Raw Granola

Yesterday I started my 75% raw diet seriously. My husband wants too as well- he's all for it. I have read and researched, watched videos...read raw recipe books, so here's the deal: it's not bliblical. It shouldn't be a religious for crying out loud, and I have no persuasion towards the eastern religious stuff that often accompanies suck counter-culture ideas. I'm a true-blue, Bible-believing Christian girl, for the record.

ALl that said, I think the way we eat in this country is sick and wrong, and I think more raw and natural food wouldn't hurt us a bit. This is what I am choosing to do-

This morning I made raw granola and raw almond butter. It's surprising how hard it is to find raw foods that aren't just veggies and fruits. Everything you buy gets cooked, so I am resorting to the fun project of making much of my own, which is my way any how. I make my own from-scratch granola every month in huge batches, so not much is changing except I will be dehydrating it instead of baking it.

Those of you who know me know I don't measure. Sorry! I also make up my own recipes and can be hard-pressed to tell you what I di and why, but I'm giving it a try here.

Dalyn's Granola in the Raw

in the food processor:

two granny smith apples cored, but not peeled.

a handful of ribonned dried coconut (or use fresh)

a handful of raw almonds

sprinkle in cinnamon

~blend until small & chunky~

Add in enough raw organic oats as you can fit and pulse until blended.

in sauce pan heat until just warm and blendable: 1/2 cup or so of good olive oil & 3/4 cup raw honey, a bit of vanilla. Stir well.

(you could substitute coconut oil or butter for the extra virgin cold-pressed ollive oil- either works. Canola oil isn't meant for human consumption- research oils for yourself and see)

Put all this stuff in a big, big bowl and mix together, with raw pumpkin seeds, flax seed, raw sunflower seeds, more coconut, and whatever else sounds yummy, like raisins, other dried fruit, or any other seeds & nuts you like.

Once you have it mixed very well, spoon it onto greased cookie sheets or dehydrator screens. I only have one plastic thingy for my dehydrator, so I cut parchment paper to fit another screen. I used two of each, because I made a double batch.

So, two dehydtratr screens and two cookie sheets. You might not want to make that much!

Then dehydrate at a tempature lower than 118 (to be considered raw still). I have my dehydrator set on 115 and my oven is on the lowest setting with the door cracked open, so that should be around 100 degrees or so. Be resourceful and use what you have.

I'm going to do this all day and overnight. The books say 12 to 24 hours, but I have huge batches and I like my granola really crunchy.

I used to make my own raw yogurt, but my goats aren't in milk right now, so I will poor almond milk over my morning granola.

Mucho nutrition!

***UPDATE***

I dehydrtaed it in the oven for the day, and the dehydrator the day and overnight. Super crunchy and so good! My oldest son said it tasted like Honey Bunches of Oats and it is even better than my baked granolie (he calls it)