Do you love granola but not the stuff in most packaged versions? If yes, you’re not alone. Finding a good granola without added vegetable oils, is non-gmo (preferably organic), free of refined sugar, and doesn’t have too many dried fruits (with added oil and sugar) is not easy. Nevermind the high price of a tiny bag of most “gourmet” versions!
Similar to my coconut salmon cakes, this recipe takes the healthful deliciousness of granola to your kitchen? This greatly reduces cost while increasing nutrition.
High protein, gluten free, no refined sugar, and full of crunchy flavor, how can you NOT love it? This coconut granola will have you skipping the bags on the shelf and quickly making a second batch in your home.
Seriously, make a second batch because the first one will go quick. I speak from experience….
3 packets of stevia powder or 25 drops of liquid stevia; I don’t like it too sweet, so if you want add more to taste
1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl using a wire whisk.
In a separate mixing bowl, add the pumpkin puree with 2 T milk or water.
Melt the coconut oil and mix into pumpkin mixture.
Add the wet to the dry and stir until well combined; this takes a while, be patient
On a parchment lined cookie sheet spread the mixture out evenly and bake for 30 – 35 minutes. Every 10-15 minutes stir and break up the granola for even baking.
Remove from oven once you see granola turning a deep golden color.
Allow to cool and enjoy however you would. The clusters make excellent portable snacks and smaller pieces can be used for your milk/yogurt “dressing”.
If you don’t care about the gluten free part, feel free to substitute rolled oats in place of the puffed cereal. Or you can use certified gluten-free oats. The oats will actually make for a crunchier granola.
I hope you try and love this healthy recipe, and maybe even share with others if can! Have a great Sunday!
Do you like granola or try to keep away?
What’s your favorite treat that you wish could be healthier? I might have a way to make it better if you share.
This was originally posted on May 18, 2014. Thankfully, we are long past the baby-led weaning days!
I’m writing this from the comfort of our couch on Saturday night after a long and busy, but mostly good day. Avery is as mobile as she can be without being able to crawl, and she surprises us by sitting right up immediately after we set her down.
Crazy kid, we love her so much, but she can really wear us out! It helps that I’m celebrating World Whiskey Day with my Breckenridge Distillery Bourbon to wind things down though.
So, um, yeah, baby-led weaning (BLW), is not off to a great start for us. I get that this was our first day and first try and blah, blah, but I still got my hopes up ready to watch Avery grasp a green bean and eat it like she does her red plastic bird.
But the exact opposite happened; she refused to even touch the food I set in front of her! Mommy’s water cup? Sure, she’ll grab at and try to put it in her mouth all day! Food you are actually supposed to put in your mouth? Nope, not having it.
What did we do wrong that made her so repulsed by our food offering? I’m not certain, but maybe trying right at her bedtime had something to do with it. What do you think?
Not to mention her usual 2 – 3 hour morning nap only lasted 1 hour; in which she cried some during that hour. A tired baby is a cranky baby as all parents know, and that’s what we had for parts of the day.
I want to sleep, but I also don’t!!!
Okay, she wasn’t fussy all day, but she had several of her “moments” just to let us know she was tired and not happy. Since she obviously didn’t want to be in her jumper (see picture above), we moved her to her play yard to give her freedom to move around and practice her sitting up skills.
She got right to sitting up, but still cried while doing so. I had several things cooking in the kitchen and Going Mom was hard at work cleaning the living room, so we had to let her cry for a few minutes. Then Kelley turned on the vacuum which always gets Avery to quiet down and look around.
Ahhh, the loud whir of a vacuum never sounded so good. Apparently Avery thought so too; we looked over and she was sound asleep!
We haven’t had to use the consoling power of the vacuum for a while now, and it surprised us to see how passed out she was! Obviously, I had to give it my thumbs up of approval.
