Granola two ways: everything and maple pecan

 

 

 

Despite my non-resolutions, I will admit to having started a healthier, lighter eating regime this month, eschewing carbs and processed sugar as much as possible.

 

This new routine involves eating oats in as many forms possible in the morning rather than the five or ten two or three wholewheat cookies I normally hastily dunk into my caffe latte every morning at my office desk. It also involves thinking and preparing ahead but turns out to be less of a bother than I thought it would be. I just have to remember to boil and soak some steel cut oats in water about once a week or alternatively mix and bake my own granola, of which I have already made several batches.

 

 

 

 

 

I am aware that making your own granola is not the discovery of the century and that many of you are already doing it, but for those of you who don't, it is so easy and so much healthier than buying those (often) sugar, salt and fat-laden industrial ones, of which there is very little choice here to begin with. So I am indeed very excited, just as excited as I was about last week's lentils ... what can I say, I guess I am an enthusiastic kinda gal, although I promise to spare you Dr. Seuss this time round.

 

I have made a variety of combinations with very different ingredients and two different methods, both of which worked very well for me, and I cannot help patting myself on the shoulder everytime I take a bite: not only do I get to clean out my pantry and freezer (I cannot begin to tell you the amount of dried fruit and nuts I have stashed away), but I can choose from an endless combination of ingredients, I have control of what I am feeding my family, how sweet I want my breakfast cereal to be and also how much fat, sugar or salt I want or rather don't want to use. Not to mention I get to decide whether I want big clusters, small clusters or none at all.
 

 

 

 

We have been eating it with cold milk, warm milk or yogurt as breakfast and after-school snacks and we have yet to get bored of it. I am already thinking dried figs, medjool dates, apricots, pistachios, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins. My kids are already dreaming of chocolate chips in all colors or sizes and peanut butter chips...

 

Quick note: I have been using instant oats because I had a large tin to use up and they worked well but normally granola recipes call for rolled oats. You can go either way. Also, play around with the ingredients you like by substituting, adding or taking any of them. Last but not least, I recently read some recipes that did not call for any kind of fat in the preparation, so I will be trying that next.*

*Six months later I am still making this weekly: I now use rolled oats or 6-grain mixes, I have cut the amount of maple syrup and add flax/linseed to the mix, and the maple granola is definitely my favorite although I sometimes swap pecans with a seed mix (sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, linseed etc.).

 

 

 

 

Everything granola (makes enough for one baking tray)
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup butter
1tsp muscovado sugar
1 tsp poppy seeds
1/4 cup unsweetened, dried coconut
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup almonds, roughly chopped
3 cups rolled/instant oats 
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup mixed red berries

Preheat the oven to 175°C/350°F.
Melt butter and honey (you can melt the honey using the bain marie method or in the microwave) and mix together in a large bowl. Add in all the other ingredients and mix well using a spatula.
Line a baking tray with parchment paper or aluminum foil and spread the mixture evenly. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, mixing halfway through. Let cool, crumble and mix in the berries. Store in an airtight container.

Maple pecan granola clusters (makes enough for one baking tray) - with updates
3 1/2 cups instant oats (I have now switched to a 6-grain rolled mix) 
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup ground flax/linseed
1 tsp cinnamon, optional
1/2 to 1 cup pecans, roughly chopped
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup canola oil or other
2/3 cup pure maple syrup (I have since reduced the amount to 1/4 cup approximately)



Preheat oven to 150°C/300°F.
In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients. In a small bowl combine oil and syrup and then pour over the dry ingredients. Mix well with a spatula. Spread evenly onto a previously lined baking tray and bake without mixing for about 30 minutes . Let cool, break up in to pieces and store in an airtight container.

