Granola🍲

Granola with yogurt and plums

I am not a breakfast person and I don’t see myself converting anytime soon. Marley on the other hand is a breakfast person. This conundrum gave birth to the simplest and healthiest solution that I could come up with – Granola!

Granola is an easy to make dish and has a shelf life of 1 month. You may add seasonal fruits and yogurt to it and you are good to go.

It is also an easy item to carry with you to have it at your work place and isn’t messy at all. Furthermore in this heat, fresh fruits and yogurt can do wonders to one’s stomach.

Lest we forget, this breakfast is packed with healthy fats, natural sugar, protein, fiber and doesn’t require you to sweat in front of a flame.

Ingredients:

1. 500gms rolled oats
2. 50gms almonds
3. 50gms cashews
4. 50gms melon seeds
5. 50gms groundnuts
6. 50gms raisins
7. 100ml water
8. Maple syrup/honey

 

Freshly baked Granola

Method:

1. Crush almonds, cashews and groundnuts coarsely and mix it with the oats.
2. Then add the melon seeds to the mixture and set aside.
3. In a pan boil the water and add maple syrup according to your taste. I didn’t want my granola sweet so I used about 4 tablespoons.
4. Once the maple syrup dissolves in the water and the mixture comes to a boil add it to the oats mixture.
5. Gently fold the oats so as to coat all the dry ingredients. You will have a damp yet not too wet mixture. Don’t add too much water, soggy oats will not taste good.
6. Once the mix is ready, put a sheet of butter paper on a tray and evenly spread the mixture.
7. Put the tray in the microwave and bake it at 100℃ for 12 – 16 minutes or until it is done.
8. Once done take the tray out and let it completely cool.
9. Then add raisins to it and mix well and transfer to an air tight container.
10. Your granola is ready to use.

Granola with yogurt and pears

Notes:

1. You may use cranberries and other sun dried berries instead of or along with raisins. Kids especially like their granola sweet.
2. Microwaves have hot spots and leaving anything for over 4 minutes in it results in patches being burnt. In our microwave the center is where the mixture browns first. So, every four minutes I stir the mixture on the tray to get it to cook evenly.
3. You can use honey instead of maple syrup. I had run out of honey but had syrup at hand.
4. Similarly you can add any nut you want. (Except the one that you are living with 😉)
5. I find 4 tablespoons of granola + Fresh fruits and yogurt, make a filling meal.
6. Store the granola in an air tight container. Do not refrigerate.