Chocolate granola

We recently purchased a bulk amount of rolled oats for our porridge-loving daughter. My hubby also loves granola or muesli as we tend to call it here in Australia. I have wanted to make my own for a long time and it is so easy!

Whilst searching for a recipe to get a rough idea or proportions I came across an article about Sanitarium, a large food company in Australia throwing their weight around about trademarking the word "granola" in Australia: Sanitarium lays down law against cereal offender chefs. I wonder what Mr Kellogg what make of it all, the poor chap would be turning in his grave. Anyway, back to my granola recipe.

The flavour was beautiful for us and I was pleased to see my hubby not adding any raw honey to sweeten it. I think you could play around this with recipe. Add or exchange various dried fruits, double the cinnamon and nutmeg portions, add fresh ginger, cacao nibs, dessicated (dried) coconut, superfood powders.

Home-made granola served with raw hemp milk

This is very low in sweetener. All of my ingredients are organic, gmos and pesticides are not helpful for starting the day.

Yields/Servings: 6 cups

Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 25 to 30 minutes

Dry ingredients
5 cups rolled oats
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup black sesame seeds
1/2 cup chia seeds
1/2 to 1 cup nuts of your choice
1/2 cup psyllium husks
1 tbsp lucuma
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup raw cacao powder
 1 cup goji berries (you may prefer to add after cooking)

Wet ingredients
3 tbsp virgin coconut oil
1/2 cup to raw honey or other substitute

Preheat over 180c (160c Fan Forced Oven/320 F/Moderately Slow). Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Add dry ingredients to a bowl and mix well.

If coconut oil and/honey is hard, warm on a low heat to a syrup consistency. Add syrup to dry ingredients and mix well. Place mixture into baking tray.

Stir mixture a few times. 

Cultural serving suggestion: 

Sunday morning sit on the couch and put on Alan Parker's 1994 comedy, "The Road to Wellville" DVD. Starring a barely recognisable Anthony Hopkins as Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his Battle Creek Health Institute, Michigan. I loved Matthew Broderick, Dana Carvey and Bridget Fonda in this. Also stars John Cusack, Colm Meaney and Lara Flynn Boyle.

If you can't sleep ... here's why!

I just had an afternoon nap. A very rare thing for me. I feel so clear in the head.

raw vegan Banana Bread

I made this for a friend for a birthday a while ago. Bananas are one of her favourite foods and simple un-pretentious food, so this was perfect for her. I highly recommend you dehydrate this if you can. It really does taste like a banana bread. If you would like to know more about dehydrators and dehydrating techniques, please read my blog post: The "lowdown" on dehydrators.

Servings: 6 to 8 slices
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Equipment: food processor or blender, dehydrator

Ingredients:
11/2 cups ground almonds
1 cup walnuts
1 cup dates, pits removed
1 cup mashed banana
1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
Pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon
Pinch of sea salt
Optional: ½ tsp maca powder

Prepare a bread loaf tin. If you are using a metal tin, line it with cling wrap or baking paper.

Process almonds and walnuts in blender, food processor or coffee grinder and grind to a fine flour. Add pitted dates to food processor or blender and process until the mixture becomes like a ball of dough. Add banana, vanilla and spices. Place mixture in prepare bread loaf tin and chill for a few hours.

If dehydrating, pre-”heat” it for an hour at 115 degrees. Place banana bread in dehydrator for twelve hours. At the four or five hour mark, turn it over and you should be able to remove from the loaf tin so that it can dry really well.

Enjoy !

Announcement

Picture above: Berry Fruity Blissies. Raw * Vegan * nut-free * bliss balls. Cranberries and acai berry powder, just two of the ingredients that make these so fruity and sweet.

This is where I open myself up to some peer pressure and make an announcement. You may have noticed dear friends that I haven't posted any articles or recipes here for a while. This is partly due to some everyday factors like internet not working, caring for my daughter, de-cluttering and social events related to Christmas, writing fiction (my other hobby), all of which contribute to lack of energy, motivation and time availability.

For about two years or more, I have wanted to put my raw food creation recipes in a book. I have had a few different ideas on how to do this, it seems I have finally getting a more solid idea on how to put this together. There are a number of wonderful recipe books on raw food, as well as an enormous, ever expanding supply of recipes available on the internet. So I want to make sure that I can offer you something different, with my unique perspective. I have a title, and a number of recipes written but I anticipate it will take some time to complete. Fortunately I have two willing taste-testers at my house to ensure the recipes will taste yummy. I will do my best to give you some free recipes in the interim. Positive vibes and support greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Mary-Jane has a raw food crisis

Hope you are able to access this on Facebook as a public page. If not, please let me know:

Mary-Jane has a raw food crisis

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More recipes coming soon..... I just need to type them up :)