granola and cookies

I have been wanting to try out Melissa’s granola recipe for a while now. It looks so yummy and I usually have all the ingredients on hand. So, this morning the bird and I tackled that project while the bean was napping. Here is her recipe.

Granola
3 C. thick cut oats
1 C. slivered almonds
1/4 C. coconut
1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/4 C. flax meal
1/4 C. wheat germ
1/4 C. + 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 C. + 2 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
1/4 C. oil
1/4 C. honey
3/4 tsp. salt
1 C. dried fruit (raisins, cherries, etc.), if desired

Preheat oven to 250 deg.
In large bowl, combine oats, nuts, coconut, cinnamon, flax, wheat germ, and brown sugar
In another bowl, combine syrup, oil, honey, and salt
Combine both mixtures and pour onto cookie sheet with rim
Cook one hour, 15 minutes, stirring every fifteen minutes
Remove from oven and immediately transfer to large bowl
Once cool, add dried fruit
Enjoy!

It is soooo good! I didn’t add fruit though, or Kevin wouldn’t eat it. Also, I ran out of honey so I used Agave Nectar. It is wonderful. Thanks for the great recipe, Melissa. I doubled it – and I am so glad that I did. We will eat this up in a week!

I also have a recipe for no bake cookies from a super fun site called New Nostalgia that calls for most of the same ingredients ….and since it was all out already… we also made “Mudballs“. Lucie really enjoyed this. She has not quite mastered rolling balls, so hers look more like….um, yeah. I think these are very good and Lucie loves them too. Plus this whole recipe came together in about 5 minutes! I love simple and quick recipes that use real foods and whole ingredients.
(don’t get me wrong – we had Lucky Charms for breakfast and I am seriously considering McDonald’s for dinner – those stupid commercials for the Filet-O-Fish just look so good – I am such a consumer! Everything in moderation, right?)

Mudballs

Cook in a saucepan on the stove until everything is melted. Then, when it is cool enough, roll into balls and store in the fridge. This batch made 12 balls – so I doubled this one too – and made them kind of small so I can eat more!

Clearly she has been sampling the goods!

I will let you guess which ones Lucie rolled.

This is where I get a lot of ideas for healthy bite sized toddler treats – I LOVE LOVE this book. My copy is very well read. The recipe for similar balls in this book had an egg in it – so therefore had to be cooked. That’s why I used the other recipe. Much easier! I added a handful of ground flax to this recipe too – since it was out already!

And on a total random note – I love somewhatsimple.com
She is having a giveaway of the most adorable little purse. Her blog rocks! Check it out.