted dates, chopped

Directions

1. Mix the oats, nuts and seeds and place on a baking tray. Stir well after 6 minutes and bake for about 12 minutes in total at 200°C.
2. Melt the coconut oil in a frying pan, add the honey, cinnamon and gingerbread spice and bring to boil
3. Put the warm oats and nuts in a bowl and pour in the spiced honey. Mix well until the oats are moist. If you think the mixture got a little too moist you might add some more oats
4. Now add the chopped dates
5. Put again in the oven for about 20-25 minutes at 180°C.
6. Let cool for about 1-2h and store in a big jar

We like add some granola to our yoghurts, oats, or most of the time we simply much it pure. It tastes all sweet and has a hint of fall and Christmas in it. And I like crunchy food a lot 🙂 The more spice you add the more flavor it gets. But it’s really worth giving enough spice to it.  I have the feeling that it looses flavor in the baking process. The moist oat/nut mixture always tasts a lot spicier than the actual granola.

I hope you will like the granola as much as we do. It makes a lovely gift too. Just fill in smaller jars and add a nice label and ribbon and you have a perfect little hostess gift.

Now work is calling for me. I have quite a demanding week and I am a little nervous because I have to decide who I will choose for my study. There will be lots of interviews over the next 3 weeks and I really hope there are good people.

Tonight it’s soccer practice again though I am still horribly sore from the weekend. Plus I am so bruised! My arms and legs look terrible. Good luck the temperatures dropped to a long sleeves level.

Have a lovely start to the week

Love Juli