Today’s Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe is Nutty Granola, chosen by Leslie at Lethally Delicious. It can be found on page #38 of “The Food You Crave”, by Ellie Krieger.

I found this to be a straight forward, simple granola recipe -easily made in about 45 minutes. The recipe consists of oats, three kinds of nuts (almonds, pecans and walnuts), dried fruit (raisins), maple syrup, salt and cinnamon.  Of course I substituted equal parts dried blueberries and chopped dried cherries for the raisins- because I have a limited love for raisins and breakfast cereal is not one of the places I like them. I also substituted pistachios for the walnuts because I was out of walnuts at the time.  I know the walnuts add good omega fatty acids so I will add them next time -I promise.

The oats, fruit, nuts, cinnamon and salt are all bound together with 1/2 cup of pure maple syrup (the only kind we use at our house) and baked for only 30 minutes at 300F. I extended that time a bit to 40 minutes to get a better crunch and (I think) flavor. Turned out great.

I make granola fairly often and I add pureed fruit such as apple sauce or pumpkin plus more fruits and seeds to mine to increase the nutrition.  But this one is nice and simple and quickly made. So- that’s a thumb’s up.

Go on over and check out the other nutty granola at the CEiMB site- you’ll be glad you did.

xo