Pumpkin Granola

Hopefully you aren't too pumpkin-ed out yet! The Holiday season is officially in full-swing, and I'm still lovin' me some pumpkin! Especially when it's incorporated into my favorite breakfast/snack food of all time. Yep. I'm talkin' about granola.

Pumpkin Granola

• 5 cups GF rolled oats (not quick cooking kind)
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil melted (or EarthBalance butter, or canola oil)
• 1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (or agave)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1.5 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin, coconut oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, and applesauce.
3. In another bowl, mix together dry ingredients (except the almonds and pumpkin seeds) and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones in the large bowl.
4. Stir, coating well. Spread mixture over two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. 
5. Bake in preheated 325F oven for 20 minutes. Remove and stir. Add in the pumpkin seeds and sliced almonds. Place back in oven for another 20 minutes. If it doesn't seem crisp enough yet, don't worry. It will crisp up as it cools down!

Chocolate Granola (GF,V) - Vegan MoFo continues...

I eat granola for breakfast every.single.day. I do get a bit tired of it every now and then, and with the colder weather creeping up on us... I'll probably switch to making oatmeal in the morning. For a little bit. I am just simply not a morning person and the last thing I want to do when I wake up is cook. Even if it does just mean boiling some water and stirring. 


But I always come back to my favorite breakfast food of all time. Tried and true, reliable and crunchy.  GRA-NO-LAHHH

Ingredients

• 4 cups GF rolled oats
• 1/4 cup flax seeds
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional)
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup chocolate hazelnut butter (optional), if using this, omit salt
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

2. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. In small saucepan, heat up all liquid ingredients until peanut butter is melted. Add vanilla extract at end after removing pan from heat. 

3. Pour heated liquid ingredients into bowl with dry ingredients. Mix well. Spread onto prepared baking pan. I use a 9x13 cake pan lined with parchment paper. 

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes, making sure to stir at about 20 minutes. Add chocolate chips after the granola has cooled. Unless you like that melted chocolate sorta thing ; )

Sesame Seed Granola

I could live off granola. For realz. Whenever I go shopping the thing that is always the most expensive on my receipt is the (lbs. of) granola . There are two mouths to feed in this apartment... y'know. I've attempted homemade granola a few times in the past, but I had always used the cheap and shitty economically feasible quick oats. This time I got some rolled oats from the bulk bins at Whole Foods (which I'm sure are contaminated with gluten in some way, but I'm not rolling in the cash, so these will have to suffice...)

Some of the ingredients before baking.

I had some raw pumpkin seeds that have been sitting around the kitchen for far too long and threw those into the mix. The granola could use a little extra iron anyways.

Umm... also notice the abundance of sesame seeds in my mixture photo above. Although there are others nuts and seeds in this granola, the majority of the seeds are indeed... you guessed it - sesame seeds. Sesame seeds are chock-full of nutrients including magnesium, iron, manganese, and calcium. They are also a great source of copper, which plays an important role in collagen formation, among other things.

Ingredients

• 4 cups rolled oats (not the quick-cooking kind)
• 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup raw cashews, chopped
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup ground Flaxseed Meal
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar or sucanat
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

        Liquid-y Ingredients (to be melted in small saucepan on stove, or microwave)

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup honey or agave nectar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup almond butter (or some other nut butter)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. In a huge bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. 
3. Place all the liquid-y ingredients in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat until it starts to boil and is mixed. Remove from heat and add to the oat mixture.
4. I split the mix onto two baking sheets, and baked for 30 minutes. 
5. After the first 30 minutes, remove from oven and stir. Bake for 15-20 more minutes until golden in color. Yum!