Salty Olive Oil Granola

 

This year I made homemade granola for Christmas to give friends & relatives.  I took the recipe from Buzzfeed (I’d actually posted it as a foodie gift idea in my post earlier in December…)

 

I made 3 batches to start off with, which filled 12 pint sized mason jars with some leftover for us to eat.  It is by far the best cereal I’ve had in my life – and it really isn’t difficult to make at all.  We ended up making another 2 batches since we wanted more for ourselves!

It is perfect to snack on by itself, to eat with milk, or serve over yogurt.  Trust me, you’ll want to make multiple batches.  Rather than doubling or tripling the ingredients all in one bowl, I’d recommend doing one batch at a time.  You’ll need a baking sheet with edges so the granola doesn’t fall off the sides. 

 

 

I topped mine with some festive snowflake napkins and added gift tags. 

Salty Olive Oil Granola (adapted from Buzzfeed)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups quick oats
• 1½ cups pecan halves, broken into pieces
• 1 cup coconut flakes (I used sweetened)
• 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds (aka pepitas)
• ½ cup pancake syrup (maple syrup would be best, but since it’s pricey, I just used regular syrup and it didn’t make a difference)
• ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 t salt
• ½ t nutmeg
• ½ t cinnamon
• ½ t ground cardamom (if you don’t have this spice, you can just add more nutmeg and cinnamon)
• ½ cup raisins
• ½ cup dried cherries

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 300°F.

2. Combine the oats, pecans, coconut, and pumpkin seeds in a large bowl.  Add the syrup, sugar, olive oil, salt, and spices and toss until evenly coated.

 

 

 

3. Spread the mixture on a large baking sheet with edges.  Bake for 30 minutes, then stir.  Bake for another 15 minutes or until granola starts to brown.  When it comes out of the oven, it will be slightly soft, but it will harden as it cools.

 

4. Once it is completely cooled, add the raisins and cherries.  Divide into mason jars and decorate as you’d like.  It should keep for months in an airtight container (but it tastes so good, there’s no way it’ll be around for that long!) 

Trader Joe’s Curried Chicken Salad

 

One of the foods we came home with the other day at Trader Joe’s was their Curried White Chicken Deli Salad.  In my opinion it’s one of the best things that Trader Joe’s carries – I could eat it every day! 

Despite the curry, it isn’t spicy, just very flavorful.  And one of the things I like best about this salad is that you don’t taste the mayonnaise like you do in traditional chicken salads.  It is great for sandwiches, spreading on crackers, or even just eating it right out of the container.  I had it on Raisin Rosemary Crisps. 

The salad is made of chicken breast, carrots, raisins, scallions, toasted cashews, and mayonnaise.  It is spiced with curry, sugar, lime juice, ginger, turmeric, salt, and pepper.  If I didn’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby, I would try out this copycat recipe from the blog The Chronicles of Home, but having one in town, I’ll probably just stick with their pre-made version since it’s made so perfectly.