HOMEMADE GRANOLA

Happy icy Monday kittens, 

I hope you had a great weekend… Mine was quite good, I took care of my sweet man, I planned my week and I did some secondhand shopping: a nice little weekend. Since a little while I realized that taking a few hours to plan my week is really good. I’m not planning my days to the hour but you know, it’s more like what do we eat ? how do we cook it ? where do we find it ? Oh okay, at the same place than my professional meeting on next wednesday… that kind of things.

Taking the time to eat well, to think of new savors and stoping wasting food because I’m to lazy to peel sweet potatoes to make a homemade mash at 10 p.m… Well, I’m trying to find a way to eat better. I realize that some evenings, I am motivated and disposed to COOK, and not just putting some rice into the rice cooker. So these evenings I make the most of it, I plan, I « tupperware », I freeze things. During these evenings, I anticipate for the ones with high laziness. Well, you should know that at the end of the day, it is very good for your wallet and your calorific check… To make it short, I’m just like you, some evenings I have no motivation but my solution is to rationalize it…

And I apply this technique very well regarding the breakfast mission. As much as I can eat a soup for dinner, the idea of eating 4 corn flakes from breakfast isn’t so appealing… So since a little while I’m making pancake batter that I store for a few days in a bottle. Once in my pan, I add bananas and a few almonds: so with 2 pancakes, a tea and a fruit, my day can start. And, a mission that so far seemed unachievable: I made my own homemade granola. Yeah, very Gwyneth Paltrow like but it gives me an alternative to pancake for the rest of the week, and you know what ? Making granola is finger in the nose, even with my student oven…

So without further ado here is the recipe of an organic vegan breakfast please, so you can start your day off on both feet:

To make the homemade granola you will need:

• 150 g of raw millet, 
• 150g of oat, 
• 40g of blanched almonds, 
• 40g of hazelnuts, 
• 50g of squash seeds, 
• 50g of sunflower seeds,
• 40g of flaxseeds, a few pine nuts and other seeds that you might think of…
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 
• do not forget your binder, the agave syrup, here 50 g, and 8 cl of water.

Before doing anything, pre heat your oven at 180°C, and cover your baking tray with baking paper. In a mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients and mix well. Then add the water and the agave syrup, mix, the ingredients must stick to each other, that’s okay. Spread the mix on the baking tray in a uniform layer. Bake for 40 minutes, don’t hesitate to stir every 10 minutes. Then let it cool completely before placing it into an air proof box. 

Then, let’s get to the other part of the recipe: cinnamon and almond ice-cream… To make it you will need:

• 3 egg yolks, 
• 80g of brown sugar, 
• 25cl of almond milk,
• 20 cl of almond cooking cream (available in organic stores)
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and one teaspoon of vanilla extract.

In a mixing bowl, put the sugar, the cinnamon and the egg yolks, whip until it gets blanched. In another mixing bowl, mix the almond milk, the cream and the vanilla, and add it to the other mixture. Pour the lot into a sauce pan on a low heat in order for it to thicken, never stop stirring. The cream must coat the spoon. Let the mixing cool down completely by putting it on the side of your window, it shouldn’t take too much time… Then put it into your ice-cream maker for 15 minutes.

To make the setting into a small bowl: put 3 tablespoons of soy yogurt, a handful of homemade granola, a scope of almond and cinnamon ice-cream and add some agave syrup on top! Enjoy!