Crunchy Coconut Buckwheat Granola

I love granola. I mean, really love it. I love fruity smoothies poured in a bowl and topped with granola (I eat it like soup, haha). Yogurt topped with granola. Granola by the handful. Whatever. I love homemade granola the best though, because then I control what is in it. Store-bought granola, in my opinion, falls into two categories: Tons of fat/sugar and no fat or sugar which equals no taste. It's not secret that I'd always prefer the tons of fat/sugar version because this is where the flavor is.

However, making it yourself gives you that control and then you get the best of both worlds! All in the palm of your hands. Don't you love it when you get control of the situation?

The recipe I'm sharing is not mine. I *do* have a recipe that I've used in the past, but I found this one while spending way too much time on casually browsing Pinterest. Since I love (and I mean LUV) coconut I knew I needed to make it. Two Peas and Their Pod has some awesome recipes. Really decadent stuff. This is the first time I've made anything from there and I will absolutely be doing a few more as well, if this granola is any indication of the quality. Their recipe  was pretty darned perfect (and their photography makes mine look like Amelia took the pictures). Except that I have this new buckwheat and I was dying to make granola with it. Raw buckwheat groats are actually edible. They have sort of a 'Grape Nuts' sort of flavor and texture that I really love! In granola though? Over the top!

Here is the recipe with the changes I made to it:

2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup buckwheat groats (I used Bob's Red Mill brand)
3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (Original recipe called for sweetened but I love unsweetened)
2/3 cup slivered almonds
2 tbls ground flax
1/4 cup wheat germ2 tablespoons Trader Joes Maple Sugar (This recipe only has 2 grams of sugar per serving, the amounts can absolutely be increased if you would rather have a sweeter end result)1 teaspoon cinnamon1/4 teaspoon salt3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted1/2 cup local orange blossom honey1 teaspoon vanilla extract1/4 teaspoon coconut extract 


1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Combine sugar, cinnamon, coconut oil, applesauce and honey in a sauce pan and heat just until combined and sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and then add in the extracts. Set aside for a moment. 

Combine remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl and pour the wet mixture over the dry. Stir well to combine. 

Pour the granola mixture out onto a large cookie sheet covered with either parchment or a silicone baking mat. 

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes (this is the length of time and cooking temp Alton Brown uses for his recipe and I find this works the best to get an evenly toasted granola without any burnt pieces).

Let cool and store in an air-tight container.



This one is pretty nutrient dense and isn't lower in fat or calories than your store bought counterparts. However, it's MUCH lower in sugar and all that fat and calories are from REAL foods.

Also, one of the things I absolutely love about granola is it's pretty forgiving! I've substituted puffed rice or crispy rice cereal to cut back on some of the calories. However, I found that in this case, I'd rather have a smaller serving than give up too much of the oats. The crispy and puffed cereals both add something to the texture though and if you enjoy those cereals you definitely can incorporate them.

Also, you can add different nuts, seeds and other mix-ins. I have made gingerbread granola, maple granola, pumpkin spice granola and vanilla bean granola. Plus, you can add fruits (though I suggest adding them after). Alternately, you can go absolutely PLAIN and just use oats for a seriously basic granola that you can then add to other recipes (like granola bars and cookies, etc). So you can really get creative here based on your tastes.

Whatever you do, enjoy!

Chewy granola bars

As promised I've got some recipes to share. Plus some fantastic photography.

I'm not sure I should call these bars granola bars since I didn't make them using granola. Oh well, what I should call them is seriously tasty. I've been on the hunt for some time now for a bar snack I could send the girls to school with that they love. I've been done with buying the processed ones (even though so-called 'healthier versions') so we've been making due with extra fruit and veggie snacks. The girls come home starved those days though, and I knew I needed to get back to the drawing board.

The problem is that I needed them to fit the following criteria:

- They needed to be chewy
- They needed to NOT be made with a ton of sugar or any seriously refined sugar
- They needed to actually *stick* in the form of a bar (which seemed to hard to find without using a lot of sugar, which violated my second criteria
- The girls needed to love them.
- No peanuts or nuts (although that one I could easily get around by using sunflower seed butter)

So I have made several batches. Some Grace ate in the form of granola. Some no one wanted to eat. Some were hard as a rock and some were so nutritionally dense (and not in a good way) that I didn't want anyone eating them.

