Homemade Granola

In January I signed up for Michelle Bridges 12wbt.  While I know there is nothing more boring than reading about someone's new exercise regime or wacky diet I must confess I have been loving this one!  I love her food plans!  I love her exercise plans!  I love her no nonsense, straight to the point video messages!  I love that queer little accent she appears to have!  The woman has constant Pep!  And of course, she now has Commando!!!!!

I have been whacking her weekly menus up on the fridge and pretty religiously following them.  She includes a shopping list each week too which makes it pretty simple.  I have been mixing up her exercise sessions along with my own running and my weekly visit to a personal trainer.  (I've entered in to the Run for the Kids in April which is 15km, hence the running, running and more running!)  I may also have stopped drinking alcohol... and that was a real killer!

One of my favourite breakfast or daytime snacky treats has been this homemade granola.  It's a bit of a mixture between a paleo recipe my sister sent me and a Sarah Wilson IGS one.  It is super simple, yummy and very moreish so don't over eat it!  

Whack 2 cups of nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts, pepitas) in a food processor with a tablespoon of  ground cinnamon, a teaspoon each of ground nutmeg and all spice and a quarter of a teaspoon of ground cloves and ground ginger.  Cut up about 8 to 10 pitted dates and pop those in too.  Give it a big whizz until its all chopped up to your satisfaction.  Pour that nutty mix into a big bowl with 2 cups of flaked coconut and 2 cups of rolled oats.  Melt about a third of cup of coconut oil in your microwave and then mix a dollop or two of proper maple syrup into that.  Poor the runny stuff into your nutty stuff and mix it all together nicely.

Spread it out nice and flat onto some oven trays and bake away on 180 for about 30-35 minutes.  You will need to hang around your oven turning the mixture every now and then as it cooks from the outside in so use a lovely big spatula to turn it all over, reflatten and spread it out and cook some more.

When you're happy with it's golden appearance leave it on your trays to cool.  Try small pinches of it as you potter around your kitchen cleaning up because apparently you are the only one who knows how to clear plates and load the dishwasher!  When cool, pour into some containers and store it in the freezer.  It keeps nice and fresh in there and lasts for ages - although mine disappears within a week or two!  You can eat it straight from the freezer without a problem.  I normally have a dollop of yoghurt on it with some berries mixed in.  Or I take a small little snack tub of it to work to tide me over to lunchtime.

Hope you found it as yummy as I do!