Off and running first thing this morning. I’m so glad we’ve had a slight reprieve from the chilly mornings and I can run in shorts for a little while longer still.

I left my iPod at home today, wanting to just run and be completely present in the moment, focusing on what I was doing. My breathing and the sound of my feet hitting the pavement were the soundtrack for this morning’s run.

I had enough time this morning to go a bit longer and did 5.76 miles in about 47 minutes. My run definitely felt longer today without something to distract me, but it was welcome.

So who knows what time it is?

I don’t see young coconuts at the store regularly but when I do I always throw one in the cart! Especially when they are funded and sponsored by returned Sigg bottles.

There are many That’s What She Said opportunities in this post. How many do you count? There are so many I feel like my head might explode.

Zak came into the kitchen when he heard me pounding away on the knife with the rubber mallet. He suggested I take my operation outside and whack my nut on the large rocks at the bottom of the deck steps. My physics loving husband explained that the counter is absorbing most of the force of the blow and a lot of my energy was being wasted.

So that’s exactly what I did. I took my nut outside for a good whacking.

Shhhh… observe the young coconut in it’s natural habitat!

OK, not exactly.

I wonder what the hell my neighbors must think. I’m sure they see me running and riding and schlepping these kids all over creation. Don’t mind me, just gotta quick pound on this young coconut with a butcher knife and mallet at 7am on a Thursday morning. Carry on!

I am getting pretty good at the nut pounding though, I must say.

Zak came out to inspect my work to see how I was making out with his suggestion. He brought me a straw so I could suck the fresh juice straight out of the nut.

This is probably my 5th (or 6th??) young coconut and it has by far been the best one yet. The water had the perfect amount of coconut flavor. I’ve been asked about the flavor of fresh coconut water versus the packaged coconut water. I’ve only had one box of young coconut water and it did not impress me. Like most things, fresh is better than packaged and this has definitely been my experience with coconut water.

The meat from this coconut peeled easily off the inside, normally I’ve got to dig in hard and scrape it out with a spoon. It was so thick and meaty I couldn’t help but sink my teeth right into it.

After I slurped my nutty water and I put the meat in the fridge I went about my day with tasks around the house and helping get the man off on his way to work. When I felt hungry for breakfast I knew I had to incorporate that thick slab of nut meat.

I pulled out the mini chopper to give the coconut meat a thorough lashing.

I diced up a banana, stirred in my chopped meat, threw in some chia seeds, a handful of crushed walnuts and a good pour of hemp milk.

Holly girl asked the other day if Hemp milk is raw and I didn’t know the answer to that. I poked around on the Living Harvest website and can’t find anything that says it is so I’m assuming that it’s not. It’s also worth nothing that I pay HALF of what they are charging on the website for a box at Wegmans!

Now that I’ve completely exceeded my recommended daily allowance for both potassium and That’s What She Said jokes, I better sign off before this post gets any longer. Or harder.

We had a little homeschooling play date here today and we broke from watercolors and horse play (really, Ava loves to pretend she’s a horse) to have lunch.

Veggie sandwich anyone? Well make your own cause this one is ALL. MINE.

There’s avocado in there but it’s hiding until a forest of red leaf lettuce. Plus tomato and mustard too on toasted Ezekiel.

Post lunch we hit up the playground for some “Outside Voice” time and large motor activities on something other than my furniture.

Our friends had to leave but we stayed to enjoy a totally vacant park. Where the heck is everyone?? Oh yeah. At school.

So yup, it was just us. Well, us and the imaginary birds flying over the water that the girls threw rocks at. I guess we weren’t totally alone.

While we were at the park my sprouts were at home trying to make their escape!

Heeeelp!!! Heeeelp! She’s going to eat us! We’ve got to get out of here!

I hope they’re freaking ready because that jar is not getting any bigger. And now I just realized where Ava is getting the word “freaking” from.

I rinsed off their hulls and they are now trapped in an air tight container in the refrigerator. As soon as I hit publish I’m going to get back to work on 1000 tiny pair of sprout shackles. Try to escape me, will ya? We’ll just see about that.

I spent a little QT this evening with my good buddy the food processor.

More gazpacho and a double batch of sun dried tomato hummus. (I used up the last of the sun dried tomatoes tonight. Phew at least I got THAT out of my system.)

