Coconut Crunch Granola

A woman hosts a luncheon and she serves lobster rolls.  Everyone raved about them! They had fresh lobster, mayo, lemon zest, celery with a hint of lemon juice and lemon zest, served on a fresh baked bun – heaven!  She passed out the recipe.  One of her friends said “I made your lobster roll and it was awful!”  The woman didn’t know what to say, until the other woman said “well, I didn’t have any fresh lobster, so I used imitation crab.  I wanted to lower the fat so I used plain yogurt in place of the mayo, I didn’t have lemons, so I used limes.  And I didn’t have any buns so I served it in lettuce wraps – it was awful!”

That’s kind of how I feel about me using Nicole’s Salty Sweet Olive Oil Granola recipe, except my version turned out amazing.  So while inspired by Nicole’s, this granola is nothing like the original – but when I do have all the right ingredients, I am definitely going to make her version!

Crunchy Coconut Milk Granola

• Makes 8, 1/2 cup servings: 248 calories, 12 fat, 29 carbs, 3.6 fiber and 5 protein

Ingredients:

Dry:

• 3 cups quick oats
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts
• 1/4 cup white sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips (I used white and milk chocolate)

Wet

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup sugar free pancake syrup (mine is 60 calories for half a cup)
• 1/3 cup loose packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup light coconut milk

Heat oven to 300.  Put the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl, making sure the brown sugar is incorporated.  Mix the two together and stir until well coated.

I cooked mine on parchment paper.  While Nicole only cooked hers for 45 minutes, I cooked mine for 60 minutes, just stirring every 20 minutes.  Don’t worry if it’s still wet when it comes out of the oven – as soon as it cools it will crisp up.

I kinda wrote down my recipe as I went along:

Best part?  I got granola clusters!

Now this is the perfect parfait – vanilla Greek yogurt, strawberries and this granola – winning!

The granola totally makes this parfait.   This one comes in at 372 calories, 19 fat, 43 carbs, 6 fiber and 7 protein.

It was gross out all day.  How is it I can go from boob sweat over the weekend with 98 degree temps, to it being 44 degrees a few days later when driving to work?  So crazy.  I ran some errands with one of my friends at work.  We stopped at Bueno Beef.  I love their Italian Beef sandwiches, but thought I should get a salad.   This is, until I looked at the nutritional information.

Turns out I could get a 5 inch Italian beef and a cup of broccoli cheddar soup for less calories that their Neighborhood salad!  My lunch came in at 500 calories, 27 fat, 10 carbs, 3.5 fiber and 51 protein.  And yep, I asked for hot peppers on mine, thank you very much.

When I go grocery shopping for a holiday, I usually don’t menu/meal plan that week, because it kind of freaks me out spending more than $100 groceries for the week.  I knew we had plenty of stuff to work with though – just short on the fresh fruit and veggies! 

I did have some broccoli, and I needed to use some fresh tomatoes that were starting to turn, so I made pasta last night.  I had one Italian sausage link, so I cooked that up on the side and then nuked the broccoli for a minute, then tossed that in the sauce too.  Delicious!

Tony didn’t want any red sauce last night, so I got to spice it up with crushed red pepper – so good!  Dinner comes in at 495 calories, 21 fat, 43 carbs, 1.5 fiber and 30 protein.

I have blog reader Paula to thank for today’s Inspirational Diet video of the day – thanks Paula!  Make it a great day!