Easy Homemade Granola

June 1, 2020 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 1 Comment

For those of you that have been reading ICTW for a long time, you’ll be thinking, hey this isn’t the first time you’ve made granola before. And you know what – you’re right! I’ve been making granola for years. I grew up with my mom making a batch of granola nearly weekly (thanks to my brother’s obsession, which he passed along to me) and when I moved out of the house I missed it a ton. The store bought granola, while yummy, just didn’t cut it. So, every so often, I get on a granola kick and have to make a big batch for myself.

Luckily for me, my kids are loving granola these days as well. So, now I have someone to share it with!

This is another one of my mom’s recipes that she has been making for a while. I shared another one of her granola recipes here, but these days, the recipe below is what I’ve been craving.

easy homemade granola - easy to make and made with maple syrup! - i crashed the web

Easy Homemade Granola

Here’s what you need:

4 cups old fashioned rolled oats, or organic oats
2 cups slivered almonds
1 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened (Note, if you can’t find and need to use sweetened, it’s okay, I’ve been there)
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup avocado oil
1/3 cup maple syrup (I’ve also used honey)
Optional: 2 cups dried fruit (I love dried cherries and blueberries)

Here’s what you do:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl – oats, nuts, coconut, cinnamon and brown sugar.
In a small bowl, combine avocado oil and maple syrup. Once mixed, pour over dry ingredients. Mix well so it’s evenly distributed.
Pour out mixture onto a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, checking and stirring at about halfway through.
Now the hardest part — let cool and enjoy! I add in the optional dried fruit AFTER baking, so the fruit does’t also dry out any more.

Suggestions – if you’d prefer not to just eat granola right out of the jar, you can also serve over yogurt, cottage cheese, oatmeal or on top of your favorite smoothie bowl!

Questions for you:

What’s your go-to breakfast?
What’s your favorite type of granola?

I’m linking up with Meatless Monday with A Whisk and Two Wands and Confessions of a Mother Runner

Meatless Monday: Easy (and adaptable) Overnight Oats

February 8, 2016February 8, 2016 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 7 Comments

It has been a while since I’ve written a Meatless Monday post – and I don’t know why! I’ve had a few meatfree meals lately, but I haven’t taken the time to truly capture them and write down a recipe and then post them.

So, today’s meatless post is a meal you can enjoy for breakfast. Overnight oats! I make these sometimes when I’m craving something other than my typical egg white and spinach and veggies for breakfast and have been asked how I make them. The answer? It’s always different. There are so many ways to make them. It depends on what ingredients I have. So here you go – a standard overnight oats recipe for you to enjoy and it’s adaptable so you can add or remove the toppings as you please!

Easy Overnight Oats - icrashedtheweb

Here’s what you need:

½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
⅓ cup yogurt (for this recipe, I used plain Greek yogurt)
½ cup milk (unsweetened vanilla almond milk is my favorite, but I didn’t have any on hand so I used regular milk)
1-2 teaspoons your favorite nut butter (I love almond, peanut and sun butter!)
1-2 teaspoons Chia seeds
1-2 teaspoons honey
To top your oats (wait until you’re ready to eat to add these): fruit (I like 1/2 banana, blueberries, nuts and more nut butter)

basic overnight oats ingredients

Here’s what you do:

Combine oats, yogurt, milk, nut butter, chia seeds and honey in a 10-12 ounce jar. Stir with a spoon or shake until everything is pretty combined.
Let sit in fridge overnight or at least 7-8 hours. When ready do serve, add toppings! I love adding some freshly sliced banana, blueberries, a few nuts and even more nut butter.
Enjoy a hearty and delicious breakfast. Or snack. Or dessert. I’m not judging!

