Granola and quarantine

When we starting social distancing on March 12th of this year obviously a lot of things changed. One of them was my usual food routine. From how I was able to source food, to what I was able to find, to the time I had to cook food. I felt like I was always in the kitchen.

Quickly I realized that the easiest way to get a reprieve from this feeling was to make it more magical. So that’s what I did. I made sure I spent a little extra time deciding on the meals I was going to make, and ensured that I picked something fun every few days that we hadn’t tried before. Venturing out to get takeout or eating at a restaurant hasn’t happened for us yet. But that doesn’t mean that meal times have to be boring for us.

Going with this theme, I made sure that the very start of our day is special. Every Sunday I make us a new batch of granola. Save for a few weeks this year, I’ve made a new batch. I try to incorporate a different spice, nut or fruit every week. I change it for the seasons. During the height of the August heat I added orange zest and coconut. As soon as September came I picked up some cardamom from Costplus World Market’s curbside service and made a chai flavored granola with maple syrup.

I no longer follow any particular recipe, but rather a formula and substitute the ingredients.

Here’s my method:

*Preheat oven to 400º fahrenheit

*Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

* Add to a large mixing bowl oats, your choice of nuts (I like to crush a handful of almonds and cashew nuts), chia seeds, any dried fruit, maple syrup and coconut oil, cinnamon, coconut flakes.

*Mix until oats are completely coated. At this point you may need to add more honey/maple syrup and coconut oil.

*Spread onto baking sheet and pop in the oven for 10 minutes.

*Watch carefully and stir half way through.

*Once starting to turn golden take out of oven and let it cool.

*Allowing it to cool will create lovely clusters of granola.

Let me know what combinations you try. I’m always looking to add another to my rotation.

Madeline x