 

 

 

 

 

Back... and back to basics. No-knead light wholewheat oatmeal bread

 

 

An Italian saying goes l'Epifania tutte le feste porta via. Indeed, in many European countries the holiday season officially ended on Monday, with the Catholic celebration of the Adoration of the Magi, also known as the Epiphany. In Italy this day is marked by a nightime visit of the befana, an old lady resembling a witch, dressed in rags and covered in soot that stuffs children's stockings with sweets or lumps of coal, according to how they behaved the previous year.

It is also traditional to take your tree down on January 6th and most kids go back to school the following day.

So with the new year now in full swing, I have been thinking of my resolutions, or rather the resolutions I have not made yet, and what I truly wish and hope for in 2014.

There is little I desire, considering I have all the things that really count (a family I love, good health, a job - albeit not one I love and that doesn't pay as much as it used to but on the other hand gives me more time with my children - a roof on my head and good friends). Sure, there are things that I would really like but they come after the list I mentioned. Who doesn't want more financial security, a home to call their own, the possibility to travel and see more of the amazing planet we live in?

If there is one resolution I think we should all make it is ackowledging what we do more and feeling less guilty about what we don't. It is easy to beat ourselves up, to look around and see what others are doing better than us, to feel like we are not enough. We always feel compelled to work harder, to run faster, like hamsters spinning endlessly on their wheels.

There will always be somebody who is doing better than we are, sure, but there is always somebody who is doing worse too. Just because someone is driving a fancier car, it doesn't mean they worry less than you do at the end of the month. Sure, some problems are bigger than others, some people are luckier than others, but we all have to face obstacles, fear and problems. Rich or poor, we all have loved ones to take care of, children, parents, relatives or friends. We all care, we all worry, we all grieve.

I will not deny that I get caught up in this vicious cycle. I need to loose weight, I should look for a new job, I should be more organized...

I compare my kids' life with my very priviledged childhood and wish I could give them more. Of course I wish I could take them to exotic places on the spur of the moment or that our five-day ski vacation could be two weeks instead, but I am also aware that my husband and I work very hard to give them a taste of everything we had growing up and that what we can't provide materially we make up for in love and presence.

But no worries, I am not getting all Christmas-movie on you and will not start telling you about how I didn't take my family on a cruise to the Carribean but made a snowman with them instead and about how we all rolled in the snow and laughed and hugged and ended the day drinking hot chocolate in front of the fire. Because at the end of the year day, we all have shit to deal with, each and every day, whoever we are and no matter how much we have or don't have.

So this year why don't we all take it a little more easy on ourselves?

Pat yourself on your back, let yourself know you are doing a great job as a friend, a mother, a daughter, a son, a dad, a husband, a wife, a companion, a sister, a brother, a boss, an employee...

I will not to beat myself up about all the things I think I should be doing better and more of. I will not make unattainable resolutions and then feel guilty or lacking because of them. I am going back to the basics, focusing on what matters, on what I have and taking my life one step at a time.

Let this be your resolution for 2014.

By all means, strive to do more, fix some targets, aim higher - because this is human and healthy to a degree - but also let the new year be a time to stop running, to take inventory of your life and let yourself know that you are doing a good job being who you are, providing what you do, caring the way you care.

Go back to the basics.

Here is a little Instagram testimony of the basics in my life: my family, my children, beautiful nature, great food and good friends to call-in the New Year.

 

Chewy cinnamon oatmeal cookies and musings

 

We have been blessed by a beautiful September. The sun has been shining almost every day and the kids have been spending the warm afternoons in the square by their school with their friends. They play ball and Chinese jump rope, they climb up the school fence and draw on the pavement with colored chalk. In the mornings and evenings, however, the air is undeniably chillier and on my way to work I have started noticing fallen leaves and open chestnut burrs on the bike lane.

 

Fall is in the air and as I start pulling out our duvets from their summer hiding places and sorting through the kids' winter clothers, I can't help but feel drawn towards the kitchen. I am craving all things autumn: warm oatmeal, cinnamon, apple pies and pumpkin soup.

 

Over the week end I baked my first batch of cookies in a while, and I have been bringing them to my kids as a snack everyday after school.

