Baked Granola

If you love the crunch, texture and flavour of granola, you'll love this delicious treat!

Baked Granola

Ingredients:

4 cups rolled oats

1 cup oat-bran flakes

1/2 cup ground flax seed

1 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup sesame seeds (I buy roasted sesame seeds)

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 chopped walnuts

1/3 cup coconut oil (slightly melted)

1/3 - 1/2 cup pure maple syrup (I'm somewhere in between) lol

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp maple extract

few drops of almond extract

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees

In a large bowl combine oats through to walnuts. Mix well. In another bowl stir tigether coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract, maple extract, almond extract. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix well. Spread mixture onto a large baking sheet and bake for 50 minutes. Halfway through baking (at 25 minutes) remove baking sheet from oven carefully mix up the granola. Put baking sheet back in oven and bake 25 minutes more. Granola will be nicely browned. Let cool for 20-30 minutes and add cra/raisins. Store in glass container or airtight container.

~Loved ones gather in the kitchen

Fall/Halloween Pocket Letters

BOO!! I love this time of year, I love Autumn, I enjoy working with the Fall colors, especially the orange hues! So having said that here are a few Pocket Letters I made for friends. And also some Halloween cards, tags, and envelopes.

I made this Halloween PL for my dear friend Iley!

And this PL for my friend Roxy and owner of the crafting community called YourPaperPantry.

I made this Pocket Letter for the Sherri Baldy PL Design Team

I used the colored printable called "Garden Time" available HERE

I truly have been enjoying the Autumn theme going on here and the best part it's not even over yet!!

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

Christina

Homemade Granola Bars

These granola bars are packed with protein and have a nice crunch to them with the added rice cereal! Perfect with my coffee in the morning, an afternoon snack or on the go snack!


Ingredients
2 3/4 cups whole rolled oats
1 1/2 cups Crisp Rice cereal ( I used gluten free Kellog's Brown Rice cereal)
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup almond butter or peanut butter ( I used a blend of cashew, almond & chia seed butter)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 almond milk
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup currants

Line a 9x9 pan with tin foil and lightly grease.
In a mixing bowl, combine the oats, rice cereal, almonds, and coconut flakes.
In a large saucepan add coconut oil, almond butter or peanut butter, salt, almond milk, honey and brown sugar, stir and bring to boil over medium high heat. Boil for a minute or so. Reduce heat and simmer or gently boil for 5 more minutes and stirring often. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Let cool for 10 minutes. Pour the mixture over the oat/cereal and stir until everything is well
combined. Add the chocolate chips to the mixture and mix well.
Place the oat mixture in the prepared pan and press in firmly with a fork.
Refrigerate the pan for about 2 hours.
Remove the granola mixture from the pan and peel away the tin foil. Slice into bars.
I like to wrap each bar in plastice wrap and put them in a freezer safe container.

Dry Ingredients

Wet ingredients

All mixed together

Don't forget to lick the bowl!

line pan with foil.

Press down firmly with a fork and
 refridgerate for 2 hours.

Remove foil and cut into bars.

So delicious!!

Ready for the freezer!

Thanks for stopping by!

Christina xo

Cranberry Biscotti

Today's post is a Cranberry Biscotti recipe that I got from my recipe book called "The Kitchen" The Four Sisters Inn. A few years ago I vacationed in Monterey California and stayed at the Gosby House Inn and purchased their cookbook.

Cranberry Biscotti
Ingredients:
13/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup light olive oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp pure almond extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 1/4 cups unblanched almonds, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. In another bowl mix together the olive oil, sugar, extracts and eggs. Mix well. Stir in flour mixture until well combined and then fold in cranberries and almonds.

Wet both hands with cool water and divide dough into halves. Roll dough into two 10-12 inch logs.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until tops of logs are light brown and beginning to crack. Remove baking sheet from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 275. Cut logs on the diagonal 3/4 thick. Lay biscotti cut side down and bake for 20 minutes. Or bake for 10 minutes, remove baking sheet from oven and turn over biscotti so that the other cut side is down on the sheet. Bake for another 8 minutes.

Remove baking sheet from oven and let biscotti cool on the sheet.

Recipe courtesy of Gin Yang, fan of Four Sisters Inn.

Pocket Letter "Hot Java Mamma's"

Hi everyone!
This is my Sherri Baldy  Design Team pocket letter for June.
The paper I used is a printable paper pack called 'A Spot of Tea'
You can check out all of Sherri's designs here http://tinyurl.com/zo7kcnr
The paper reminds me of summertime, kinda like a picnic! :)
If you click on the image you will get a larger view.

Thanks for stopping by!
Christina xo