Overnight, Apple-Chia Seed Oatmeal with Homemade Granola
Because I knew yesterday, when it was bright and warm and lovely, that I would really appreciate a warm and homely breakfast, as I listened to the wintry rain falling.
-
-
Art and Culture | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos | Poetry
Furlough Week Two — Sutras
First too hot, now cool.
It wasn’t until the weather cooled and the reality of a second week of work not being done that needs to be done to meet deadlines that the impulse arose to make the first batch of homemade granola of the season. This batch could be called maple nut granola with raisins.
Harvested last of the sweet banana peppers and a fire engine red cayenne pepper. Also picked as a baby one last eggplant before pulling the plant to make way for tat soi.
Most of the tomatoes I found on the ground still unripe. With a generous portion of red wine and nice herbs, and the traditional way of cooking them for hours and then running through a food mill, and then reducing until reaching the desired thickness, it won’t matter that the tomatoes ripened on the counter.
Assorted apples from the farmer’s market. Dried fruit is different when it goes into the dehydrator within a couple of days of having been picked and early in the season when the apples are best. An upside of being required to stay around home is that I have been able to experiment with the dehydrator that was a most generous birthday gift.
There’s a bunch of difficult stuff going on, but there is no need to write about it anywhere except possibly in my journal, for much of it. And as for the shutdown and its impact on real people around the globe (and all that interconnectedness stuff), I prefer today to write about granola and stuff from the garden.
Anyway, I’m thinking I would just be preaching to the choir if I wrote another blog post about the importance of trying to keep up and understand as much as possible, speaking with others to shape your understanding and your voice, being in contact with your elected officials and signing petitions, and reaching out to friends and family open to such discussions to invite them to be engaged.
It is times like these when I think of Patanjali’s sutra: heyam duhkham anagatam (the pain that has yet to come can be avoided.) I have contemplated this sutra much over a long period. It is a good one for when I am reaching into the yoga teachings for insight into how I might respond more optimally under the circumstances at hand, especially that which is entirely out of my control.
-
Granola (yes, it’s basically cookies in milk without the egg and butter)
On Wednesday, reluctant to turn on the heat despite the cold, I turned on the oven instead. I already had muffins and bread from the previous weekend in the freezer, so I decided to make granola. I first made granola at Quaker youth camp in the 1970s in upstate New York. It was tasty, but loaded with honey and fat, and we made it in such vast quantities that it was years before it occurred to me I could just make the same amount that would be in a cereal box for myself. If you have never done it, or suffer from the same inhibitions I’d suffered from, give yourself a treat and make your own.
Take a few cups of multigrain flakes (or just oat flakes). Throw in any or all of the following: shredded coconut, chopped nuts, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seed nuts. If you have them in the house, add a handful of wheat germ and/or flax seed meal, a little salt (makes it taste sweeter) and spices if you like (e.g. cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg). Stir in enough of any of the following liquid sweeteners (my favorit is brown rice syrup because it gives the best clumping with the smallest amount), honey, maple syrup, agave, fruit juice concentrate (thaw first) and a little vegetable or nut oil (my favorite is walnut), that the mixture is a pleasing combination of coated flakes and small clusters. (The more sweetener you use and the stickier the sweetener, the bigger the clumps).
Spread mixture on an oiled cookie sheet. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 325-350F. Let the mixture get golden, but not brown (or to taste). Turn and respread mixture once at about the 12-15 minute mark.
When you take the mixture out of the oven, stir in dried fruit of your choice (raisins, currents, dried blueberries or cranberries; dice larger fruits such as dried apricots or apples).
Use combinations of nuts, spices, sweeteners, and fruits that make sense: apple, walnut, maple syrup; brazil nut, coconut, pineapple juice concentrate, nutmeg; cranberry, raisin, walnut. You get the idea. If you like peanuts, blend some peanut butter in with the sweetener and oil before mixing it with the grains.
Why is this recipe not exact? Because it does not need to be exact to come out delicious. Because breakfast cereal is best if it is the way you like it and not the way someone else likes it. (Just like doing your own asana practice at home).
If you have never done it before and are afraid of picking your own proportions and oven temperature, find a couple of recipes on the internet or in a cookbook and then use the recipes as a basis for experimenting.
For muesli, leave out the sweetener and the oil, omit the baking, add the fruit to the flake and nut mixture and then prepare as you like your muesli (soaked or not soaked, with yoghurt or with milk, etc).
