Nut free granola (for my nut)

Any kind of habit/ routine requires a discipline & blogging is no different. Considering I work full time & being a full time mommy, I find it extremely hard to squeeze time to blog. What I am happy about though is I get restless if I don’t blog for too long (I think of this as a good sign btw :)). I truly enjoy blogging & I am hoping to continue & hoping to get better at this game (too much hopes I tell ya). I keep telling Dinesh that in a few years, I want to quit my corporate job & make this a full time job (one can dream you see..). As of now, I have ZERO revenue from my blog & I haven’t taken too many measures to monetise it because hello, that requires time too :). One of my friends says Time is an illusion. As much as I keep thinking about that every time I am crunched for time (happens too often :D), I have still not been great at doing all the things I want in life at exactly the time I want to :).

Anywho, Adya’s school is a mostly nut-free school. Mostly because they seem to want only the human-nuts (pardon my PJ, I just had to :)). Snack ideas for toddlers is no joke. When we see Adya polish off something one day by himself, we think we can keep it in his snack box & that he would surely like it/ eat it. But no, Adya likes to prove to us time & again not to judge him too fast ;). What we have realised though is that if we keep 2 or 3 options in his snack box at least, one of them gets done (phew). What we have also realised is that if he doesn’t have any of his snacks, he’s hangry (legit urban word peeps) when he comes home (like mom, like son :D). Anywho, Granola is a snack Adya has always loved & since this can be made ahead, it’s something that my mil & I love as well :D. Ever since my cousin Madhu introduced me to her granola, I have been making it for myself & Adya every now & then. I have already uploaded the recipe for this in my site :). This is literally just a played around version (nut-free) of the same recipe. However, I wanted to blog this literally for my benefit and for mom’s who are looking for easy/ healthy snacks to send to school which have to be nut-free. And if you do jump to my original granola recipe, then feel free to notice how much better I have become at photography 😀 (thank you very much).

This granola is very simple to make because of the following reasons –

1. Handful of ingredients.
2. Base is oats & then you can play around with the seeds/ nuts (if you don’t need nut-free).
3. I have used maple syrup but any sweetener works fine (honey/ brown sugar).
4. You literally have to mix all the ingredients (takes 2 minutes max) & place it in an oven.
5. Oven does the remainder work without supervision (as in, frequent checks not required).

What more do you need peeps? Do give this a try & let me know how you like it. Dinesh gave a huge thumbs up to this dish & is now taking this for breakfast along with some yogurt & a strawberry chia jam I made (recipe coming soon). While you might think, getting Adya’s thumbs up is harder the reality is totally differnt :D.

Stepwise pictures

In a wide bowl, add together oats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds & cinnamon powder.

Mix everything together.

Now add all the wet ingredients – virgin coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla essence & mix everything together.

Line a baking tray with baking sheet & spread this mixture evenly onto the tray. Bake in a preheated oven at 200c for 30-35 minutes. Toss once after 15 minutes. Keep an eye out after 25 minutes so as to not burn the mixture.

You know you are done when the mixture turns nice golden brown. It won’t be crunchy as soon as it’s out of the oven but it hardens up as it cools down. Add the raisins finally once the mixture is cooled down.

Mix everything together.

Store in an airtight container for 2-3 weeks. Yenjoy!