I realized that I haven’t posted anything on here in a really long time. It was still winter… and whaddya know.. it still FEELS like winter-on April 24th. I won’t complain though. We’re not in Minnesota where apparently, it’s just gonna snow, and snow, and snow. I still get the weather updates on my facebook page from the local news there… and I shudder at the amounts of snow they’ve gotten this year. Sympathy for MN. All I can say–is Spring will come… someday 🙂 But here in Montana, it’s still chilly-but the snow is gone. Yay! We all know how much of a fan of winter I am. Blah. Well, we’ve just been busy–living. The kids are out of school in just a few weeks. Seems a bit odd being that we haven’t even put away the winter stuff yet. Oh well.
Well since Sprinter is still in full swing, I’ve been inside doing some baking. We’ve really tried hard to do the clean eating thing. If I don’t buy it, they won’t eat it. But they like to eat. I mean, I have a husband, a teenage boy and a pre-teen daughter. There has to be good food to eat or they just start to get cranky. So, I experiment with “healthy” treats. I’ve gotten a few rave reviews and I figured I’d better share them. Disclaimer: We consume a LOT of organic coconut oil in this house–as you will see 🙂
Coconut Cinnamon granola
*preheat oven to 300*
1/2 C. agave
3/4 C. organic coconut oil
1/2 C. water
1/4 C. honey
1/2 t. salt
1/4 C. Chia seeds (optional)
Cook this on the stove-top until warm and all melted. Add 1 t. vanilla and 2 t. cinnamon. In a big bowl combine 7 C. old-fashioned oats and 1 C. chopped almonds. I dump in some cinnamon too. Pour 1/2 the liquid ingredients onto the oats. Stir. Pour the rest. Stir until all oats are moist. Grease 2 cookie sheets with coconut oil. Pour 1/2 the oat mixture on each pan. Spread it out. Sprinkle on more cinnamon. Bake at 300 for 30 minutes, stirring it up after 15 minutes. Sprinkle on more cinnamon. I love cinnamon-so I won’t tell you how much I put on mine 🙂 Turn oven down to 250 and bake for another 30 minutes, stirring and rotating occasionally. (It will begin to smell SO good in your house at this point!) Let the granola cool on the pan or pour onto wax paper on the counter for a while. Store in airtight container.
I eat this for breakfast 6 days a week. No lie. I just don’t get sick of it. Nice thing about this recipe is you can play with it. Add raisins? Kashi cereal? Dried cranberries? I don’t think you can go wrong here. Serve it with almond milk and a cup of coffee and you are set for the day! Enjoy 🙂
And…the newest favorite to the Parker house: coconut chocolate chip oatmeal bites. These are the bomb.com. We used to make “energy balls” in the past, but it used so much peanut butter and would often give me heartburn. So-I tweaked it and made it better. Way better.
Coconut chocolate chip oatmeal bites
1 C. Old fashioned oats
1/4 C. peanut butter
1 C. almond flour (easiest/cheapest way: blend some up in your Magic bullet or blender)
1/2 C. flax
1/3 C. honey
3/4 C. Organic coconut oil (just warm enough to melt-don’t get it too hot)
1 t. vanilla
1/4 C. mini chocolate chips
Here’s the fun part: mix. Use your hands. Get messy. If the texture seems to wet, add oats, too dry, add coconut oil. Roll into balls. Store in sealed container and keep in fridge. Yum!!
I hope you love these! Let me know if you do 🙂
The Parker Family 