Breakfast Interlude

Instead of chocolate chips in your breakfast, have some raw cacao nibs: crunchy, tasty antioxidants!  Instead of riding the white sugar roller coaster from some cookie-lookalike cereal, enjoy a chocolate-oat-nut mélange that will power you through the morning or the rest of your workday, if you’re like me and enjoy granola for lunch a few times a week.

I’m on a mission to find out if General Mills ran a Halloween-themed special edition of French Toast Crunch during Fall 1999.  When I began third grade in 1999, I suffered from anxiety (don’t ask about what, it was just anxiety about, like, everything), and experiencing a daily sugar crash from eating FTC would probably have contributed to my bouncing between emotional extremes at the time.  I submitted a research inquiry and am waiting on their reply.  Wonder what the corporate archivist for General Mills does, what kinds of material s/he processes?

Chocolate Kick Granola

Works consulted: Erin McKenna, “Granola,” in Babycakes Covers the Classics: Gluten-free Vegan Recipes from Donuts to Snickerdoodles (New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2011), 44-5.

Susan O’Brien, “Dried Cherry Granola” and “Oat and Ginger Granola,” in Gluten-Free Vegan Comfort Food: 125 Simple and Satisfying Recipes, from “Mac n’ Cheese” to Chocolate Cupcakes (Boston: Da Capo Press, 2012), 37, 41.

3 cups GF oats

4 cups VGF chocolate puffed brown rice cereal (I used EnviroKidz Koala Krisp)

1/2 cup coconut

1 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/2 cup raw whole almonds

1/2 cup raw soynuts

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup almond butter

1/4 cup brown rice syrup

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 cups craisins

3/4 cup raw cacao nibs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.  In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients minus the craisins and cacao nibs.  In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the almond butter and brown rice syrup and stir until incorporated.  Turn off the heat and add in the oils, stirring to melt the coconut oil.  Pour over the dry ingredients and mix well.  Spread on the baking sheet and bake for 35-7minutes, stirring at 10 minute-intervals.  Set on a rack to cool and stir in the fruit and cacao nibs.  Let cool completely before storing in a sealed container.