Stirring it up! Birdseed Granola. This past week breakfasts were gluten, soy, lactose and pork free. Wanting to increase my repertoire for such recipes, I searched the internet for something new and different. As often happens I got ideas but no recipe was exactly what I wanted or indeed, what I had in the pantry. So… here’s my made up recipe – and no, it doesn’t contain bird seed, it just looks like it does.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c. honey (or you can use maple syrup)
• 1/4 c. canola oil
• 1 t. pure vanilla extract
• 1  1/4 c. almond meal/flour
• 1 generous pinch of  sel de mer (or 1/8 t. table salt)
• 1/4 t. baking soda
• 3 T. sunflower seeds
• 1/4 c. craisins
• 1/4 c. chopped almonds
• 3 T. pine nuts

Preparation:

Set the oven to 350°F.

Mix oil, honey and vanilla in a medium bowl. In another bowl combine almond meal, salt and baking soda and gently stir to mix dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to the liquids and mix together. Add seeds, nuts and fruit, mixing well. Grease an 8X8 pan and press dough evenly into the pan. It is sticky so damp hands work well. Bake for 20 minutes.

Let the pan cool for about 15 minutes and you can use the granola right away by spooning it out of the pan and sprinkling it on, or layer it under, a bowl of  fresh fruit, yogurt or even ice cream. It’s is fairly sweet so you don’t need a lot. When the amount remaining in the pan cooled completely I it cut it into squares which was ok but they didn’t really stick to gather all that well so when nibble, a crumb -catcher  is a good idea. Hummm, guess that recipe needs a bit of tweaking before I can turn it into a good, stick-together snack bar.

Dishing it out! Before becoming an innkeeper/owner/chief cook and bottle washer, I had heard of lactose intolerance and celiac disease and had one recipe for gluten-lactose free cornbread. Now, over the last six plus years, I have prepared  numerous types of breakfasts including vegan, frutarian (that one bothered me), dairy free, no pork, egg-free as well as oxalate free breakfasts. Thanks to the guests who have needed these I have had a chance to cruise through recipes on-line and in numerous cookbooks new and old  and have discovered many great recipes, and made up a few along the way.