Homemade Hippie Granola

This recipe was given to me from a dear friend at work who made it for Christmas. My parents ate it every single day they were visiting so I ran out of it quickly.  I had to make some adjustments from the original recipe as a lot of products "may contain nuts/wheat" but it turned out pretty fantastic! Give it a try on yogurt for breakfast.

2 cups of gluten-free oats (such as Bob's Red Mill GF rolled)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup melted coconut oil (I used olive)
1 cup mixed dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, dates, blueberries)
1 cup seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, flax, sesame, hemp hearts) This proved quite difficult to find nut free. In the GF section at Superstore there is a bag of GF NF seeds by Enjoy Life. I used this and added a few tablespoons of flax, sesame and hemp hearts.
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut flakes (I couldn't find these nut free anywhere. I left it out and put in the difference in oats)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl mix the oats, seeds and cinnamon. In a separate bowl mix the honey, oil and vanilla together.  Combine the two mixtures together, stirring well. Leave out the dried fruit and coconut flakes, as these will take less time to cook and can burn.

Spread granola out onto a baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes but stir at the 10 minute mark. After 20 minutes, add the coconut flakes, and dried fruit. Stir it in.

At 30 minutes, remove granola from oven and let cool.  Once it has cooled, add the chocolate chips.

This is money on top of vanilla yogurt!

Gluten-free Oatmeal Pancakes

Yurm. That pretty much says all you need to know about these pancakes. They are low-fat and high-protein. My friend Allison made them for me a few weeks ago when I went to visit her on vacation. The original recipe can be found here and you will see that theirs are more like berry crepes. I like making a thick pancake and throwing some berries on top. As someone who has high cholesterol the egg whites are a great idea.

1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 eggs will do the trick or buy the egg white in the cartons at the store)
1/2 cup gluten-free oats ( I use Bob's Red Mill Rolled GF Oats)
1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1/8 tsp baking powder

In a blender, put the wet ingredients in first, then add the oats and baking powder. Blend until smooth. (Blend, blend, blend. You don't want chunky oats.)

Pour about 1/4 cup of mix onto a heated skillet. I flip my pancakes when the bubbles stay open. I'd say this makes about 2-3 pancakes. I halved the recipe and I only got one out of it. Heartbreak. So make the whole thing.