I followed the cue from a certain Kubicle Kitchen and prepped me some carrots and tore up and washed a mountain of red leaf lettuce so I can have salad at every meal from now until October. That should do it.

I was also blog-inspired tonight to try what I believed is going to an amazing new dish with a lot of possibilities – Portabella Pizza! I bought three portabella mushroom caps for my veggie lasagna on Saturday and only used two of them. When I saw the third one in my produce drawer tonight I was reminded of the awesome dinner Heather made last week.

(OK is portabella or portobello?? Google returns both!)

I googled around for some different approaches on how to use a portabella mushroom cap for a pizza. I only got to make one because it’s all I had – but Zak’s working late and eating at work tonight so it’s all good. But beyond that there’s hummus and gazpacho and fixings for salad… the man will not go hungry, trust me. I know you’re reading this all concerned he’s wasting away to nothing because I only made one portabella mushroom pizza tonight.

I preheated the toaster oven to 350 and popped the stem out of the cap and washed away any dirt and debris. Every recipe I looked at said not to peel the mushroom cap (like I usually do when I make burgers) so I followed the internet’s orders and obeyed.

I baked the naked cap on a baking sheet sprayed with a little olive oil for about 10 minutes and then poured off the mushroom water before topping it with canned diced tomatoes, diced green peppers and onions and some Parmesan cheese. I would have used mozzarella but I didn’t have any so parm was going to have to do.

Back into the toaster oven with toppings for another 8 – 10 minutes and voila! Portabella pizza! Served with a giant salad.

It was love at first bite.

What a great idea for a pizza “crust”! Thanks again Heather for the fabulous idea! I will very likely be making these tomorrow or Friday, I can’t wait have this again and to get more creative with the toppings and sauce too. And oh yeah, so Zak can try one too I suppose.

I like to consider myself a reasonable parent. We practice gentle disciple and offer loving guidance. We encourage respect and the proper use of manners. I’ll eagerly honor requests when they are asked politely, in a sweet tone and especially when there’s something in it for me.

Maxine woke up in the middle of the night last night politely asking for water. Ava’s unconscious heard this request and she immediately woke up asking for water too. I was groggy but knew that there would be no going back to sleep until pint sized thirsts were quenched. I pulled myself out of bed and pressed my near sighted eyes to the bed side clock to see what time it was before stumbling downstairs to fetch two glasses of water.

When I returned, Ava asked innocently if her water was cold.

“Yes, it’s cold.”

Maxine asked “Is mine cold too?”

“Yes, yours is cold too.”

“Where are da ice cubes? I want ice cubes!”

If sweet requests allow me get out bed at 2:32 AM, angry demands bolt my feet to the floor. Or more specifically, shouts for ice cubes in the dark fasten my body to the bed. A) the water is already is cold and 2) she wouldn’t have even thought about ice cubes if Ava wouldn’t have brought up the subject of water temperature in the first place.

I laid back down and the wailing for ice cubes continued. Of course it would – she’s three. She’s not going to realize “oh, you’re right, my water is cold, this is fine. At least mom was nice enough to get me water. I’ll just drink it so we can all go merrily back to sleep.” Being three is much like being a man in the drivers seat or with a remote in his hand – it’s all about control. They don’t call it the Terrible Two’s because they are terribly hard to please when they when they are two. It’s called the Terrible Two’s because this stage lasts two years.

The crying for ice cubes ebbed and flowed. It would be quiet long enough to allow us to doze back to sleep only for the ice cube wails to return in varying forms of intensity and shrillness.

My mature (debatable) adult mind knows that we’ll all get back to sleep sooner if I would just get up and get her some ice cubes. This is not something that’s worth the power struggle. I’m not worried that getting her ice cubes is going to spoil her; it’s my sleepy stubborn self that refused to let me get up for a second time. The only place I was going to get ice cubes from was hell – so just as soon as hell froze over I would get up again to get ice cubes. Until then, cold, ice cube-less water was going to have to suffice.

More crying over ice cube injustice, hell was getting it’s first frost when Zak finally cried Uncle and went down to fetch ice cubes.

He returned and he handed Maxine her glass with ice cubes in it. As she drank it in the dark he asked her if she knew how many ice cubes were in the glass.

No reply.

“Three”, he told her.

“Three?!” she said, “That’s how many I am!”

Ya don’t say.

I had trouble falling back to sleep after the Disney Princess on Ice show and this would be the reason why I slept until well after 7 this morning. By the time Zak got back from swimming laps I had 20 minute to ride. It was too warm and beautiful this morning to pass up altogether so I took my twenty minutes and rode like I stole something.

Jillian A LA 30 Day Shred: If you’ve only got 20 minutes, Make. It. Count.

I’m on it.

I flew around town riding faster than usual, aiming for every hill in a 3 mile radius of the house to climb like I was in a spin class. I was back in 24 minutes and rode 6.5 miles. My usual mph around 14, today my average was 16 mph.

I really want a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week, so I handed the relay baton off to Zak as he sped off to work and I did 10 or so minutes of body weight exercises. Push ups, jump squats, various ab exercises. I don’t really count reps when I do body weight exercises, I just do it until it really starts to suck and then I do two more.

The only thing GREEN I had to eat yesterday was the diced green pepper in my vegetarian sloppy joes. Green was definitely on the menu for breakfast. I didn’t feel like juicing, so that means green smoothie here I come!

Except the blueberries and spinach played Rock, Paper, Scissors in the blender. Blueberries was Paper and spinach was Rock. Of course Paper totally covers Rock and my green smoothie had no choice but to be mainly blue.

A banana, unsweetened vanilla hemp milk, a bunch of frozen blueberries, a handful of fresh spinach and 2 Tbsp of chia seeds.

Scary action shot!

Those chia seeds form a weird gel around them when they get wet and they gave the smoothie such an interesting texture.

And I don’t even care that my smoothie didn’t have ice cubes in it this morning! Way to go me!

I’m afraid I was not tickled to hear that any Sigg bottles made before August 2008 have trace amounts of BPA in their liners. I bought ours early in 2008 so ours were definitely tainted.

Maxine and I ran errands in the acid rain while Ava was at her crunchy granola homeschooling class today. Ditching these bottles was on the list of things to do. An article just showed up in the newspaper announcing that Wegmans is taking back ALL Sigg bottles made before August 2008 no matter where you bought them and offering you a replacement or a refund.

Ummm, I’ll take the refund, thankyouverymuch. Sorry Sigg, I’m afraid I don’t trust you as far as I can throw a Sigg bottle filled with gasoline and stuffed with an ignited rag. They swore up and down that their liners didn’t have BPA and then eventually came out to admit that they do in fact have trace amounts of BPA.

Well isn’t that precious.

At this moment I plan to replace our bottles with Klean Kanteen’s. Stainless steel, no liners. It sounds all good but then again maybe I should hold off a few more days because I’m sure any day now they’ll be a press release explaining that their bottle caps contain devices that send top secret government information to foreign intelligence agencies and all Klean Kanteen owners will be forced to endure Swiss Water Torture. (Drinking from a Sigg bottle).

In summary, my Sigg bottle refund bought us groceries today. Thanks Sigg!

I swapped out my estrogen mimicking, carcinogenic, neurotoxins for some surely chemically peeled baby carrots that apparently make me type run-on sentences.

What’s missing from that picnic basket?

I’m glad you asked. That little BPA plastic container had a recalled peanut butter and pesticide filled strawberry jelly sandwich that Maxine ate in the back strapped into her 5 point harness carseat that expires in a few months as we drove around and breathed in fumes and toxins and headed to the library to check out some germ covered books. (Check out that run on sentence! Damn those baby carrots.) She ate the inside of the sandwich and then chucked the crust up front between the driver side and passenger seat to play horseshoes with the gear shift. Contaminated peanut butter does wonders for your aim.

Also missing: 2 conventionally grown (HISSSSS!) apples and a Cherry Pie Larabar (note the wrapper in the back). I ate both apples. That’s what I get for thinking I wouldn’t be that hungry. And that’s what Maxine gets for throwing her crusts at me. I’ll just eat her fungicide covered apple. That’ll teach her.

Tonight? More sprouting fun! I dumped the filtered but surely polluted ground water from my likely secretly pesticide covered “organic” alfalfa seeds through the cancer causing plastic screen.

Look! The screen even made the jar shrink! I was forced to hold it on with rubber bands. At least they claim to be rubber. Who knows what it is that makes them stretch like that, I mean come on. That’s just not natural.

Lentil sloppy joes for dinner. I’ve got to start making dinner earlier. These shorter days are doing a real number on how photogenic my meals are. Or maybe it’s those just those damn baby carrots. Yeah, let’s blame it on the baby carrots.

My cloth napkin, fork and dish were all washed with environmentally friendly products but I’ve got this strange growth on my shoulder that looks a lot like the logo on the bottle of laundry detergent.

Meh. It’s probably nothing.

My little mung beans have already started to sprout!

After a few more email exchanges with my mom this morning I realized it was probably worth my time to take a closer look at the sprouting instructions that came with my lids.

Wait. Read the directions? Imagine that!

OK I promise I did read the instructions yesterday but didn’t get much beyond the soaking part because that’s all I was concerned with then.

I now understand that sprouts are supposed to be soaked in warm water, rinsed in tepid water (final rinse in cold water) and allowed to sprout in 65 – 75 degrees. They have to be stored in the refrigerator once they are ready for harvest.

I began soaking some alfalfa seeds this morning too – alfalfa sprouts are supposed to be grown in the light while mung beans are to be grown in the dark. You are supposed to prop the jar at an angle with the screen top facing down to insure proper ventilation during sprouting. I’ve got a handy dandy little sprouting table with all this info in the sprouting instructions.

Phew! This is getting a little complicated but I think I’m getting it. This is new to me so if you are sprouting expert don’t be afraid to correct me if I’ve got something wrong here! Tips are welcome too.

I’ve moved them up to the small appliance cupboard above the stove to keep them out of reach from little hands and to spare me from having to clean up a wet, alfalfa seed mess.

After my Beginning Sprouting 101 class this morning I set out for my run. The best thing about rest days is that I’m always ready and am looking forward to getting back out there the next day.

5.28 miles this morning in just under 43 minutes. Today I thought about a couple of different conversations I’ve had recently with some friends who are looking to start running or are beginner runners. I remember having to push into and hold on to that uncomfortable feeling that comes with exerting yourself. It sucks but the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

I thought about this today as I decided to throw in some intervals mid run. I didn’t watch the clock, I just picked up the pace and paid attention to how I felt. As I got tired and wanted to slow down again, I held on to the faster pace for just a little bit longer – just a little… bit… longer! It’s hard, but it feels so good when you’re done!

I’m reminded of something Jillian talks about in the 30 Day Shred too – that if you want to change your body, if you want to improve, you have to push into and hold on to that uncomfortable place. It’s how you force your body to adapt and change. This is true in so many aspects of life, not just fitness! I thought about this during my run when I was hurting (in a good but still sucky way) and wanting to be done.

Home for breakfast, I was so grateful for these chia seeds that could not have come at a better time! I am out of ground flax so these were my coating of choice for fruit cereal this morning.

I diced up two small bananas and tossed them in a couple of heaping teaspoons of chia seeds.

I also diced up a few medjool dates, topped with some raw cacao nibs, a spoonful of almond butter and unsweetened vanilla hemp milk.

I’ve been asked about the taste of hemp milk and I’ll be honest that it’s not exactly the most incredible tasting “milk” ever. I would not drink a large glass of it. But for cereal and for smoothies it’s perfectly fine and I do like it with something else sweet like banana, dates, etc. The sweetened hemp milk was a lot better, so if you are hemp milk curious then I’d go with the sweetened version first. I only use hemp milk because I want an alternative to dairy and soy. I could write that exact paragraph again but replace the word “hemp” with “almond” and it would still be true – so please just read that again and the auto replace hemp for almond in your mind, mmmK?

If the pictures I took today were going to be used for book covers, the titles of said books might be the following:

Always Listen to Your Mother

My mom called after my post this morning to tell me sprouts should be sprouted in the dark. Who knew? Well – Mom, apparently! Into the cupboard they went.

Beets and the Girls Who Eat Them

Would you believe me if I said that until I started juicing beets just recently, I’d never eaten a beet in my life? It’s true. My girlfriend Sharon made them for me today after claiming that they are really good and she loves them. I made her prove it – and she did. I will be making them myself soon. Soon, as in, tomorrow.

Chia Seeds and Girls Who Win Them

My THREE POUND BAG of chia seeds from Chia Seeds Direct were delivered and waiting for me when we got home this afternoon. Thanks again Averie!

The sequel to Chia Seeds and Girls Who Win Them might be titled Chia Seeds and Girls Who Experiment With Them. Forever.

Horse Crazy

One of the best parts about going over to Sharon’s in Ava’s mind? Horseback riding! And no, that’s not Maxine in the helmet there, that would be Sharon’s daughter. Maxine would be behind the camera, perched on my hip and eating crackers wanting absolutely nothing to do with horses. Quite possibly the only young girl who is not Horse Crazy.

The Proper Care and Feeding of Horses

Self explanatory.

Ava Rides Again

This is Ava’s second horse back riding experience – so Ava Rides Again is more than appropriate.

How to Climb Mount St. Hemp Seeds

I piled on the hemp seeds as I scarfed down a quick yet still gigantic salad before heading out the door to a meeting tonight. I have to say, hemp seeds are dang good.

I’ve moved into some new self hosted diggs and am still getting settled. This theme is temporary but like an excited, impatient new home owner I was ready to move in and worry about redecorating later. I totally blew the dust off that old Computer Science degree today. Maybe I shouldn’t get ahead of myself here, I haven’t hit Publish yet.

Thanks to Running Towards a Dream I was inspired to make a new flavor of hummus I’ve never tried before.

With that I bring you: Spinach Artichoke Heart Hummus.

This. Rocked.

I threw a large handful of spinach in to the steamer and let it steam for about 5 minutes until it was soft and wilty.

While it was steaming, I put the following into the food processor:

1 can of garbanzo beans, drained but not rinsed

5 artichoke hearts from a can

1 Tbsp (+/-) Joyva Tahini

2 Tbsp (+/-) Canola oil

2 Tbsp minced garlic packed in water (about 6 cloves??)

A dash of salt

Then added the steamed spinach when it was done.

Before

And After

An delicious combo of flavors!  Thanks for the post Leah!

I discovered the wonder of overnight oats a few years ago when my mom described a cold oatmeal dish she’d had for breakfast while on a cruise. It sounded right up my alley so I recreated it at home and life has never been the same. I love overnight oats for their ease and the fact that when you use the right ingredients and toppings, oatmeal doesn’t have to taste like wallpaper paste.

Overnight Oats, the basics:

1/2 c rolled oats
1/2 c milk
1/4 c LF vanilla yogurt

Here I used unsweetened vanilla hemp milk, but nowadays I almost always use unsweetened almond milk. For yogurt – sweetened, plain or greek all work – or even no yogurt at all. The oats will still soften up without it, whichever you prefer.

I use to use to sweetened yogurt, like Stonyfield Farm Organic Low Fat Vanilla, but my palate has adjusted and now prefers the flavor of plain, unsweetened yogurt. 2% Chobani Greek yogurt is my current yogurt of choice. I get any sweetness from my fruit toppings like blueberries, strawberries or bananas.

Sweetened yogurt (preferably not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup) can be a great place to start if you are trying to break yourself of processed breakfast foods like sugary cereals (or worse!)

Add oats, yogurt and milk into a bowl and mix until well combined.

Cover and put in the fridge overnight, or even just an hour will do.  I’ve come to discover the oats soften up fairly quickly.

In the morning, top with nuts, nut butter, fruit, granola… the combination’s are nearly infinite and can change with the seasons; spring, summer, fall or winter.

Here I’ve topped mine with a tablespoon of ground flax seed, 3/4 of a banana, a couple of cut up organic strawberries, and a sprinkle of homemade granola for some crunch!

The man of the house and our first born enjoy overnight oats too – Ava takes hers plain (just milk and yogurt) and Zak likes his with raisins (soaked with the oats overnight, no yogurt), cinnamon and agave nectar.

Hot or cold, oats can be the blank canvas to your healthy breakfast masterpiece.

At the start of the year my best girlfriend Sharon was on a mission to lose 30 lbs before her 30th birthday. We talked about how running was a great way to lose weight, or in her case, lose the baby weight… I mentioned how helpful it was for me to have a race in mind to train for when I started running a few years ago. Motivation is a wondrous thing. I’ve run the Lilac 10K the past two years in a row and thought it would be a lot of fun to do the 5K together this year. Sharon was game and started training in February.

I really like the Lilac 10K/5K because it’s a pretty popular race that attracts a lot of runners from the Rochester area. It weaves through some trendy neighborhoods in the city and is also fun because it feels like the start of the summer race season!

