granola

January 15, 2010

Nutty Banana Power Bars

mel breakfast, dessert, recipe, sides & bites almonds, banana, granola, nuts, oats, peanut butter, pecans

Nutty Banana Power Bars

Tom and I are training for the A1A (Fort Lauderdale) Half Marathon next month and we’re getting to that point in our training where I get really, drugs really hungry in the afternoon. I’m not talking about your typical afternoon snack craving. I’m talking full-on hunger pangs with embarrassing stomach grumbling. The kind that always happens during a quiet lull in your meeting and makes your co-workers giggle. Like I said – embarrassing.

I needed to take action. I needed a snack. Something that was filling and nutritional, order but also tasty. These Nutty Power bars are it. They’re really similar to my homemade granola bars, but I added more nuts and peanut butter and omitted the brown rice cereal to keep them dense and nutritionally packed. I love how sticky salty and chewy these are. Just perfect for marathon training, regular snacking and keeping my tummy quiet during meetings.

July 31, 2009

Gingery Olive Oil Granola

mel breakfast, dessert, recipe, sides & bites almonds, apricots, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, granola, oats, pumpkin seeds, vegetarian

Gingery Olive Oil Granola

Every week I buy a bag of obscenely expensive granola from the grocery store. And every afternoon when my stomach begins to grumble, anabolics I have a some plain Greek yogurt with a good sprinkling of granola. It’s just the right amount of sweet, asthma filling and crunchy for the afternoon and I’ve become completely addicted.

So, when I saw this recipe in the New York Times for Olive Oil Granola, I thought I’d give it try. I’ve been meaning to make my own granola for a long time and just never got around to it. And now I’m wondering what the hell took me so long! Homemade granola is amazing and probably half the price of that fancy stuff I buy.

Gingery Olive Oil Granola

I used slivered almonds and salted pumpkin seeds along with ginger-spiked sugar, cinnamon and cardamom. The olive oil gave everything a rich lushness and I was able to achieve a much more pleasant salty/sweet ratio than the over-sweetened stuff I buy. I am absolutely obsessed with it. In fact, I’m having a really hard time stopping myself from eating it all with a spoon.

Needless to say, I’ll not be buying granola anymore. This stuff is just too good and too easy.

July 18, 2008

homemade banana chocolate granola bars

mel breakfast, dessert, recipe, sides & bites almonds, banana, cashews, chocolate, granola, nuts

homemade banana chocolate granola bars

I love love love granola. Crunchy and nutty with bits of dried fruit. It’s amazing. Recently, gerontologist I bought some Udi’s Original Granola and have been slightly obsessed with it ever since. The secret is cashews and banana chips. You know those crisp, sweetened banana chips that are usually in the nut section of the grocery store? I’m talking about those. They’re amazing in granola. They’re amazing paired with toasted cashews.

homemade banana chocolate granola bars

Udi’s was my inspiration for these homemade granola bars. Honestly, I always thought granola bars would be a bit of a pain in the — um, yeah — to make. But they’re really not. It took me under 30 minutes start to finish and the hardest part was chopping the cashews (and washing the dishes). Simply toast some nuts, boil some syrup, mix everything together in a big bowl and pour them into a baking dish. They’re just as easy as rice krispy treats, only infinitely more healthful and satisfying.