So enter Chocolate Covered Katie. Oh, haven't you met? She's this amazing food blogger who pretty much takes every little fun treat and flips it around to include healthy ingredients. Because life is so much more fun when you get dessert. She's done everything from Copycat recipes (reeses and oreos anyone?) to perfect little individual cakes. Obviously desserts are still desserts and should be consumed once in a while and not every day, but with these recipes you can indulge without twelve million ingredients that you can't even pronounce. The reeses? I can vouch that they genuinely taste like the famous ones. Even my kids will tell you. Anyway, I'm getting off point. Her 'copycat' for the Quaker bars is pretty much the first bar recipe that actually worked. Met all the criteria, and I'm pretty excited for trying out different varieties in the future and adding other fun things like flax and chia.

Copycat Recipe- Quaker-style chewy granola bars - courtesy of my favorite dessert blogger. Seriously, she rocks.

Sorry for my horrible picture. Looks good though right? Sorry, this one's mine. 

So as usual, I'm going to share the link to the original, but what I'm posting is how I made them. Check out her site for other substitution information, as well as a 'no bake' and gluten free options. Did I mention how awesome she is?

Quaker-Style Chewy Granola Bars

• 1 cup rolled oats 
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup brown rice crispies (I used sprouts version. Ingredients list: whole brown rice)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp oat flour (I'm assuming you could mix this up with things like almond or coconut meal or other flours)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp coconut oil 
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tbls coconut sugar (or other sweetener of choice)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp applesauce (banana would probably work as well, or pumpkin!)
• Ideas for the add-ins: mini chocolate chips, chopped raisins or other dried fruit, shredded coconut, chopped walnuts, etc.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all dry ingredients and mix very well. (If you don’t have oat flour: simply grind rolled oats in a food processor to make oat flour. Be sure to measure the correct amount of flour for the recipe after grinding, not before.) In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Stir wet into dry and use another sheet of parchment (or wax) paper to squish evenly-coated mixture into a parchment-lined 7×5 pan (or double the recipe for a 9×13). Squish very, very hard, with a can or something heavy. Bake 18 minutes, then squish very hard again. Cool in the fridge for at least ten minutes before cutting into bars. (I just let them cool on the counter though it was hard to be patient)

*My notes* - I used mini Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate chips and finely shredded coconut as my mix-ins. 1/4 cup each. I felt like I could taste each of these items just fine with these measurements. I doubled the recipe and used a 9x13 plus a SECOND 9x13 to use for pressing down. I LITERALLY stood on top of it. I think, in all honesty, this is probably where I ran into issues with granola bars in the past, not pressing the mixture down enough. I might consider cutting back a wee bit more on the sugar next time, and upping the applesauce a tiny bit. Plus, I'll probably play around with adding flax and wheat germ and a few other healthier mix ins. For now though, we're all enjoying these.  

But with doubling the recipe, I got 20 bars, comparable in size to the Quaker brand version. I individually wrapped these and stuck them in the freezer. I'll stick them in their bags for lunches or snacks. I don't send them this type of stuff everyday. However, at our school snacks must be fairly portable since the kids eat them outside before recess. 

So enjoy! If you make them, please share what you mixed in and how you liked them!

Here is how they stack up:
This version has: 124 calories, 5 grams of fat, 6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein, and 2 grams of fiber

Quaker version has: 100 calories, 3 grams of fat, 7 grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein and 1 gram of fiber. (Plus they have all the following as well)

Don't mind me..

I'm just trying really hard to bounce back from this illness. It's magically transformed from strep to a sinus infection.

I have recipes though! I want to share them because I'm pretty excited about them. One for granola (I'll share mine plus link to the original) and granola bars (ditto). So stay tuned! I'm particularly excited for the granola because it turned out pretty fantastic PLUS there is a fun ingredient I included that has just added the best crunch!