Kelley didn’t want to turn off the vacuum while she slept, so now we have a really clean living room! The nap helped, but it wasn’t even 30 minutes, so we weren’t too hopeful for a happy Avery.
We finished our to-do’s and went for a walk with Avery in the Onya Outback where she had a 15 minute power nap. Upon our return, it was just past 7pm and Kelley went to clean up as I put the highchair together. Avery commenced with crying…
30 minutes later (about the time we usually get her to bed), we strapped her in the highchair for the first time and excitedly prepared for our first BLW experience! I don’t think she was too excited though….
I had steamed a bunch of organic baby carrots, green beans, and broccoli earlier, so I pulled a few pieces of each to serve her.
Top Chef finalist here!
Avery was already in fuss-mode as I brought the veggies to her, and it only increased with each passing second. I at least expected to see her grab at one of the specimen in front of her, but to no avail. She wouldn’t even look at them!
Pretty sure I knew the reason, I told Going Mom it was just her bib making her upset. Simple solution, just remove the bib, right?
Wrong. I gave this the thumbs down of disapproval. Not being one to accept no for an answer, or “no” as expressed by a baby, I tried dangling a green bean in front of her to get her attention.
If a baby can look repulsed, this is the look. Her hands remained idle making sure she didn’t give even the slightest reach to raise our hopes. On the last straw, I attempted to show her how the food is meant for her mouth, but she wasn’t too receptive.
Might as well of been a cigar because she wasn’t having it. At this point, we called our first attempt a failure and gave up. Luckily, our pet box turtle, Tash, was looking for some good food and she happily accepted Avery’s outcast veggies.
I spent a little time playing with Avery before her bath, and then she seemed to cheer up for a while! And she made sure to put everything around her in her mouth; figures. But our time was limited and only our dog, Abby, could keep Avery from letting out another whine.
Dog kisses just make everything better, huh? Unless you’re me, I don’t care for the kisses too much.
So if you’re about to introduce your baby to solids for the first time, don’t do like us and try when it’s their bedtime. Even more so if their naps have been short or even non-existent! At that point, it’s just smart to put it off for one more day and save everyone the stress.
And that’s what we’re doing. As you read this, we will be making our second, and hopefully successful, attempt at introducing Avery to solids. Avery is usually the happiest in the morning, so at least we should see some smiles! As always, I’ll let you know how it goes.
Any tips on how to get your baby interested in grabbing food?
Do you have any first time baby successes or failures to share?
How much do you depend on gas? Not too long ago, it was used mostly for various modes of transportation; planes, trains, and automobiles. Our grandparents’ generation didn’t have gas-powered blades to cut their lawn, nope; they used manual push mowers!
Hmmm, and come to think of it, people weren’t as concerned about obesity back then…..interesting. Well, push mowers haven’t left, they only improved, and I think I’ve had the pleasure of using the best.
I loathe using gas power to do something as simple as cutting grass. So, when I saw the Fiskars StaySharp Max Reel Mower, I knew I had to have it to prepare for the weekly battle against growing grass. No, hippie, not that kind!
No thanks!
I mentioned in a previous post how excited I was when I wrote Fiskars asking if they’d send one for my review and they graciously agreed!
Setup was fast and easy; even Avery enjoyed helping me get it together!
I think Onya’s carrier and Fiskars’ reel mower is a perfect combo for the active parent; even the color schemes match! Even after a mowing when it just rained, I can happily say I enjoy reel mowing! I wore Avery every time and she even fell asleep within a few minutes. So now I’m saving gas, exercising, mowing the lawn, and getting Avery to take a nap; perfect!
Here’s a quick video of the Fiskars in action with me wearing Avery:
It helps that, unlike other reel mowers, Fiskars StaySharp Max uses super durable steel blades that cut grass without touching each other. This makes the mower very quiet (even enough for naptime) and means no annual sharpening of the blades like many reel mowers.
