Granola is an adjective to describe a Canadian who is uber health conscious, left-winged, open minded and possibly a hairy hippy, but not necessarily. Often confused with the pot smoking hippy; a hippy can be granola. Granola people are predominantly environmentally aware and concerned about wasting resources, are against discrimination, and do not wear leather products. You can find granola people throughout Vancouver, especially in the downtown core.
Granola as a noun is a snack or breakfast food, made from rolled oats, browned and mixed with fruit and nuts. Eaten over yogurt or fruit you can make it into bars or simply eat as a cereal. Muesli is similar but it is not toasted in oil and often has other ingredients like puffed rice, rye and bran flakes added to it.
Granola people eat a lot of granola!
A Simple Granola Ratio Recipe
Dry Ingredients
- 4 cups natural rolled oats
- 2 cups any mix of chopped nuts and/or seeds
- 1 cup mix of dried fruit, example; cranberries, raisins, chopped apricots…
- 1 Tbsp. cinnamon
- 4 Tbsp. shaved coconuts
Wet Ingredients
- 1/2 cup oil (vegetable, olive or sunflower)
- 1/2 cup honey or maple syrup or (brown sugar added to the dry mix)
- 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract (good quality)
The key to this recipe is to put in what you like. In our family, dried fruit makes it too fattening with the added sugars, so we prefer nuts with coconuts.
METHOD:
Step 1-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Step 2-In a large bowl mix oats with sweetener and oil. Add in vanilla, cinnamon and mix until the oats are evenly covered.
Step 3- In a flat baking sheet spread out pats evenly and place in oven
Step 4- turn or move oats around to brown evenly ½ way through 30 minutes bake time.
Step 5- Take out of oven and cool
Step 6- Place back in the large bowl; add in your chopped nuts, fruit and coconut.
Step 7- store in a sealed container.
Hamori Tip: It is really good over ice cream too, making a treat a wee bit healthy.
