Hanna’s Do-It-Yourself Granola
A straightforward recipe for a healthy snack that your pre-teen kid can make for you. Everyone in my house loves this recipe so we tend to double it. I leave it sitting in a airtight container on the counter and next to it are little jars of mix-ins; dried fruit, toasted nuts, chocolate chips. A buffet!
1 pound rolled oats (3 cups) (I use gluten-free oats)
1 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
¼ cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ cup mixture of your favorite seeds: flax, chia, sesame, poppy, sunflower
¼ cup coconut oil
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 300°F (or for convection, 275°F)
In a large mixing bowl, combine rolled oats, coconut, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and seeds. Mix to combine. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, melt coconut oil over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in olive oil, maple syrup and vanilla.
On a large jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with 1-inch raised sides), spread your granola in an even layer. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden brown on the top. (30-35 minutes for convection.) Sometimes I take it out every 10-15 minutes and stir it. Other times, I simply don’t feel like fussing with it and don’t stir it at all.
Mix-ins: coarsely chopped unsweetened cherries, raisins, toasted nuts: almonds, pecans, walnuts, chocolate chips, yogurt, milk, ice cream and on and on.
Enjoy!
YIELD: One Large Batch
Hi Carrie…can’t wait to try the granola! Is your pediatrician Bruce Birk? He is ours and we love him 🙂 I recognize those questions…are you still a boy?
Glad Jack is feeling better!
Yes, Dr. Birk is a rockstar!
HA! I was going to write the exact message as Liz. I’d recognize that description of Dr. Birk anywhere. Thomas is 18 months so our rapid fire questions are more like, “Is he pooping? Is he peeing? Is he sleeping? Is he crying”. Great to know your son is doing better. Good luck!
Carrie,
so glad adorable Jack is feeling better! the diet is so hard but necessary for quality of life for us hypersensitive ones. I have to change up my diet frequently. when you don’t have time to make your granola, I love Udi’s gluten free simple au naturel – with raisins and rice milk!
Thanks for the tip, Kris. We will definitely check out the Udi’s granola!!
Hi Carrie. Loved your Mom. Part of our church family over many years. Now, I hope to read your blog and enjoy you! I stopped carbonated drinks and especially my beloved vanilla lattes because….bloat bloat bloat! Why have something just because you can, if it makes you feel bad! Paying attention to more simple foods is my goal this year. Eat them the way God made them….without too much “scientific” intervention. More organic, less manufactured food. Who even knows what half of some of those ingredients on boxes are?! Here’s to Spring garden planting!
Thank you for stopping by, Nancy. Love to have little bits of my mom here through her friends. And good to know that you felt the same way about the vanilla lattes. They taste so good but feel so bad.
Oh how I have missed your posts. I have kept you in my prayers dear friend. So glad your boy is healthy and growing.
I do ask myself how did that make me feel. I cut out fru fru coffees long ago, and pop. I feel so much better when I drink lotsa water!
xox
Sheila
I agree, dear Sheila, water is the way!! (Well, water, coffee and wine now and again.)
All about juicing, health, but will never give up my coffee. HA HA. I’m so glad your boy is better! I know it’s been a rough road …
I keep hearing about more and more people who swear by juicing. We tend to be a smoothie family over here but someday I may give the juicing a whirl. Thanks for stopping by, my friend!
We are our children’s best advocate and champion! xoxo
Indeed! xo
Here’s to loving ourselves and coffee!
I think there’s something about the “ritual” of coffee that is definitely true love.
One of the biggest nuggets in this post is “how do you feel” whether it’s what you ate, who you spent time with, or what you do for a living. If it doesn’t make you feel alive and healthy is there something you can change? Life is too short to feel “unwell.” I’m glad things have changed for Jack. <3
Tammy, you are so right. It’s much more than just how we feel about food. I love your sentence, “Life is too short to feel “unwell.” Thank you, friend.
I nourish myself this way too Carrie, thinking about what truly makes me feel well, nourished, settled and calm. A few years ago I was having constant reflux (I was 23 years old) and bloating, stomach pains…and the rest and so I gave up meat and then wheat. I have never felt better in my life. Recently I had to have emergency gallbladder surgery and I can only imagine how much sooner this would have flared up if I had continued to nourish myself with the foods that weren’t making me feel well.
Now I eat a wholefood vegetarian diet with treats thrown in (a girl can’t live without cookies!) and I feel truly nourished, so nourished in fact that I called my blog ‘Thoroughly Nourished Life’.
I am so glad that Jack is feeling better, and now he knows what he needs to do for his body for the rest of his life. What a gift for you to be able to give your son. Take care, friend.
Amy, I’m so thrilled you are feeling better. Thank you so much for sharing your story. It may help others who are reading these comments and are having similar symptoms to what you experienced. Love the name of your blog!! Perfect.
Carrie,
First time to respond – in written words. I was at the doctor a year ago complaining for the 10th time about my gut. We know that food doesn’t really resonate with me other then I need fuel and to feed those kids wondering within our home but I was having these challenges, so I was paying attention and wondering what to do because this gut problem was limiting my “drink choices”. Several types of alcohol sent my gut to “yuck” on a Friday night and who wants to be a buzz kill – literally. The doctor looked at me and said, “seriously, how hard is this … just do your own experiment, pick a drink (beer all hopped up) and listen to what your body tells you”. This experiment played out each weekend and I am happy to say this; after a period of time I “whittled” out all of the best alcohol drinks to leave myself with a very reasonable bar tab. Me and the “cheap” not hopped up alcohols are getting along in perfect fashion (happy to hear about Jack). KSamer
Thanks for sharing your story, Kris. It’s really making me think. I had to cut out all the “fancy microbrewed beers” years ago because they gave me terrible intestinal issues. Every once in a while, I’ll have a light or pale ale and I don’t seem to have the same problem. Maybe, like you, it’s the hops. Something to think about. And, hey, a cheaper tab is always a welcome sight.
I’ve missed you so, Carrie!
I love this post for 2 reasons… 1 – your boy is feeling better and that’s awesome and 2 – the simple tip of asking ourselves how we feel after eating something. That’s a simple way to be in tune with ourselves but so overlooked. Thank you!
Kristen, I’ve missed connecting here and over at your fabulous site as well. I’m glad to be back. Thanks for letting me know you stopped by!!
What a great post, Carrie. I’m so glad your son is doing much better.
Your line about complicating the act of feeding reminds me of what we talked about last year. So true and so unfortunate, but hopefully things will keep turning around. Just the other day I had someone comment to me at the grocery store that I was a such a healthy eater because they saw a bunch of produce bags. The sad reality is that people equate mere real ingredients/whole foods with healthy food, when in fact it’s just ACTUAL food. Ugh. I digress…did I mention how glad I am that you’re back.
Thanks for stopping by today, Jamie. You and I are on the same track. We just need to keep going forward. Disappointed I missed out on BTP this year and seeing you. Hopefully, I can join in the fun next spring!!
I’ve been thinking about you lately!! So great to hear from you and I’m so glad your son is feeling better. I love the message about listening to our bodies!
Thank you for stopping by Liz!!
Hello, Carrie……….
I so enjoyed reading this blog about your son. I have been on a “food journey” this last year myself. This led to incredible results in energy and not being sick with colds, flu, and sinus infections anymore. I have had to rethink my whole approach to nutrition! But I have a grandson I think is in need of the same thing you did for your son. I gave Holly your website address in hopes that she would be inspired to focus on his needs. I would love to visit with you about this more when we get the chance…….
Thank you for stopping by, Dottie. And we will definitely have to chat more about all of this. 🙂