Understanding Vegan "Complete" Proteins

We didn't go all the way to vegan. Yet. It is something we ideally wanted to do. Trying to go from one extreme to another really intimidated me, however, and felt overwhelming. Vegetarian seemed a very comfortable place to settle for now.

In making this huge change I needed to make sure we were all still getting enough protein. In order to do this, I had to really understand what a protein is, what makes up a protein and which sources would be best for us.

Proteins are basically essential for the repair and growth of tissue in our bodies. Proteins are made up of things called amino acids. Now, I don't want to get too technical, because to be honest I'm not an expert at all. I can get the basics though. There are 20 amino acids, many of which we make in our bodies. The remaining are referred to as 'essential amino acids' because well, that's what they are to us. We can't make them ourselves but they are essential for that tissue growth and repair.

In all the sources of proteins we can get in our diets, there are two types, complete and incomplete. If they contain all the essential amino acids (I think there are 8 or 9), they are called complete proteins. If they don't, they are called incomplete proteins.

So many things can be sources of protein, but in eliminating meat, poultry and fish (all complete proteins) I needed to research some others. We do still include dairy and eggs though, which are also complete proteins. We cannot live on omelets alone however, and so I would like to cut back on how much we rely on them for protein.

Plant-based proteins are how vegans include all the proteins they need for their diets. If you combine your proteins in specific combinations they will make a complete protein. For example, combining lentils and brown rice. Or black beans and peanuts. However, there are a few complete plant-based proteins and I plan to include them in our diets regularly. I'm going to introduce you to three I've been researching here, with the exception of soy. Soy is sort of the lead player in the vegetarian diet, but I'm avoiding it because I have thyroid disease.

Quinoa (keen-wah)- Quinoa is one of my favorites and we have actually been eating this for some time now. Quinoa is actually not a grain at all and believe it or not, it's closely related to spinach and beets! If you find an official gluten free variety (which means that it's not grown near wheat, which apparently can cause cross-contamination) then it's a great option for those who are gluten-free. You can use quinoa for many things. Quinoa can be ground into flour and used for pastas, in bread recipes, and I even have a hot cereal similar to oatmeal. It has sort of a nutty flavor, and from it's original form it cooks up like rice. There are a couple varieties to look for as well.

Amaranth: This grain has been harvested for going on 8000 years and it was a staple grain for the Aztecs! Very cool. It's another gluten free option for my GF friends and it puffs up a bit when cooked, like rice. It can also be popped like popcorn! I plan to try this soon!

Buckwheat: This is another GF one I've been the most excited about trying. I mean, who hasn't seen 'Buckwheat Pancakes' on a brunch menu from time to time? Finding a complete protein I can make pancakes out of? Score! By the way, if you've eaten soba noodles then you've enjoyed buckwheat. Soba is the Japanese name for buckwheat. Buckwheat is much healthier when eaten in it's whole form rather than flour but either way has many uses. We just had buckwheat waffles for dinner. So you can cook buckwheat like rice. What's cool about it though is you can just eat it right out of the bag! To me it tastes a little like Grape Nuts. It's kind of crunchy and nutty. It can be eaten on salads, yogurts, smoothies, tossed in and baked with granolas. Plus, it's got a ton of health benefits.

So in case you can't tell I'm really excited about including more of these 'non grains' in our daily diets.

So honorable mention goes to two more that I haven't had the chance to really check into yet, but am actually already including. Hemp (um, yes, it's the fiber of the cannabis plant) and Spirulina. Spirulina is actually a blue-green algae and has a fairly strong flavor so I'm still working on ways to include it, but I do take a supplement. Here are some links if you'd like to learn more about spirulina and hemp.

I'll make sure to share any fun recipes I find, and I hope if you try them you'll do the same!

***I'm not a doctor or even a registered dietician (yet!), so if you come across any incorrect information, please feel free to comment below!! I'm always up to learning something new!

