Granola - via BijaGirl

This is the easiest granola recipe, and once you’ve done it you will never spend $6 on a bag of store bought granola again. I promise that. This can be changed to keep things fresh and exciting by changing up the ingredients, like using nuts instead of chocolate chips. Whatever is your need… and lately mine is chocolate.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups gluten-free rolled oats
• ½ cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
• ½ cup dried shredded coconut (or see substitute below)
• ¼ cup crystallized ginger
• ¼ cup safflower or coconut oil
• ¼ cup agave syrup

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine all ingredients into a large bowl.
• Spread mixture in a thin layer on a non-stick cookie sheet.
• Bake for five minutes and then stir the granola with a spatula. Bake another five minutes and then stir again. Continue for another five minutes or until your granola looks golden all over.
• Cool for about 10 minutes. Store or serve.

Something you may not know is that if your recipe calls for dry, grated coconut and you don’t have that on hand—or cannot find it in the store—for every 1 tbsp of dry, grated coconut, you can substitute it with 1 ½ tbsp of fresh, grated coconut. Alternatively, you can substitute the other way around as well. If you cannot find fresh, grated coconut, you can substitute each 1 ½ tbsp with 1 tbsp of dry, grated coconut. Other items you could change up instead of using the coconut is 1/2 cup nuts or 1/2 cup dried fruit. You can also use a little maple syrup if you don’t have any agave lying around just as easily. You can also just double this recipe and store it in an airtight container on the shelf to use with some cultured coconut milk during the week when you want a more substantial breakfast or snack.