trans canada mix

Thursday, April 1, 2010


low fat cinnamon granola

You've heard of trail mix well this is 4 lane mix.

Low fat, lots o'nuts and dried fruit, high fibre granola. I've been wanting to make homemade granola for ages (years perhaps) and just didn't ever get around to it. The cowboy and the beautiful brown hound leave today on another of their cross Canada road trips, traveling north away from us and the ocean, then west through boreal forest, rocky shorelines and lakes as big as seas to arrive on the edge of the prairies where he will spend two weeks tidying up and packing up the final bits and pieces of a former life. Remember the incredible steel and plywood (now disassembled and packed into the motorhome awaiting it's journey west) motorcycle crate - the one made for the much loved second Honda CL90 Scrambler which will be shipped back to Nova Scotia.

He and I for most of this still newish year have been strictly following a heart smart diet - no more butter, cream, rare roast beef and/or chocolate mousse for us. It's fish, chicken, heaps of vegetables, lots of fruit and as little fat as possible. I'm happy to report that I've been losing .5 to 1.5 lbs every week, effortlessly. I love to cook and we've been having fabulous tres healthy delicious dinners every evening - absolutely no deprivation felt at all and it is true you actually begin to lose your taste for ... ummm ... well you lose the taste for rich and fatty and I've even lost my, thankfully rare but always there, taste for junk. Crap like frosted blueberry pop tarts or red dye No. 3 cheetos cheesies (eaten sandwiched between dill pickle potato chips). I do digress.

Not only did I want to send my handsome cowboy off with lots of love and comfort, an "in case of emergency please call Susan" card for his wallet (designed by me and laminated), another homemade music CD, Blue Rodeo's - Five Days in July (an every single song is fantastic CD), lots of kisses ... and I wanted to make him a snack for the road that had a bit of protein and some crunch to replace his former road trip snack of kettle cooked potato chips - a treat he only ever allowed himself to eat while making this twice yearly long haul road trip. So ... la recipe

Low fat granola

4 cups of oats (I used 2 1/2 cups of oats and 1 1/2 cups of All Bran Buds)
2 cups nuts (I used a combo of sunflower seeds, whole unsalted almonds, pistachios and pecans)
1 1/2 cups dried fruit (I used a combo of raisins, dried cranberries and chopped pitted dates)
3 tsp cinnamon
nutmeg to taste
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix warm water, maple syrup and vanilla together. Pour over nut, fruit, oat mixture. Stir and mix well. Spread on two large cookie sheets and bake at 300 for 1 hour, stirring every 20 mins.

The next time I make this I might up the sweetness factor just a touch by adding either a bit more maple syrup or some honey and I might add 1 cup of Special K Satisfaction (my current fav cereal) and ... dried apricots, dried blueberries ... oh the possibilities are truly endless. Recipe adapted from urban mommies.

I'm sure gonna miss him ... but I know in my heart that I'm keepin' him forever and for always.


12 comments:

  1. That looks really good, and heaps better than kettle crisps.

    The journey sounds wonderful too - Boreal Forest - saw that on a documentary recently, and so wanted to go! What an amazing country you live in, Susan.....

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  2. Shhh. Don't tell, but I have a thing for Cheeto's Puffs, too. I haven't bought any in quite a while, though, I'm proud to say.

    Sandwiched between dill pickle potato chips? Uh-oh. Ya shouldn't have told me.

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  3. CLUNK!!!








    (time for the smelling salts)

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  4. This granola looks divine and I shall have to make a batch directly, first making a trip to the local market to buy some almonds. Susan, Is this an original recipe of yours or a borrowed one?

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  5. Dear Patti - good question and I forgot to give credit the recipe is adapted from www.urbanmommies.com

    and could you email me one more time @ my gmail account. In a ferocious fit of cleaning out my "stay" boxes I deleted your email without a reply. Thanks xo S

    ps could you also resend the Grade 6 photo as high res as you have. Merci !! Love that photo

    Patti and I were best friends when we were young

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  6. hey B. Shammy,

    and ...

    brace yourself ...

    no bacon (the scream from the movie psycho playing in the background).

    ps actually it's a little fat but definitely no animal fat so ... no bacon, no butter, no cream - but lots of olive oil.

    Anal tidying of my comments now places them out of chronological order and then ... the CLUNK !! and we applied the smelling salts. I'm supposed to be working - wink.

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  7. My dad loves Vinegar Kettle Chips..mom only allows them on road trips!!! Blue Rodeo road trip music, yeah! You need a road trip Susan...mom says come to the HOW Conference & then you can pet me!!
    Tail Wags,
    ~moose

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  8. 'The Font' thinks that is wonderful.

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  9. Good thing I keep Bacon Smelling Salts in my emergency culinary kit for just such an occasion.

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  10. Is this trip for his work again? how many men get their own laminated card and homemade CD? Wodnerful. :)

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