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Note to layout; Column name: Root awakening column

Strap: Making your morning a little sweeter

How many of you skip breakfast?
For years and years, even as a child, before any of the following reasons was valid, I would skip breakfast.
Even with a more flexible work schedule now, I find myself skipping breakfast because:
A. I’m always running out the door,
B. I don’t feel like wasting money on an overpriced breakfast, and
C. I don’t really like eating out because who knows how the food was prepared.
The best and only real solution for me was to prepare an on-the-go breakfast that was easy and healthy-ish.
As many people do, I turned to cereal for quick and easy breakfast. I would rotate brands and try something new every week and eventually stumbled across granola.
Granola was great, I loved the texture better than any cereal and I could eat it with almond milk, top it with a coconut-based yogurt, or eat it straight out of a bag (my preferred method of consumption).
Eventually, I decided to make my own granola and, let me tell you, I’m never going back to store-bought granola.
The combinations are endless and fresh granola is tastier than anything that’s been sitting on a shelf for months.
Here is the recipe for my current favourite combination that results in dreamy granola clusters.

Salted kithul pani granola

What you’ll need:

1 ½ cups rolled oats
½ unsweetened coconut flakes (dried, not fresh coconut)
½ cup of raw pecan halves
1 tbsp coconut sugar (or any sugar that you have)
¼ tsp sea salt (or regular table salt)
3 tbsp coconut oil
¼ cup kithul pani
1 tsp vanilla extract
Optional: ¼ dried fruit (my preference is dried blueberries as they taste like little balls of jam)

The method:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (162 Celsius)
2. Add oats, pecans, coconut, blueberries, sugar, and salt to a large mixing bowl and combine the ingredients
3. In a small pan, heat the coconut oil and kithul pani. Whisk the ingredients for about two minutes and then add vanilla and whisk a few more times
4. Pour the mixture over the oats and combine. Make sure that your dry ingredients are completely covered by the kithul pani mixture
5. Pour onto a large baking sheet/foil and spread evenly
6. Bake for 12 minutes, then remove from the oven and turn pan/sheet around and re-insert into the oven
7. Bake for approx. five minutes but keep checking on the ingredients every minute or so, to make sure they don’t burn. Once the granola is golden brown, pull it out of the oven
8. As soon as the granola is out of the oven, drizzle with kithul pani (about 1 tsp) in a zigzag pattern over the granola and let it completely cool before eating

Pro tip: Don’t touch/stir the granola during the baking process until it’s completely cool, otherwise you’ll lose the chunks.

Hope you enjoy!