Country Breakfast
This post is dedicated to Cathy Barrow who got me singing Chelsea Morning in my head early this am with her Facebook post – “Woke up it was a misty morning.”
Ok, so this morning I was wishing I was back in Santa Barbara to attend my favorites – the Montecito Farmer’s Market on Friday and the Downtown Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market on Saturday – particularly to scoff up some of those cosmic organic strawberries.
these are pretty good – about the best you’re going to get here on “east coast limited growing season” right now
Because I couldn’t readily beam myself over, I did the next best, i.e., expedient thing. I went to Whole Foods where I found organic strawberries on sale.
Here’s my recipe for Chelsea Morning Granola:
2 1/2 cups rolled oats, preferably organic
1 cup sliced, toasted almonds
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
1 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
10 (or more) organic strawberries, quartered
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3 disks crystalized ginger, minced
zest of one half navel orange
2 tbsp ground flax seed
1/4 cup dark maple syrup
1/8 cup safflower oil
1/4 cup light agave syrup
1/3 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with Grape Seed or Safflower Oil Spray. Arrange oats, almonds, hazelnuts, coconut, strawberries and cranberries on the pan and toss. Sprinkle with cinnamon, clove, orange zest, flax seed, and minced ginger. Drizzle the maple syrup, orange juice, agave, and oil over and toss again. Spread evenly over the pan with a large offset spatula. Bake, tossing intermittently, and re-spreading for 20 minutes or until strawberries are roasted through. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes, tossing so mixture doesn’t stick to pan. Let dry on a sheet of parchment paper until crispy.
Serve with milk or yogurt for a breakfast parfait, topped with more chopped strawberries. Enjoy!
So, if I’d had some peaches on my counter, they’d have gone in here, too! BTW, you can mix this into your favorite oatmeal cookie recipe a la my post – ancient grain chocolate chip cookies. https://kitchen-inspirational.com/2016/02/12/bitter-cold-brings-ancient-grain-chocolate-chip-cookies/