Granola Girl

There are exactly 19 days until my husband walks across that stage, diploma in hand, and our future is yet undetermined. Will we return to our beloved Southern California, will we stay in St. Louis, or will we end up somewhere entirely different? These questions are plaguing our minds while my husband, Dan, is saturating his brain with information to write papers and take finals. My gut tells me we belong in our native land where the avocado trees grow and the waves crash on the sand. I miss visiting the Redwood forests in Santa Cruz, sitting on the beach feeling the off shore breeze, gazing at the ever present mountain ranges. But St. Louis has been our home for the last 3 years and we have made deep friendships that will be difficult to leave. We are all homesick, and sick to leave home.

I mentioned in my last post that when I am stressed I bake. Well, it is a stressful time and my body keeps telling me, "I think you should treat yourself to some granola". I think my body is right! Being a California girl granola is part of my being. I recently posted on my facebook page that stress eating on a gluten-free/sugar-free diet is not very satisfying, but I think this granola recipe begs to differ.

Why sugar free? Well, it has come to my attention over the past year and a half of being "sugar"-free that my body reacts to cane sugar as if I have an allergy. After all, it is technically a grass, and I have terrible hay fever. My eyes immediately get itchy, my nose gets runny, I get sleepy. In a day or two it developes into a cold. In my opinion it is not worth having a cookie that will do that much damage. I also have an aversion to eating anything synthetic or chemically altered, so that disqualifies most of the sugar subtitues that are in products labelled "sugar-free". Stevia in limited doses is fine, but long term it starts to alter my hormone levels and do crazy things! Add on top of that a corn allergy, and even though I would not be eager to ingest corn syrup in any form, my body clearly rejects that possibility as well. But through all these challenges I actually feel like one of the lucky ones...forced into healthy, or slightly more healthy eating.

All I can say is AMEN for Agave and Coconut Palm Sugar. I still have to keep my intake of sweets (even fruits) at bay, but it means that I don't have to give up culinary goodness altogether. I just have to keep my special products on hand, put in a little elbow grease and my cravings are satisfied. Almost everything must be made from scratch in my kitchen, but that does not mean it has to be difficult or time consuming. In fact, I just started munching on my treat that was placed in the oven only 30 minutes ago. It's warm, crispy and slightly sweet. I hope you will enjoy it as much as my family and me!

This recipe was adapted from one of my favorite chefs...Alton Brown...Goog Eats!

Ingredients

3 cups gluten-free rolled oats (I use Trader Joe's, but Bob's Red Mill works also)

1 cup chopped almonds

1 cup gluten free Brown Rice Crisp cereal (I use Erewhon)

3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut, optional (this has cane sugar in it)

1/4 cup coconut palm sugar (Sweet Tree brand)...or you could use brown sugar if you don't need to be sugar free

1/4 cup Agave syrup...or you could use real maple syrup...not the fake stuff!

1/4 cup coconut oil...you could use Canola if you choose

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup raisins or other dried fruit, optional...they are very high in fruit sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, cereal, coconut and palm sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine agave syrup, oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto a sheet pan covered with parchment paper. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to achieve an even color.

Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins or dried fruit if desired and mix until evenly distributed.