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Isn’t that easy? Some modifications I’ve enjoyed include:

Adding more milk and less yogurt for a less tangy and less thick oatmeal.
Adding some diced banana to the oats in the overnight version and peanut butter. Then topping with more banana and more peanut butter for a peanut butter and banana oats.
Adding PB2 or another powdered peanut butter before mixing for a more peanut buttery flavor.
Adding dried fruit or coconut to the top when it’s ready to serve
Adding flax seed (1-2 teaspoons) for some extra fiber/grit/texture.
Topping my oats with more oats (meaning: homemade granola) or a few mini chocolate chips if you’re feeling ambitious.

That’s one of the things I love about overnight oats – in addition to being super easy and not at all time consuming, the possibilities really are endless!

Some questions for you:

Do you like overnight oats? What’s your favorite combination?
What’s your go-to breakfast?

Disclosure: While I was not compensated for this post, some of the product (nut butter, oats) was provided to me by Swanson Health. My views and comments are solely my own and do not represent those of Swanson. AND I’ll likely be doing a giveaway so you can get some goodies too, soon 🙂

For more Meatless Monday posts, check out some of my past recipes or visit the linkup below! I’m linking up with Sarah and Confessions of a Mother Runner .

WIAW #16: B Cooks For Me …

June 3, 2015June 2, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

Surprise- not only is it National Running Day, but it’s also time to talk about another one of my favorite subjects – food! That’s right, it’s What I Ate Wednesday! These were my eats from YESTERDAY, because that is when I remembered to take photos. I really need to start taking photos on a different day of the week.

Basically as I’m typing this, I realize how lucky I am. B makes me soooo much of my food. It’s not that I don’t enjoy cooking or don’t know how to cook – it’s frankly because some days I’m just too crazed to think about cooking/eating/etc. and B takes care of me. So not to be overly gushy, but I can’t help write this post without acknowledging that. Anyway, breakfast included egg whites with hot peppers, spinach and frozen veggies. B made me the breakfast at home and I brought it into the office – and plated it – so I could eat this delicious meal at my desk.

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I also had a blueberry snack mid-morning.

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This week is our office’s Wellness Week so for lunch we had a salad bar potluck! Each person in our office contributed some ingredient for a salad and we made our own salads at lunch. BEST IDEA EVER. Check out my delicious salad- there’s feta cheese, blueberries, spinach, mixed greens, craisins, hard boiled egg, tomatoes, a few bites of chicken, chickpeas, carrots, cucumbers, and beans. No dressing – I’m weird like that. And served with an apple!

BEST SALAD.

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Snacks the day included baby carrots, a nectarine and perrier, a handful of cashews and wintergreen mints.

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Dinner was great, as usual. I fully intended on making dinner but some client work popped up unexpectedly so after I started to chop up veggies, B took over. He made some pork from the West Side Market, cauliflower and broccoli.

pork cauliflower broccoli

Yum! I was going to end the day with an Arctic Zero sundae, but I simply was too tired to do so.Yup, too tired for dessert … it doesn’t happen often, but it happens!

Some questions for you:

Do you have someone in your life that makes you meals when you’re short on time?
What are your favorite salad toppings?

Meatless Monday: Sweet Potato Zucchini Hash

March 9, 2015March 19, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted a recent Meatless Monday blog post. I’ve been eating plenty of meatfree meals (I give up meat for Lent every year) but I guess I haven’t been blogging about them! For example, here are some photos of the meals I’ve been enjoying: (these were originally from my Instagram account – feel free to follow me there @koskim for more gratuitous food shots)

Curried lentils with sweet potato and cauliflower

breakfast for dinner! egg white omelets with potatoes, peppers, onions and avocado

veggie burger with a side of – veggies!

cabbage and papaya salad with peanuts

spaghetti squash with homemade spicy tomato sauce and tofu

Anyway, finally, I’m sharing a recipe with you so that you can eat meatless on Monday (or any day!). I LOVE making this recipe and have made it or a variation of it probably too many times in the past month to count – but it’s so simple and so delicious and healthy that you should try it too! Leftovers are great as well – I typically have four 2-cup size servings with this recipe and then have enough leftover for 2 lunches.

