Groovy Granola

I’ve been absent from the blogosphere for a bit… I was just blown away by the horrible end of vacation blues. It’s never hit me so hard before, but with Guppy being so little and so into the festivities and being able to spend time doing fun things like coloring pictures with her, baking, stitching groovy ornaments for our solstice tree, and snuggling with Mr. Fish in front of a DVD, well, it was hard to give up. Not to mention the fact that with Back to School often comes back to bacteria and the Guppy & I have been swapping microbes much of the month of January. So much for “I never get sick!”

I have no transition at all here folks, so here’s what you’re here for: The Shellyfish Groovy Granola recipe. Last night I whipped up a batch to keep on hand for mornings when I just haven’t the time to think of something healthy to put into the Shellybelly- especially after a run where it’s oh-so-important to eat a good, balanced something within the hour after your run (and often it’s more like an hour and a half to two hours because life gets between me and my breakfast).

This is totally my recipe because in addition to inventing the wheel, I invented granola, of course! No, seriously, this is my recipe, but feel free to add, subtract & multiply your ingredients however you see fit. I don’t know how many servings it makes because an arbitrary serving size is pointless unless you’re measuring your granola in the morning with a scale or measuring cup. This recipe made about 1 kilo/2 lbs ish of super yummy goodness that you can sprinkle over your soy yogurt or enjoy with some non-dairy milk of your choice. I also love it over applesauce, but hey, what you do with your granola is your business!

(The measurements are Imperial- sorry- next time I’ll do it in grams promise!)

1. 4 cups oat flakes
2. 1 cup almond slivers or chopped almonds
3. 1 cup raw sunflower seeds
4. 3/4 cup flax seeds
5. 1 cup wheat germ
6. 1/2 to 3/4 cups shredded coconut- it’s your call, dude
7. 1tbsp (or more) each of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, or allspice yourself happy
8. 1tbsp (or more) vanilla
9. 3/4 cups agave syrup
10. 1/2 cup (or less) vegetable oil

Preheat your oven to 350f

Put all the dry ingredients in a big bowl & mix around to be sure that the spices are mixed about. I mix the wet stuff in a smaller bowl first before adding it to the dry because I find it works better, but I can’t make you do that, so just mix it all up till everything is wet and pour it out onto two cookie sheets or two lasagna-type pans (I find this works better for the stirring later). You’ll bake for a total of about 30-35mins, but you need to take out your granola & stir it up every 10 minutes to get it all nice & evenly baked. Let it cool & put it in an airtight container. You can also stir in some dried fruit if you want at this point, but I just add it directly to my bowl if I’m feeling fruity. I find that adding the dried fruit to the granola now dries it out a bit.

This is my basic recipe, and I play with it all the time. I think I’m going to use brown rice syrup next time to see how that works out- I also use maple syrup when I’m out of agave or if I’m doing more of a pumpkin-pie flavoured granola.