What We Made this Week: Granola, Raspberry Oatmeal, Canary Melon Smoothie

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granola with almonds, dried cherries, and pepitas.

I was happy to find a very promising healthy granola recipe on Badger Girl Learns to Cook. The result was ‘amazing’ according to my husband and disappeared very rapidly.

Badger Girl recounts six rounds of revisions to her evolving granola recipe before getting it just right, and I have to agree that she got there. She had ambitious criteria for her granola such as a dairy and gluten-free recipe with minimal sugar and using nut butter and quinoa.

I try to follow recipes closely the first time that I make them before going off on my own wild tangents, so I only made a few changes to her recipe for Granola 6.0. I used my homemade almond butter which, after being mixed with vegan protein powder, wasn’t oily enough to bind the granola. So I added an extra 2 tablespoons of coconut oil to it before mixing everything together.

I used chopped dried cherries instead of raisins and craisins, and big, soft unsweetened coconut flakes from Let’s Do Organic that kind of look like they’ve been grated off the coconut with a cheese grater instead of coconut.

One thing I like about this recipe is that it’s cooked at 325 F. I prefer baking nuts or granola at a lower temperature like this. They are less likely to burn (sad and expensive). I also liked the inclusion of flax seeds, quinoa, and sliced almonds. I don’t often think of using sliced almonds, but they worked really well here. I’m sure I’ll keep evolving the recipe (imagine a version with walnut butter and walnuts) but I have to say it’s great just the way it is.

Note the toasted quinoa and the big ribbons of coconut flakes

My awesome family cooked this week, too. I loved seeing all their spontaneous creativity in the kitchen. I woke up on Wednesday to find raspberry oatmeal in the fridge. My teens had made it the day before and packed up the extras. It used enough rolled oats for several people and a cup or a cup and a half of raspberries. It was an enticing shade of pink, as you can see:

raspberry oatmeal

That same morning, a really good smoothie was out on the counter. My husband had made this (OK, I put in the nasturtium flower):

canary melon coconut water smoothie

Loved this one (he let me drink half). It was made from a canary melon, coconut water, and ice. I might have to reverse-engineer these family creations and give you the recipes. Until then!