Although I'm completely obsessed with eating eggs for breakfast, sometimes I'm too lazy to clean a pan. The second choice is always yogurt. I'm from the upper peninsula of Michigan, where the wild blueberries are everywhere, so I usually have 30+ pounds in my freezer to get through the winter. So divine when you stir a handful into some yogurt. A little extra crunch from homemade granola also helps.

I'll admit that this granola has more exotic ingredients than my other granola recipe. You can always omit a few ingredients here and there depending on what you have on hand. Granola is very flexible and it shouldn't affect your end result too drastically.

I haven't eaten cold cereal in years, but just this afternoon I was craving it, so I poured this granola in a bowl, sliced up a banana, and poured some milk over it. Fantastic afternoon snack...




Grain-Free Gingerbread Granola
Yield: about 3-4 cups

1 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped
1 cup raw cashews, roughly chopped
1 cup quinoa flakes
1/2 cup raw hazelnuts, roughly chopped
1/2 cup raw pecans, roughly chopped
1/2 cup raw pepitas
1/4 cup hulled hemp seeds
2 egg whites
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon molasses
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 250 F. Line a baking sheet with a baking mat or parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine almonds, cahsews, quinoa flakes, hazelnuts, pecans, pepitas, and hemp seeds.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg whites, maple syrup, cinnamon, molasses, cloves, and ginger.

Transfer the egg white mixture to the larger bowl and stir to coat evenly.

Spread on the lined pan in an even layer and bake for 50 minutes-1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so.

Allow to cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.



Merry Christmas from our family to yours and thanks for supporting A Finn In The Kitchen!

For the most part, I would have been a good pioneer woman. I love making food from scratch; it's cheap and satisfying therapy. Churning butter? Sounds like a muscle-building blast! Kneading bread? Aggression-buster! A garden that would make a master gardener jealous? Tiring but so rewarding! Of course it'd be hard to make almond butter by hand. I guess that's the trade-off I'll have to live with.




My daughter adores peanut butter, but the ones that only have 1 or 2 ingredients are fairly expensive and I like knowing what's in my food.

I didn't add any sweetener because I wanted it to still be almond butter, not some kind of almond nutella. Although it would probably be delish with some honey.

This is great by the spoonful, spread on toast, or on apple slices.




Cocoa and Toasted Coconut Almond Butter

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
2 cups raw almonds
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Heat a pan over medium high heat and toast the coconut flakes, shaking or stirring frequently until lightly browned and fragrant. Immediately transfer the coconut to a small plate so it doesn't continue cooking.

In a large food processor with the blade attachment, process the almonds until they make a smooth paste. This takes longer than you'd expect and it will go through a few stages until it smooths out. You may have to periodically scrape the sides of the container.

Add the toasted coconut flakes, cocoa powder, and sea salt to the processor bowl. Process until fully combined.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.