Yummy Granola!

Maybe this blog will be all about food, who know's? I do know that I made some yummy, yummy, yummy granola from my friend Ann's recipe that she posted on her blog. Here's the link if you want to take a look at her blog. http://ageoldtree.blogspot.com/ It's a really good one.

Okay back to the granola. It is super easy to make and very tastey. Try it this weekend!

Homemade Granola

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

3/4 cup unsalted raw sunflower seeds

1 cup almonds, whole

1 1/2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

1 1/2 cups assorted unsulfured dried fruits, (I left this out)

Grated zest of two oranges

3/4 cup raw honey (or agave nectar)

1/4 cup coconut oil (available at most health food stores)

Preheat ove to 300* F and set aside 2 rimmed baking sheets.

Combine the oats, sunflower seeds, nuts, coconut, dried fruits, and zest in large bowl. Heat the honey (or agave nectar) and the coconut oil in a small saucepan over low heat, whisk to thoroughly combine, then pour over the oat mixture and stir until everything is well coated.

Divide the mixture between the baking sheets and spread into a thin layer. Bake, stirring every 10 minutes, for about 40 minutes, until toasty golden brown. Cool completely, then store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Makes about 10 cups

--Recipe as in Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

Indulge in these yummy cookies!

I happened upon the best cookie recipe this week! Why are cookies so good? Is it the chocolate chips? Is it the gooey soft middles? Is it the crunchy brown edges? I think it is the combination of all of these elements. Oatmeal chocolate chip are my favorite and plain oatmeal are a close second. I got both with this one recipe. Simply leave out the chocolate chips for a chewy wonderful oatmeal cookie. Of course I will give you the recipe.....I'm trying to count how many of them I ate this week. I shared them at the office and at home and I always ate just one more! Oh well, who cares! ENJOY!!!!!

Amiee's Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 lb. butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon (opt.)
4 cups flour
5 cups rolled oats
2-3 cups chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugars, add vanilla and eggs, mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips. Bake at 375 degrees for 11 minutes.
This recipe makes lots of cookies, you can also half this recipe.

Thanks to my friend Aimee for sharing this great recipe!

It is almost a full moon. I love to watch the moon as it changes everyday from little tiny sliver to huge and big and full and back again to a little tiny sliver. It reminds me of the changes in my life, sometimes I am big and round and full of life and other times I am only a sliver of light. Nature so closely mirrors our life......or do we mirror it? Here is a favorite poem to go with my picture of the moon.







Faith
I want to write about faith,
about the way the moon rises
over cold snow, night after night,

faithful even as it fades from fullness,
slowly becoming that last curving and impossible
sliver of light before the final darkness.

But I have no faith myself
I refuse it even the smallest entry.

Let this then, my small poem,
like a new moon, slender and barely open,
be the first prayer that opens me to faith.

-- David Whyte
from Where Many Rivers Meet
©2007 Many Rivers Press

Listen