Embrace Your Inner Hippie

Granola... It's not just a fancy word for describing hippies anymore. It's in my kitchen and it's delish. The more I try to stay away from chemical ingredients that I've never heard of and processed food, the more I look into things I can make at home. Let's be more honest... the more I look into EASY things I can make at home. Because buying things at the store is really, really easy, but if I can easily make something at home, then I'm game. 

So at the end of the chicken salad post I told you I was using the chicken carcass to make chicken stock. That is a super easy (you are going to be seeing this word a lot in this post) process and you can use chicken stock in all kinds of ways. I put the cooked stock in the fridge overnight. The fat floats to the top and hardens. You take the stock out, spoon off the fat and trash it, then freeze the stock in whatever portions you want. Mine is laying flat in the freezer in ziplock freezer bags. 

My next move was to try out homemade granola. My husband eats granola for breakfast and my daughter loves it too, and we've never really settled on the perfect granola. Most of the time they are just too sweet. I had been eying a recipe from 100 Days of Real Food for a while and I finally pulled the trigger. I had the spices and a few other things on hand. Everything I didn't have I could find in the bulk section of our HEB. The unsweetened shredded coconut was with the dried fruits. This was a GREAT recipe to make with kids too because it involves dumping things in a bowl. I had a three year old helper who was REALLY excited about making granola. 

Here is the recipe direct from 100 Days of Real Food. It makes 3lbs of granola:

Ingredients

• 3½ cups rolled oats (if you want bars use steel cut oats so it will stick together better)
• 1 cup raw sliced almonds
• 1 cup raw cashew pieces (or walnuts or pecans) - we used pecans
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• ½ cup raw sunflower seeds
• ½ cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1½ teaspoons ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon grated or ground nutmeg
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ½ cup honey
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Also need – parchment paper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Cover a rectangular baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix the dry oats, almonds, cashews, coconut, seeds and spices together in a large mixing bowl.
3. Heat the butter and honey together in a small saucepan over low heat. Once the butter melts stir in the vanilla and salt.
4. Pour the hot liquids over the dry ingredients and stir together with a rubber spatula until evenly coated.
5. Spread mixture onto prepared pan in one even layer. Bake for 75 minutes.
6. The granola will become crisp as it cools at which point you can break into pieces (if making bars) or break it up into small chunks by pounding it in a zip lock bag (if making cereal). Store in air tight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Here's the sous chef showing off her dry ingredients. I did a little more stirring after this pic. 

Easy peasy honey and butter on the stove with the vanilla extract:

We mixed the wet and the dry with the spatula and then poured it on the parchment lined cookie sheet. (Look mom, I'm a real grown up who now has parchment paper!)

Seventy five minutes later, this crispy goodness came out:

and we did this to it:

And then packaged it away like this:

Later in the day my inner hippie wasn't done. (She had a big day.) I made my own hummus, which was so easy (there's the word again. Sorry) I was able to make a last minute decision to do it. There are tons of different versions and ways, this is what I did:

Lemon Garlic Hummus

2C Chickpeas (also called Garbanzo Beans) drained and rinsed

1/3 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice (I had two really juicy lemons and used them up)

1.5 Tablespoons of Tahini (found usually in the asian food section of your store. It's sesame seed paste)

3 Cloves of Garlic, Minced

Put it all in a food processor (I did mine in the medium sized Ninja Pro canister) like so:

 Then you pulse it and this happens:

BOOM! HUMMUS! And it was SO GOOD. I'm never buying hummus again. 

I have lots of facebook friends who make their own lotion. Hummus, granola & chicken stock are just child's play. You can totally do this. Or you can still buy it all at the store. No judgement here. But this tastes so much better. Just saying. 

Peace, Love & Granola,

RT