Homemade Granola!!

I'm not sure how many of you enjoy granola, but I sure do! I love to make homemade yogurt parfaits, layering yogurt, fresh fruit and granola. Mmmmm!
However, it can be so difficult to find a healthy, inexpensive granola. Have you had that problem as well? It's either incredibly expensive, or it has all kinda of extra ingredients that I really don't want in my granola.
My sister just started a food blog. You really should check it out. She's an amazing cook and aspiring chef, lots of great meal ideas! You can visit her blog here. :-) On this blog she has the following recipe for "Honey Nut Granola". I'm going to share it with you here, if you promise to go visit her blog. Ok, well I'll share it anyway. ;-D


HONEY NUT GRANOLA

Ingredients:

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup slivered almonds

1 cup cashews

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey

½ cup peanut butter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 tea cinnamon

1 cup raisins

1 cup craisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, and brown sugar.
In a separate bowl, combine honey, peanut butter, oil, cinnamon and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans.

Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.

Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and crasins/cranberries and mix until evenly distributed. Serve with your favorite yogurt and fruit!

I recently made this recipe while I had company and I must say, it was quite a hit with them! Not to mention, it makes your entire house smell SO good! My guests chose to just snack on it as is and loved it!

The great thing about this recipe is that you can tweak it to match your taste! If you're allergic to peanut butter, simply omit it. If you'd rather omit the nuts for extra fruit- do it! Like coconut? Add it to the recipe! There are so many ways to make a satisfying homemade granola - be creative! Save money and enjoy this delicious recipe with the peace of mind knowing exactly what's in it.


~Lauren

Artichoke, Arti-what??

Proverbs 31:14 "She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar"




How many of you know what an artichoke is? (raise your hand) Ok, how many of you know how to cook and eat a fresh artichoke? (I don't see many hands raised) Just as I suspected, you may like artichokes, but haven't the faintest idea of how to cook and eat a fresh one.

When I was growing up, my amazing mother made it a point of bringing home exotic foods from the grocery store. I may not have always liked it growing up, but I believe she definitely helped to shape my unique tastes today. I honestly can't think of anything I don't like. My mother instilled in me the importance of eating healthy, and thinking outside the box when it came to food.

The first time she brought home fresh artichokes, I looked at them with amazement. These prickly green flower like vegetables were supposed to be eaten?? She steamed them and wow, I couldn't stand the smell. She then proceeded to show us how to eat them. I thought they tasted horrible, but found them to be so intriguing, that I kept eating them! Needless to say, I grew to LOVE them and now consider them to be one of my favorite vegetables!

Here's a little tutorial on how to cook and eat them.

First, wash them, then proceed to place your knife underneath the bottom leaves and cut the stems off. The pictures is pretty self-explanatory. Some people also cut off the tips of the leaves, but I find that only useful if you're going to utilize them in a way where you'd need to do that - aka, stuffed artichokes, fried, etc. Or if you're VERY accident prone and think you'd hurt yourself on the spines. ;-)

Once you have the stems cut, they should sit nicely on their bottoms. :-) If you have a steamer, this is the time to use it. If not, then place a small amount of water at the bottom of a saucepan and steam them that way. Artichokes need 30-40min depending on their size. Sometimes they need even more time, depending on how stubborn they are.

**They'll turn an olive green color and the leaves will come off easily, when ready.



Once they're cooked and ready - you're at the fun part - they're ready to EAT!!
Now, this is the part that intimidates most, or people whine about it taking too long. I am here to tell you that it is totally worth it, and you can learn to eat them quickly.

First, you'll want to peel back each leaf and scrape off the white "meat" (with your teeth) at the base of each leaf. Once you get closer to the artichoke heart (at the center), the leaves will get very thin and spiny. Most people don't eat those (I do, however -ha!) Try dipping the ends of the leaves in melted butter, lemon butter, Italian dressing, the dip of your choice - or eat them plain with a little bit of salt, as I do!


Now for the part you've been waiting for all along - THE HEART!! You can buy canned artichoke hearts, but my friends, they do not come close to comparing to a FRESH artichoke heart.

Those thin leaves shield the fuzz of the artichoke that you must scrape off in order to eat the delicious heart. Take a fork and gently scrape, it should be fairly easy. See the example below.


Once you've removed the fuzz, sprinkle some salt, dip it in butter, or whatever you prefer and enjoy the goodness of the Artichoke!

Next time you pass them in the produce section, why not give them a try? Now you know exactly how to cook and eat them!!

Ya never know, you might just end up learning to love them, as I have.

~Lauren