Granola

Granola (from Molly Wizenberg in Bon Appetit, June 2010)

- 3 cups oats
- 1 cup nuts (I used chopped pecans and sliced almonds)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut (I didn't have any, but will use it next time)
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- generous 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup honey
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 cup dried fruit (I used montmorency cherries)

Oven to 300 degrees; line a baking sheet with parchment.
Heat honey and oil on stove; mix other ingredients (except fruit) in bowl. Add warmed honey and oil. Mix well and spread on baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 40 minutes, stirring every ten minutes.

The directions say to cool before adding fruit. I add the cherries right out of the oven because I like them a little chewy.

Maple Sugar Popcorn, and a Food Crisis...

First the popcorn - go buy the ingredients, and make it immediately. Especially if you want your home to smell really, really, good. It is salty and sweet, and the maple sugar makes the popcorn taste nutty, toasty, and buttery. I found the recipe in the March 2008 issue of Cooking Light:

- 2 Tbsp canola oil
- 1/2 cup popcorn
- 1/4 cup maple sugar
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt



Heat oil in a 3-quart pot over med-high. Add the rest of the ingredients. Shake pot frequently to avoid burning. (Pay attention to this part. I shook "frequently", and still burned mine on the bottom. I would recommend shaking non-stop.)

(For those of you interested in this sort of thing, 1 1/2 cups of this TASTY-*$# treat has only 89 calories.)

Now on to my food crisis: I work from 7:00AM to 7:30PM. I don't like to eat after I leave work, which means I have to pack both lunch and dinner. That is a lot of food.
And there are days when it isn't even feasible to get to a freakin microwave oven. I've been falling back on Trader Joe's an awful lot lately. I need help! So, please...let me know if you have any ideas for good portable food.

In other news: my vacation was fabulous. I spent the entire time reading/sleeping under a beach umbrella, with my feet sticking out in the sun. I've never spent a vacation being that sedentary, but it was obviously needed. I was there with three co-workers. Most of the time we looked like we had been out too late the night before, despite going to bed before 9:00 every night. (Just how stressful is work, anyways?!)


View from the balcony: