CH-CH-CH-CHia! 

Who would have thought when we were kids that our furry plant animals would one day turn into a delicious food that is literately EVERYTHING in vegan baking. I love these little suckers in everything from their versatility to replacing eggs to straight up tasty chocolate chia pudding. They're just one of the ingredients in the fabulousity that is the granola I'm sharing today but they really help bind it together adding yummy little granola clumps throughout - so don't skip them! Next time I make this I may even add double.

When I was making this granola I had no specific recipe in mind, I just grabbed what I had in the pantry and went to town. And let me tell you, it turned out spectacular  -- by far the best granola I've ever made. I could eat this sh*t on everything - smoothies, ice cream, coconut yogurt, as a side to your Bloody Mary (that counts as breakfast right?)- h*ll I admit I've legit poured some out of the jar and straight into my mouth -- it's that good! So do yourself a favor and make this easy, healthy, delish granola RIGHT NOW. 

Pumpkin Coconut Chia Granola 

Don't let the semi-long ingredient list throw you, I swear it comes together quickly. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups old fashioned oats (GF if desired)
• 1 scoop unsweetened unflavored brown rice protein (I order mine from True Nutrition - it's super affordable, non GMO, and doesn't have the gross grittiness of a lot of other brown rice powders)
• 1/2 unsweetened coconut 
• 1/2 cup hemp seeds
• 1/2 raw pumpkin seeds
• 2 T chia seeds 
• 1/4 cup real maple syrup 
• 1/4 cup coconut oil - melted 
• 5 T almond butter (unsweetened and unsalted) - melted 
• 2 t vanilla 
• 1 T cinnamon (I love cinnamon so I actually used double)
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• 1/2-1 cup chopped pitted dates (add more if you want it to be sweeter) 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250° F. 
2. Line a baking pan with parchment paper
3. Mix first 6 ingredients in a large bowl 
4. Mix next 7 ingredients in a smaller bowl - make sure you mix this really well 
5. Pour wet mixture over dry and stir until it's all coated
6. Pour mix onto pan and bake for 30 minutes
7. Add chopped dates to the mixture and stir everything around 
8. Bake until golden and crunchy - this took about 40 additional minutes in my oven, but I would start checking around 25-30 because there is literally nothing worse than burnt granola 
9. Let it cool completely before transferring to mason jars

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do 

Hi and welcome to my page! My name is Marie, I'm a twenty-something with an obsession for all things cat related, yoga, and wine... but really mostly wine... no cats... ok wine. I'm newly vegan and love to experiment in the kitchen turning old faves into healthy new alternatives - sometimes things turn out delicious - like my protein packed Tag-A-Longs - and other times they are basically inedible - insert horrible dry gluten free vegan stuffing (that my friends ate while grimacing the entire time.) This blog will be a place to share my sometimes tasty/sometimes disastrous kitchen trials. I try to keep things simple and stick to as much of a whole food/non-processed diet as possible - that being said, sometimes I just don't have the time to make everything from scratch - insert Beyond Meat Crumbles, So Delicious, Shiritaki Noodles, etc. See - 'My Favorite Products' for more . Some of my favorite things to make are smoothie bowls, homemade protein bars, zoodles, and Mexican veggie bowls. My friends think I'm a total lunatic about the way I eat, but they are also awesome, accommodating, and accept me and all my weirdness. I have no clue where I would be without them! My goal for this blog is to post two or three times a week with recipes, daily eating recaps, and product reviews. I hope you enjoy!