Sunshine Granola

If I think about food from my childhood homemade granola was one of my favourites!  My mom would fill the roaster full of oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, pumpkin pepitas, papaya, raisins, dried apricots,and any other fruit she so desired.  After filling our home with the amazing aroma of brown sugar and spices we got to eat this breakfast treat as much as we wanted!  We ate it for breakfast, with yogurt, in snack bags, and my personal favourite....out of the jar itself...picking out our favourite ingredients and putting back the ones we didn't like....Mom soon found out that we didn't care for the candied pineapple....(sorry Mom :))

So its taken me some years....(don't know why) and I have finally started to try to make my own granola!  I think I was intimidated by the process...Silly me....It is so easy I will be making all sorts of granola from now on!  Store bought stuff - - - GROSS!!!!!

Please promise me you won't buy it either....make some of your own!  This recipe is a simple version, pretty basic.  It lends itself to lots of variety.  I started with it to try a simple version - as a test run, because of my insecurity I guess.  I like it...but my next try I will add some cinnamon I think, and play around with the coating.  Have fun experimenting!!  This really is no fail!!

What you will need:

• 3 cups Rolled Oats, Not Quick Cooking Oats
• 1 cup Sliced Almonds
• ¼ cups Water
• ⅓ cups Canola Oil
• ½ cups Honey
• ½ teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup Dried Apricots, Chopped
• ½ cups Dried Cherries, Chopped
• ¼ cups Dried Blueberries
• 1/4 cup dried papaya, pineapple, and mango mix 
• 
  

What you do:

1.  Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

2.  In a large bowl, toss together the rolled oats and almonds

 

Ahh sweet honey!  Thanks to my friend Brienna for the new bucket!!!

3.  In a small bowl, whisk together the water, canola oil, honey and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the rolled oats and almonds and toss to coat. Continue tossing until all the almonds and rolled oats are completely coated in the wet mixture.

 

All mixed up and ready to bake!! 

 

4.  Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking sheet. Bake the granola until the rolled oats and the almonds are completely toasted and almost all the liquid has been soaked up, about 20-35 minutes.  I just watched mine carefully at the end and adjusted the time.  You want it golden brown.  Stir mixture occasionally to allow more of the mixture to brown.

 

Beautiful chopped dried fruit.  I found a cherry blueberry mix at my local grocery store. Bulk sections are wonderful for ingredients!

 

5.  Remove from the oven and add the apricots, cherries and blueberries to the baking sheet. Toss together and place back in the oven for 5 minutes. You just want to the dried fruit to soak up some of the liquid. 

 

 

Lookin' good!!

Enjoy!!! 

 

 

Blueberry Saskatoon Yogurt Pops

I have been soooo busy these past few days!  Picking Saskatoons, Raspberries, making Peach jam, pondering what to do with zucchini, waiting impatiently for my cucumbers to come in....yep, busy. Summer busy - playing with the kiddos, going camping, drinking some lovely whites with my husband. Ahhh, the dog days of Summer....where did that name come from anyways....

I love the Dog Days of August.  Summer is slowly fading away....:( but the harvest is coming and in abundance!!!  I love the dusty smells of farmer's fields as they make hay bales, the yellowing crops against a bright blue sky, the syrupy smells that come from my kitchen.  Yep, I love August!

So as I begin to anticipate fall I realise that I haven't made as many frozen treats for my kids as I thought I would. I was SOOO EXCITED for my dixie cups and popsicle sticks.  Alas, I fell trap to the pre-made, sugah filled brand name popsicles....but I have a recipe here that will redeem me!  It is a three ingredient, healthy, creamy popsicle.  Enjoy a cold treat one more time before you break out the soup pot for fall.


Blueberry Saskatoon Yogurt Pops

What you need:

1 cup of pureed blueberries (or saskatoons)
1 cup saskatoon yogurt (or vanilla if you can't find the saskatoon stuff)
2 TBSP of honey.

What to do:

1. Puree blueberries in your blender (or Magic Bullet :))

 

Looking good!

 

2. In a bowl mix yogurt and honey. This is the brand of Saskatoon yogurt I like.  It's a Canadian thing. I love it!  If you do not have Saskatoon yogurt use vanilla or plain, or blueberry!)

3. Now spoon fruit puree and yogurt into molds interchangeably.

 

4. Now for the fun part. Using a knife or skewer as I did swirl the mixture so it blends a bit.  

5. Place the sticks into the molds and freeze for a few hours until set.  Then pull these babies out and enjoy them guilt-free!!!!

Heather's Corn Salad

It is CRAZY CRAZY HOT OUT!!!  It's PLUS 28 degrees (Celsius) with only a slight breeze.  For us northerners its cookin'.  I am not going to complain about the heat because in 6 months it will be Minus 40...   My little family and I just came back from a Long weekend camping excursion of campfires, fresh caught fish and lots and lots of laundry.  EEK!  So my dryer is pumping out the heat as well on this day...NOT complaining!!!

But my ambition to cook is greatly altered at this time.

So what does one do when one has no ambition to cook.  One could throw in a frozen pizza, or just say to the kids that supper is freezies, popsicles, and what ever frozen vegetable you can dig out of the deep freeze and chew on....:)  OR...

You can bbq a juicy steak and serve it with this delicious corn salad! 

I was first introduced to this salad by my very culinary talented sister in law Heather.  She is an AMAZING cook.  She made this for our family bbq when we all flocked to Nipawin Saskatchewan for holidays last year.  I immediately, yes immediately asked for this recipe!  She wasn't even done serving it yet....:)  Love ya Hezzie!!

Here's what you need:

2 cups frozen corn thawed
1 can black beans rinsed and drained
2 tomatoes diced
1/4 cup purple onion finely chopped

Dressing:

2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 Tbsp white vinegar
2 Tbsp canola oil (or whatever cooking oil  you have)
3 tsp of lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp ground cumin
2 cloves of garlic minced.
1 Tbsp of dried parsley, or fresh cilantro

Here is what you do:

1. In a large bowl, combine corn, beans, tomatoes, and onion.

 

Combine...easy so far!

2. In a mason jar combine sugar, vinegar, oil, lime juice, salt, pepper, cumin, garlic and parsley.

 

Here is the dressing combined... :)

3.  Pour dressing over salad and allow to marinate a while.

2

 

 and serve with multigrain chips and a steak! Supper Served!