No Thank You

I know. I'm a terrible mother. I actually don't make them eat the food I cook. I don't send them to bed hungry. I still have nightmares of sitting in the dark at a babysitters' house, with a plateful of these huge white beans that I refused to eat. She turned the dining room light down and left me in there with those damned beans. She wouldn't even give me more water to choke them down with.

People say "oh, don't worry about traumatizing them by making them eat these foods, they won't remember it tomorrow".. oh, I remember.

So I've always been careful with that. Plus, I've always sort of let them eat when they're hungry. They get 20 minutes to eat lunch at school and a few minutes for a snack during the day so when they get home they are quite hungry and I just let them snack. Not on horrible foods or anything. They still snack though.

I've not had huge issues with this however. I know so many people who just hate my method here. I feel like though, that I'm teaching them to eat when they are hungry. My kids are more than capable of saying "I'm not hungry, thanks" and I'm glad for that.

Since I started cooking "real food" though, time is a little more stretched. I am getting more and more tired of making a second meal for Grace and Cate, who I end up feeding slightly earlier than us because of that. Then because Amelia wants to eat with Grace and Cate, she eats what they eat even though she would most often *gladly* eat what we eat (and btw- Amelia and I eat the same thing for lunch, I don't make two lunches when it's just us, so you know.. I got things right with her).

So dinner has just become a little bigger issue. Plus, as is usual with picky eaters and problem eaters, I feel like their small circle of acceptable foods are shrinking. Now, I do 'enrich' their foods. They know this. It's a thing here. Chris even started calling it enriched. "Are the pancakes enriched?" "Is this smoothie enriched?" I add flax, various greens, protein powders (whey and pea), extra eggwhites (to pancakes), etc. They know I do this. They watch me stuff fresh baby kale or frozen spinach into the blender with the fruit and yogurt. They see me dump flax and chia seeds into the pancake batter. While they accept this method in that way, there are several dozen other things that I can't get them to eat. Now, I'm not posting about this because I want someone to fix my family. My family is just that. MY family. Not YOUR family. What works for you may not work for me. It's not like I haven't tried other methods. So your kids eat everything? Good for you.

Whole Wheat Vegetable Quesadillas (100 Days of Real Food, love her!) is what I made for dinner tonight though, for *all* of us. I used sauteed kale and zucchini on whole wheat tortillas with cheese. I served that with their standard 'cheese crisp' side of avocado, Fage 0% (instead of sour cream, try it! It rocks!), broccoli/green beans and a little fruit.

Enough of the sides that if they chose not to eat the quesadilla they wouldn't go hungry. The food itself familiar enough that it wasn't a completely foreign object being thrown at them. They knew about it ahead of time.

Well, they each ate a 'no thank you bite'. Grace actually ate close to an entire little section. In the end however, most of theirs was left. It's a start.

They understand the new program and they know this is not going away. They even know that I'll serve this same thing again next week. And that next week they will have to take another 'no thank you bite', because you know.. sometimes you just have to try things again and again before you realize you like them (or so every damned child nutrition expert says).

It's definitely a struggle. I guess though, that I'm finally ready to take the challenge, and I never was before. I feel like my taste buds have grown up so much in the past 6 months. That I'm so much more open to healthy and clean eating and real food that I want to share that with them.

Plus there is that thing about us giving up meat and while they weren't big meat eaters, well ever, they will be missing some nutrients from that. Some of which will still come from dairy and eggs, but some will be best received from plant-based nutrition.

So wish me luck. I've done a lot of great things for myself over the last half year. Baking our own bread, crackers, peanut butter... making exercise a necessary part of our routine (and letting them know that my needs ARE important where this is concerned), giving up all junk food and fast food.. that is all for them. And so is this. Someday they'll see that.

Right now, I think they're pretty upset. And a little hungry.

How I recuperate

I thought I would take todays post and share with you how I handle illness. Or rather, how I handle it now.

Taking a break from strenuous exercise- On Thursday morning when I nearly passed out while making the girls' lunches it was pretty clear that I needed a break. I didn't realize what was wrong at that point but I knew my body was telling me something. So I went back to bed. Luckily, I have a great husband who was willing to tag team in so the girls could get to school on time and I could get some rest.

