Cik Lean's Granola

Ingredients

500g rolled oats

1 cup nuts (eg. almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans)

1/2 cup seeds (eg. pumpkin, sunflower seeds)

1/4 cup flaxseed

1/2 cup oil (eg. melted butter, olive oil, coconut oil)

1/2 cup honey or maple syrup

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1/2 cup dried fruits (eg. cranberries, blueberries, raisins, goji berries, dates)

other ingredients: 

1/2 cup coconut flakes

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup chocolate chips

brown sugar, vanilla pod/essence etc.

Directions

• preheat oven to 175°C and line a baking tray with parchment paper
• mix all the dry ingredients except for dried fruits
• pour in honey and olive oil/melted butter and mix well
• spread the mixture on the baking tray
• bake for 30min, stirring every 8-10mins until golden brown and crispy
• leave in oven for 10min with heat off and door slightly open
• remove from oven add in the dried fruits and stir well
• let cool and store in airtight container

Foodnote: Felt the need to up my fiber intake and eat oats more regularly but don't really like overnight oats. So I decided to make my own granola since the store bought ones are always too sweet with preservatives. Making my own, I can adjust to any ingredients to my liking. I use coconut oil and added coconut flakes. Delicious and smells good while baking. I can topped it to greek yoghurt or milk. Yummilicious!!

15 Feb 2024: Bake 2nd batch. This time it includes pecans + coconut flakes, sunflower + pumpkin + flax seeds and cranberries. I use olive oil with balance butter and also used up my honey. I baked longer and reduce the temperature since it is still not crispy. Then I leave it in the oven to cool and dry up the ingredients before adding in the dried cranberries. This time it is crispier and nice. Will make this regularly.

Overnight Oats

Ingredients
0.5 cup regular rolled oats
2 tbsp mixed ground almonds and walnuts
about 10 raisins
3 chopped dates
1 tsp basil seeds
1 tbsp ground flaxseed+cranberry (bought from NTUC organic section)
1 packet Higoat milk powder (because I still have few packets available)
1.5 cups water (adjust to preference)
1 tsp maple syrup
or whatever ingredients you have on hand or feel like adding eg. chopped fruits, other nuts, chocolate syrup, low fat milk, cinnamon powder etc.

Directions
Just combine all ingredients and leave it in the fridge for 4hours or overnight

Foodnote
Finally decide to try overnight oats. There are many many many combinations that can be done but I started with whatever I have on hand (ingredients from granola dust recipe) and oh my it is so delicious I can have this everyday. I think what makes it delicious is the dates and raisins which adds to the sweetness. I don't have mason jars but I bought 2 glass containers from Daiso. I just prep the dry ingredients in the glass container and before I go to work, add other ingredients. Left it in the fridge when I reached work... and I have a good sumptuous lunch that is very healthy and filling.

I am totally hooked. Next time will try with fresh berries, bananas or other fruits.

Granola Dust

Ingredients

800g Quaker rolled oats

230g mixed nuts and seeds (I use walnut, almond, pinenuts, pecan, macadamia)

230g mixed dried fruits (I use dried figs, dates, raisin, sun dried tomato)

1 orange zest

1 tbsp coffee powder

3 tbsp cocoa powder

Directions

• bake oats, nuts & orange zest in oven (170 degrees C) for 15-20 mins. Stir every 5mins  until oats & nuts gets a bit crunchy & crispy
• once oats & nuts are cooled, use food blender to grind with the rest of the ingredients to form 'dust'
• keep in airtight container
• serve 1/2 cup of healthy and sugar free granola dust with milk or/and yoghurt together with fresh berries or/and chopped fresh fruits

Foodnote

Saw my friend post this recipe by Jamie Oliver on his facebook and have the strong urge to try it (actually more because I have an empty and cool looking glass jar that he gave me and the granola dust will be perfect for it). The portion and ingredients have been adjusted to include whatever I have on hand. Would be good to have more seeds like flaxseed but I don't want to buy a big packet and leave it lying around too long. Eeerrr should have halfed the ingredients but ok lah... now I have like 2 months supply of granola dust for breakfast haha.