If you’re concerned about it being too difficult to push, Fiskars has you covered. Along with the blades not touching, they have the only reel mower with adjustable blade height to change depending on how tall your grass is.
Here are the key features that Fiskars provides on their website:
The smart design of our eco-friendly reel mower offers a cleaner cut without the hassles of gasoline, oil, battery charging, electrical cords or loud engine noise
Received Popular Mechanics 2010 Green Design Award and recommended by Consumer Reports over other reel mowers among other accolades
A combination of advanced technologies make the StaySharp™ Max Reel Mower 60% easier to push than other reel mowers
Patent-pending InertiaDrive™ Reel delivers twice the cutting power to blast through twigs, weeds and tough spots that would jam other reel mowers
Exclusive StaySharp™ Cutting System uses precision-ground, hardened steel blades to cut grass without touching, greatly reducing friction and blade wear for long-lasting performance without costly annual blade sharpening
Patent-pending VersaCut™ Technology offers cut height settings from 1″–4″ to provide best-in-class cutting, even when you’ve missed a week of mowing, plus one-touch height adjustment for comfortable use
Inset wheel design allows the blades to extend across the full width of the mower to eliminate uncut strips under the wheels and edge closer to foundations, fences and borders than other reel mowers
Unique grass discharge chute throws clippings forward cleanly, away from your feet
Cuts all grass types, even tough southern varieties like St. Augustine, Zoysia, Bahia and Bermuda
18″ cut width
Limited three-year warranty
With the 18 inch cutting width (very good for a reel mower!), I am able to mow our front and back yard in 30 to 40 minutes as long there are no obstructions. Yes, this is while wearing my baby, so it could be even faster. But I don’t mind, just a longer nap and more exercise, right?
Compared to a gas mower, the reel mower doesn’t cut the grass as cleanly, but it’s not far behind. Our lawn still looks good when I’m done and I happy with its performance.
I used to hate having a gas mower and fighting to get it started for the first time before every mow, and the maintenance can be time consuming and costly. Plus, the noise, ugh, I despised walking behind the gas-guzzler as it droned everything out around me.
Now, I can actually talk to Going Mom while mowing and really enjoy it more than I ever thought I would. But, everything has a negative side…..
The inset wheel design does allow for greater overall cutting width and to get close to edges on borders and fences, but if the surface is sloped near these edges, it can be frustrating. When trying to mow along our slightly sloped fence line, the mower keeps gravitating into the fence and I have to readjust. This occurs with gas mowers too, but since they are heavier, it’s not as often.
The mower spits grass out of the front and away from you, but with any wind around, that grass might end up in your face. It’s not always, but something that can be annoying, especially when wearing your baby! Of course, Fiskars offers a Grass Catcher which solves this problem. I haven’t tried it, but might get one soon.
It just won’t cut some patches of grass. I will go over and over the patch, but it doesn’t seem to do the job. This is usually weeds and doesn’t happen often though.
Beware of mulch and other small, hard objects! Any mulch around our trees and garden that finds its way into the yard has the ability to stop the mower, and you, in its tracks. If you’re going fast enough, you might power through it, but just try and clean your yard from obstructions before starting.
Issues aside, I am happy with the Fiskars StaySharp Max Reel mower and would recommend one to anyone with a yard smaller than an acre. If that’s you, and you want a “greener” way to care for your lawn while getting a great workout too, then look no further than Fiskars. For just $199 and free shipping on Amazon, it’s cheaper than most gas mowers and you’ll never have to fill it up or add oil….EVER!
Yard complete and Avery asleep.
I know I’ll be getting some good use with our Fiskars Reel Mower and look out for post in the near future on how to create a high intensity workout while mowing with Fiskars!
Do you or have you used a reel mower?
If so, what kind and how does it compare to the Fiskars StaySharp Max?
Disclosure: Fiskars sent me their StaySharp Max Reel Mower to review free of charge, but I was not compensated otherwise. All thoughts and opinions and strictly my own.
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
