Thursday, March 11, 2010

homemade crunchy granola


Other granola recipes I've tried have been too sweet.
This one is perfect!


The original NY Times recipe is here, but I made some minor modifications and included my preferences in the recipe below.

6 cups Bob's Red Mill extra thick rolled oats
3 cups mixed raw nuts (I use cashew pieces, pecan pieces, sliced almonds)
1 cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Dash salt
1 cup wildflower honey (my preference; lighter honey also works)
1 1/2 cups chopped dried fruit (I use apricots, cherries)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine oats, nuts, coconut, cinnamon, and honey. Place on sheet pan lightly brushed with oil and put in oven. Check every 10-15 minutes and stir. As it gets browner, check every 5 minutes and stir. It should brown evenly - the browner it gets without burning, the crunchier the granola will be. Mine baked for 1 hour.

2. Remove pan from oven and add dried fruit. Cool on a rack, stirring once in awhile until granola reaches room temperature. Store in refrigerator in a sealed container.


After 1 hour of baking and before adding the fruit.


This oatmeal is thicker than Quaker Old Fashioned Oats,
which may be why my granola takes longer to bake
than the 40 minutes in the original recipe.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

A Powerful Mind



This morning I noticed a bruise underneath my big toenail. I don’t remember hitting my foot on anything, but all of a sudden my toe really started to hurt. Yep, it began to hurt after I saw the bruise.

I used to receive weekly acupuncture treatments, and some sensitive spots on my hands would hurt from the time the needle was inserted to when it was taken out. Oh, how I dreaded having my hands poked. One week, I was lying on the table while my hand ached from the needle and I bravely picked up my hand to look at it. There was no needle there! I realized my practitioner skipped that spot – so why was my hand hurting? Duh. It was all in my mind! Just like today, when my toe didn’t hurt until I saw it was bruised.

These experiences remind me how powerful our minds really are. And that, my friend, is empowering.

What is your mind telling you?