What a wonderful weekend! Saturday was a beautiful gift and I spent it outside the whole day – I even have the pink shoulders to prove it. Then rain on Sunday meant that I could have a snoozy day – catching up on rest and reading under a blanket. And since I don’t do any cooking on Sunday, I really did it for the whole day.

Today, I had an appointment downtown Toronto which I’ve just returned from to find a comment requesting my recipe for granola. So I’m going to give you my granola recipe, then I’m heading off to the poles to vote. Afterward I plan on making a beet and carrot salad, and a pasta and asparagus and feta cheese salad I think – maybe with some little appetizer-sized falafal to round it out for dinner.

Here’s the recipe for Crunchy Granola – adapted from Eva Cabaca’s Holistic Food Preparation course notes. She has a new cookbook available from her site: http://www.livenutritionschool.com

Crunchy Granola

3 cups oat flakes (or sprouted buckwheat)
1 cup almonds, coarsely chopped (or any nuts that you choose)
1 cup dry coconut flakes (or a combination of coconut and seeds)
1/2 cup currants (or cranberries, or dried blueberries)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup rice syrup
2 Tbsp coconut oil
2 Tbsp olive oil
pinch salt
spice as desired (ginger and cinnamon are my first choices)

Mix the oat flakes, nuts, coconut, currants and spices together in a large bowl. Bring water to boil in a small saucepan, remove from heat and add the rice syrup, coconut oil, olive oil and salt. Dissolve.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well. Clumps will form.

Place the contents onto a cookie sheet or large baking pan and dry at 150°F for 4 hours until crispy. Do not mix during drying.

When finished, cool, and store in an air-tight container.

I have this every morning covered with my kefir, some sliced fresh fruit and then a spoonful of ground flax seed on top. Delicious.