CEiMB Rewind

Hi everyone! It’s Thursday, so it’s time for CEiMB. This week the assigned recipe was Sweet and Spicy Peanut Soup, hosted by Mary at Popsicles and Sandy Feet. I decided not to make this one, however, because I’m not a big fan of thick, blended vegetable soups (unless it’s Baked Potato, yum!) so I picked a recipe that the group made before I joined this summer. Sorry, Mary – after reading several posts, it seems like everyone else really liked the soup!

This week I made Ellie Krieger’s Nutty Granola, which was originally hosted by Leslie of Lethally Delicious in February of last year. Just click the link to view the recipe.

I have a basic granola recipe that I created several months ago that is easily customizable, but I wanted to give this one a spin as well. I really love nuts of all types, and this recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups total. I was sold immediately!

I really liked the combination of walnuts, pecans, and almonds in this mix. I also enjoyed the fact that it is very crunchy – I hate soft granola! Chewy granola bars are good, but if I am going to sit down with a bowl of cereal, I want it to hold up to the milk or yogurt that I add rather than becoming a soggy mess.

The only changes I made to this recipe were to use agave nectar instead of maple syrup, lower the oven temperature to 250 instead of 300 (because agave burns so easily), and I added the raisins at the end rather than baking them with the mix. I have found that baking any kind of dried fruit along with oat mixture dries it out too much and even loses a little of its flavor.

I will probably make this again and try different nut/fruit combinations, and I will definitely be enjoying some yogurt parfaits for breakfast in the upcoming week!