 

As I was mixing the ingredients I thought about some things I had heard over the week. Stories that once again made reminded me that there are extraordinary women and men everywhere, not just on the cover stories of magazines.

 

 

Perhaps I should rephrase that. There are ordinary people everywhere doing extraordinary things. Mothers and fathers who work, who lead hectic lives, yet still manage to make a difference; people who are quietly fighting demons, yet do their thing better and with more passion and energy than I have most of the time.

 

Like my friend who has two kids of her own and a job and will be welcoming a child from the highly contaminated areas around Chernobyl into her home for five weeks in October. These yearly visits help lower the radioactive levels in the childrens' bodies and the healthy and uncontaminated food they eat helps further boost their immune systems. The families participating in this project are lending a helping hand whilst offering their own children a unique opportunity of intercultural exchange.

 

 

 

Or the two families in my child's class who recently adopted siblings at an age when the large majority of couples would not take in a child, let alone two or three.

 

Or this other woman I know (but apparently less than I thought I did) who has a job, a husband who travels and a gaggle of noisy, cute children. I always marvel at her appearance, not because she is dressed up to the nines or perfectly coiffed and accessorized, but because she always smiles and is surrounded by a positive aura. If she feels tired or frustrated like I often do with my two kids, you certainly can't tell. Other moms are constantly asking her how she does it all and I have often wondered how long it would take for her to stop smiling and tell them to shut up. Then I found out (not from her, might I add) that she has been fighting harder battles than getting her toddler to wear the shirt she put out for him, which is probably why her smile is of the most genuine kind, because she appreciates life in its every nuance. Or maybe that is just the way she is, maybe she just has a solar personality. Who knows?

 

 

 

 

What do we really know about the many people we come across every day, in our ordinary dealings? Not much really. It is so easy to wait by the school entrance with a bunch of moms and dads and just make assumptions about them and their lives. Maybe a sentence you overheard out of context or something as silly as a pair of shoes or a necklace creates an image in your mind of a person or family you really know nothing about. What do we know about their true story?

But this is a whole new topic. Forgive me for taking you for a ride down my stream of consciousness. My point is, when we take the time to get to know people better, we not only become better people ourselves, we also learn that the extraordinary exists in the most ordinary places. So look around and let yourself be inspired daily. I know I am.

 

 

 

Oatmeal blondies

One of the worst things about working in finance, even more than the ungodly hours we have to be in the office, is working on national holidays. It just sucks when you have to get up on a dark, grey November morning and leave your husband and kids cozily snuggled up under their blankets and bike to work in the pitch dark at 6.30am. It feels like you are in one of those post-nuclear movies, riding through empty, deserted streets, not a soul in sight. Well, except for a dishevelled looking witch or two walking home from a great Halloween party. Creepy. It is even eerier when you take out the keys to the building you work in to unlock the front gate because you are the first one, and one of the only ones that day by the way, to enter the premises. As you type away and watch the sun rising you wish you were lazily stretching in bed and getting up to have breakfast with your family. You can almost smell the coffee brewing, you can imagine your kids' ruffled hair and the pasty morning kiss you exchange with your husband.

Just so it wouldn't be too much to bear, I brought myself one of these to work. The day started looking better immediately.

Chocoholic that I am, I will always go for brownies. These, however, knocked my socks off. Crunchy on the outside and super chewy on the inside with the added texture and flavor of the oatmeal, I didn't miss the chocolate for a minute. I never thought I would say that. What do you like better? Blondies or brownies?

Adapted from this recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup oatmeal

Preheat oven to 350F/170C degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan  and set aside.

Stir butter and sugar together until well combined. Add the egg, the vanilla and salt and stir until smooth and creamy. Then add the flour and stir until just combined. Now stir in the oatmeal. The recipe says to pour into the prepared pan but my batter was not at all runny so I spead it with a spatual, crossing my fingers it would turn out ok. Put into the oven and bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool. Cut into squares.