I’ve had oodles of recipe requests rolling in over the last little while, and I want you to know something. Despite what I can imagine you might be thinking, your pleadings are not falling on deaf ears, nor are they falling by the wayside of my crazily hectic life. I am working away feverishly to get them all to you, but it’s not always a quick or easy process. There’s a few things about me you might not know, which may help you understand why things are coming out the gate more slowly than might seem desirable, or even tolerable.
I am entirely detail-oriented, and when it comes to blog posts this translates to my refusal to post a recipe unless I’ve made it with my own hands; because I have to know that it works – and works well. I need to know that you will get the same great results in your own kitchen if you follow my recipe. I would rather stab myself in the left eye with a hot poker than post a recipe I hadn’t made and eaten. Frequently this means that I make a recipe several times – I think I got to Cheesy Biscuits 5.0 before I let you have them. I must have consumed 6 lbs of almonds that weekend – DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!
If you see a photo of a recipe here it means I made it – following the recipe to the letter – and it looked exactly like you see in the picture when I was finished. And then I ate it. You don’t get a picture and a recipe until the dish is worthy of being in that temple of a body of yours. You are so worth it.
One thing that has been asked for a gazillion times is *SANE Granola. I am very enthused to chronicle that despite making this a couple of weekends ago, I have finally found a minute to get over here to tell the tale. Well, of course, if these recipe posts only took a minute, I wouldn’t have a backlog in the first place. But let’s not dwell on that little detail; let’s just celebrate the arrival of *SANE Granola in your world. Because *SANE Granola is awesome. It will make you feel normal.
I love this stuff for breakfast. It’s crunchy, if you’ve made a batch in advance breakfast is ready in 15 seconds, it’s tasty and it’s very filling. I can’t down very much of it in one sitting.
One thing to note: when we say this is *SANE, what we really mean in this instance is that it does not contain any sugars, starches, grains or unhealthy oils. This granola does not provide a huge amount of protein, fiber or water which is what makes a food truly SANE. It does provide healthy fats, some fiber & the other nutrients that nuts and seeds bring to the table. So, enjoy this for breakfast but ensure you still get your day dose of SANE protein, fiber and water.
One way to start on your protein for the day is to eat this granola with a cup of non-fat Greek yogurt and a scoop of your favorite whey powder stirred in until it’s smooth. Chocolate whey is my favorite yogurt mix-in to go with this granola. The nuts and seeds are all goodness, but you gotta get that protein in.
Granola-lovers unite! Get some crunch back into your breakfasts.
- 1 cup cashews, roughly chopped
- 1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
- 1 cup hazelnuts, roughly chopped
- 8 TBSP whole flax seeds
- 1 cup slivered almonds
- 6 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2/3 cup sugar-free vanilla syrup
- 2 TBSP coconut oil, melted
- Mix all the nuts, seeds and nutmeg together in a large bowl.
- Add the oil and syrup and mix well, ensuring everything is evenly coated in the oil / syrup.
- Spread evenly on a baking sheet in a ½” thick layer.
- Bake at 300F in the center of the oven until deep golden brown, stirring occasionally to ensure even coloring.
- Allow to cool completely before storing in an air-tight jar.
Kayla McCollLooks great!
What kind of sugar free vanilla syrup do you use/recommend?
Thanks!
carriehttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GYJUHO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005GYJUHO&linkCode=as2&tag=foodifootn-20
KarenWhat exactly are the ingredients in the sugar-free syrups that you use in this recipe and others in your blog?
carrieThese are the syrups I use, Karen: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E5E2RC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001E5E2RC&linkCode=as2&tag=foodifootn-20
CatherineI’d be curious to hear if you have tried it with milk, it might satisfy my husbands craving for cereal, he misses his crunchy nut corn flakes!
Lennie BarkhuffTorini Syrup uses Splenda which is Sucralose. Not recommended for KETO
carrieSplenda is perfectly keto, for people who want to use it. However, many people choose not to use it for other reasons. It is a personal choice.
carrieI haven’t, Catherine, but I totally would! I cannot imagine it wouldn’t by awesome :-)
CatherineFantastic, I think I will make it a weekend treat for him, he’s such a lucky man :P
carrieI have another granola coming up in the next week too :-)
Pen CurryI’d like to try this but have only got milled flax seeds. Assume I can’t use that so shall I just leave flax seeds out? Thanks.
carrieHi Pen – you could use milled, but I think it would make it rather messy, so I would just leave them out. Enjoy!
DougThis is a fantastic alternative to all the other granolas out there. I made it last week and my sweetie-pie and I both loved it!!
carrieThere is a new granola coming up very soon, Doug!
Chocolate Yogurt Supreme » Carrie Brown | Marmalade and Mileposts[…] You needed things that crunch. I added a couple here and here. […]
WednesdayI made this and wasn’t wowed by it, because it wasnt granola-y enough. It seemed more like tasty nuts to me.
So I came up with a riff on it that ended up being like a nature valley granola bar.
1 cup cashews, roughly chopped
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup hazelnuts, roughly chopped
1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1 cup slivered almonds
6 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar-free vanilla syrup
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup textured vegetable protein
2 egg whites, whipped
1/4 tsp cream of tarter
1/2 cup water
Mix all the dry ingredients together, then pulse a few times in the food processor to have a slightly more homogenous blend. Stir in melted coconut oil. Pour on water and syrup. Let sit for about 15 minutes letting the flax do its weird gelatinous thing. Whip egg whites with cream of tarter. Add the “dough” and stir to combine. Press the thick dough evenly across a cookie sheet. Put in the oven at 275. Bake for about 30 minutes, then turn off the oven. Let it cool in the oven. It is most convenient to do this over night. Remove in the morning and break into pieces. If it is still slightly chewy, turn the oven back on. Once it comes to temperature, turn off and let cool in the oven again.
Note: I added tvp just to up the protein and add a light crispy texture. If you don’t do soy, just leave it out and decrease the water as necessary. You just don’t want the dough soupy. The ground flax, water, and egg whites offer a more clumpy product.
AlexandraHi Carrie,
I hate flaked coconut. With what can I replace it with ?
carrieAny flaked nut would work, Alexandra.
Donna WolfHi Carrie
I would like to make this granola, it sounds so yummy. However, I’m hesitant to use sugar-free syrup made with splenda. I’ve read so many bad things about it. Would there be any way to sweeten the granola without using the splenda product?
Thank you for your response.
carrieHi Donna – understand your concern, and if the quantity used was greater I would be too. Unfortunately I was not able to find any readily available sugar-free syrups that did not use Splenda. I am working on creating one from scratch, but that’s not as easy as it sounds either. I know this isn’t hugely helpful to your original questions but I hope it at least explains the current position. THANK YOU for all your support!
AmberI made my own sugar syrup for this, Donna Wolf. I followed the recipe of a normal sugar syrup but used Xylitol instead of sugar. It never got very thick, but worked out great for coating the granola. Here’s my recipe! I’m sure Carrie can improve upon this :)
1 cup water
1/3 cup Xylitol
1tsp vanilla extract
Put the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to boil. Let boil until it reduces to half. Tasty!