I felt somewhat better on Friday, though I knew I needed to see a doctor since my throat was still bothering me (and my ear was sort of aching as well). I thought I might get away with a light walk that evening, but an afternoon doctors' visit confirmed my strep throat suspicion so I bagged the walk idea.

Yesterday I felt terrible so there was no way I was going to even try to do more than rest and try to help take care of my family.

Today has been declared an official rest day. Other than a little laryngitis, I'm feeling much better. However, trying to do too much too soon can result in getting sore (when you normally wouldn't) and feeling tired and achy throughout your workout. However, I'm not laying around in bed. Now that I'm not contagious, today is all about laundry (getting rid of those germs!) and cooking and veggie prep for the week ahead. I may go for a very light walk this evening as well.

Tomorrow, I'll get back into the game with a long walk, perhaps a short bike ride and just generally trying to be active. I won't do a strenuous cardio session (though if my walk turns into a comfortable jog, that will be fine). Tuesday I'll get back into it, heading into the gym for a serious sweat (as long as it feels as comfortable as it normally does). Plus, I'll be making sure to get some good stretching in before and after.

Your body uses a lot of energy in healing itself when you are sick. Even if you take medicine and painkillers, your body is working hard! Causing it to overwork when you are sick does you no favors. Let your body rest and it will let you know when you're ready to go. If you're worried about losing your focus, ask a couple friends to bug the heck out of you when you're feeling better to get focused again.

Hydrate- and I don't mean with juice/soda/sports drinks, etc., unless it's juice you're juicing yourself. I mean water or hot tea. I wasn't nearly as good about this as I should have been (hey, swallowing food/water is hard when you have strep) but I'm really making sure to make up for it with these last two rest days. One of the biggest complications from illnesses like strep and the flu and colds is dehydration. Your body needs those fluids more than ever! I will tell you what, warm tea with a little honey is also helping to sooth my scratchy throat.

Good, healthy foods- Lots of immunity boosting things like citrus, ginger and garlic. Eat what your comfortable eating (meaning, if it hurts to swallow you may want to stick with some comforting healthy soups), but keep it light. Also, I don't know about you but dairy tends to aggravate my throat when I'm sick, making it feel harder to swallow. If you're not super hungry, try smaller snacks if you can to help nourish your body, supplying the energy to heal. Things like almonds, fresh fruit, hard-boiled eggs, and vegetable soups. Include protein, which helps your body build and maintain strength. Definitely make sure to eat something though! I know that you may not feel like it, and some people love that post-illness weight drop. Please remember though that a) it's temporary and b) it's not fat you've lost, it's most likely water weight. Plus, you do NOT want your body noshing on your muscle in the absence of food.

So hopefully these things will allow me to get back to my routine this next week and enjoy the nice weather we have in our forecast. Plus, since I've been down for the count, the house is a wreck and I definitely have some chores ahead of me!

What are some of your 'must haves' when you're sick! Are you a chicken soup kinda person? Ice cream? Flat Sprite and saltines (that used to be mine, but no more soda for me!)

Stay healthy people!

Edited: Good thing I checked back. I do know how to spell recuperate...

Cutting Out Unprocessed Food

I know that I've been relaxed about posting but I have strep.. yeah, I know (acknowledging all the sympathetic looks and nods).

So I thought for today while I'm healing and resting that I would direct you all over to a great blog about a family going unprocessed. 100 Days of Real Food. Lisa Leake and her family pledged to go 100 days without any refined or processed foods. She's got so may great tips and recipes for ridding your house of all these processed foods that those of us with kids especially seem to rely on.

I'm still going into the archives and reading up, because lots of the things she has covered are things I deal with. Picky Eaters, what to pack for lunches and OMG how to handle the 'Birthday-treat-at-school' thing.

To start though, here is her list of 10 Reasons to Cut Out Processed Foods. So you know, don't take my word for it. Take hers. She's more famous than I am. ;)

Happy Reading! Please share your top reason for cutting out processed foods in the comments, I'd love to hear them! Come on, give me some entertainment while I'm resting.