Fast forward through the last 5 months; Sharon’s been running and lost all her weight and then some! She loosely followed Hal Higdon’s 5K Novice program which is similar to the Couch to 5K program, both great for people who want to begin running.

Race Day!

The thermometer said it was 43 degrees outside when I came downstairs just before 6AM. COLD for a mid May morning! I fueled up with a chocolate breakfast cookie and TWO cups of coffee. (YAY caffeine!) Sharon arrived at 7:00 and we were on our way.

Due to the start times of the 5K (8AM) and the 10K (9AM) and our desire to drive together, I decided I would do the 5K this year instead of the 10K. My pace dramatically picked up last year when I trained all summer for the marathon. Dropping 35 lbs surely helped too! I’ll admit that I was curious to see what time I could a run 5K in, knowing my current 5K PR (Personal Record) was 27: and change.

After a little running and some dynamic stretching with butt kicks A LA Jillian’s 30 Day Shred we were warmed up and made our way to the start line to join the other 862 runners. lt was chilly and windy but the sun was shining and we were ready! The starting line was PACKED with people. The starting gun fired and we were off, each making our way through the crowd at our own pace.

My super supportive and devoted father (and fellow runner!) called on Saturday to predict a time of 21:52, which would mean a race pace of about 7:02. That would be pretty damn fast for me, but I wondered…. maybe? I kept that time in my mind as I ran and was pumped to hear the 1st mile split shouted as I ran by: 7:04! 21:52….hmmmm… just maybe??

Somewhere between mile 1 and 2 my car keys fell to the ground from the TWO safety pins I had used to secure them to the waist of my tights with. CRAP! I had to stop, back track and retrieve them and get back on my way. 5 seconds (??) lost!

At the 2 mile mark I looked at my watch: 14:25… making my overall pace now about 7:13. I needed to pick up the pace if t I was going to hit 21:52!

I was feeling ok and running a pretty fast pace, anxious to see the clock as I rounded the corner near the finish. I was a bit bummed to see it already said 23: when the time finally came into my line of sight. I had missed 21:52 but still sprinted to cross the finish line at 23:21.

I snagged some water and ran back along the side of the course to watch for and cheer on Sharon… she was not far behind!

Run Sharon!!

I missed her crossing the finish line due to the throng of people but we caught up with each other and then found Mat, Haylee and Lauren who had come to cheer Mama on! (Where was my crew? Home sleeping! hehehehe…)

It was fun to listen to her version of the race, seeing a man running the race barefoot, being pushed and crowded and practically stepped on by other runners as she made her way through the start, noting that she preferred to run with music (we both ran sans iPods) and that MapMyRun must be full of lies because the 3.1 mile race seemed a lot further than the 3+ miles she was use to running during her training runs around her house! (LOL!)

So in summary, our much anticipated 5K was a great success!

I set a new PR of 23:21, getting 3rd place among females aged 30 – 34, 88th overall!

Sharon ran a fabulous first race with a time of 28:48, 20th among females aged 25 – 29, placing 333rd overall!

With our race SWAG…. bottled water and a banana!

A HUGE congrats to Sharon for running today’s race and meeting all the goals she set for herself! (But this should come as no surprise to anyone who knows Sharon!) It’s been a lot of fun getting ready for this race together. We’re already plotting our next 5K later this summer. And we both have times to beat!

21:52 here I come.

I first saw this recipe for Maple Pecan Granola at Kath Eats Real Food. I’ve made my own tweaks and love this so much it must be shared.

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/4 c oat bran
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp Grade A REAL maple syrup
1/2 cup chopped pecans, walnuts or almonds
dash of salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Melt butter in a bowl, stir in canola oil, maple syrup and salt. Stir in oats, oat bran and nuts until well coated. Spread mixture on a cookie sheet and bake at 300 for 20 minutes. Toss granola around a bit with a spatula and then put back in the oven for an additional 5 – 10 minutes.

Pictured here with walnuts and without oat bran.

There are so many different ways you could do this… dried fruits, different nuts, different sweeteners like agave nectar, brown sugar… I love that it’s cheaper than buying packaged granola and is also without added preservatives, flavors, etc. I love to add granola to cereal, a fun crunchy topping for greek yogurt with fruit, sprinkle some on top of a smoothie… good stuff! This is calorie dense so use in moderation. Store in an air tight container at room temp.