sweet potato zucchini hash-icrashedtheweb

Sweet Potato Zucchini Hash

Serves 4

Here’s what you need:

2 TB olive oil, divided
1 onion, diced
2 zucchini, diced
2 bell peppers, finely chopped
1 sweet potato, diced
2 tsp. cumin, divided
2 tsp. ground paprika, divided
2 tsp. garlic powder, divided
1 tsp. cayenne pepper, divided (or more if you like it spicy! Note – if you have fresh hot pepper – like chili peppers or jalapeño, feel free to substitute with this)
salt and pepper to taste
Optional toppings: avocado, cilantro, hot sauce, tofu, sunny side up egg (not vegan)

Here’s what you do:

Preheat oven to 400 and finely dice all your veggies. If you’re like me, this may take a little while.
Place diced sweet potato on a prepared baking sheet (I spray mine with Pam or olive oil spray). Sprinkle generously with 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp garlic powder and 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper. Cook in preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Check often so not to burn and toss potatoes halfway through.
While potato is cooking, heat half of olive oil in a large pan. Sautee onion for a few minutes or until translucent. Add in remaining chopped up veggies – peppers and zucchini. Add in remaining cumin, garlic powder, paprika and cayenne pepper and cook for about 7-10 minutes or until veggies are browned and softened.
When potatoes are done, add to pan with rest of veggies. Toss to incorporate. Finish until cooked but not mushy!
Enjoy! I like mine topped with cilantro and tofu. Other fun toppings include avocado, hot sauce and/or a sunny side up egg. I’ve also served it over spinach for an extra nutritional boost. The one pictured (above and below) has tofu crumbles in it.

So many veggies!

sweet potato zucchini hash-icrashedtheweb

Linking to my first MM linkup!

Question for you:

What meatless meal should I add to my repertoire?

WIAW: Leftover Chinese Food

March 4, 2015March 3, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 7 Comments

Once again – here’s a look at my Monday eats from this week. Enjoy this edition of WIAW!

Monday’s breakfast may look familiar. That’s right – once again, I had egg whites with hot peppers and frozen veggies. And B made it.

Sadly, we had no more leftover spaghetti squash to enjoy – I thought I did but after tasting it I noticed it was bad (ice) so it was just veggies and egg whites. Oh, I also had some coffee again!

For those of you that have read my other WIAW posts, this may look familiar …

Lunch was leftover Chinese food! B and I had FEASTED at Wonton Gourmet in Asiatown on Saturday night, getting lomein, szechuan fish, Chinese broccoli and more. Thankfully we had leftovers of my favorite – the fish and broccoli.

Not quite sure what kind of “fish” this is?

Snacks during the day included:

A sweet potato with honey and cinnamon and a handful of salted almonds. Sweet and salty ftw!

Probably about a handful of almonds – 12ish? – with my sweet potato. Some are hiding.

Carrots and cinnamon gum. Not together …

carrots and gum.

Homemade caramels – I made them over the weekend at my Ladies Craft Beer event and they are SO DELICIOUS.

Don’t worry, I didn’t eat ALL of these. Just about 2 or 3 🙂

Some Arctic Zero!

I didn’t quite eat the whole pint ..

For a Meatless Monday dinner I made some sweet potato zucchini hash with tofu. Yup, more sweet potato. YUM- I topped with cilantro.

I’ll be sharing the recipe for this soon – it is so GOOD and i make it all the time!

And for dessert? A small peanut butter cheesecake cookie bar. I’ll be posting the recipe for these asap because they are SO SO amazing.

I swear I only had one small one of these bars. Not the whole plate 🙂

And here’s my fitbit activity for the day- I got in a 4 mile run and short elliptical workout in the morning and that’s about it for activity.

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Some questions for you:

Do you WIAW? Share the link – I’d love to see!
What’s your favorite dessert you’re jamming on right now?
Do you eat the same breakfast each day too?

French Toast Casserole

September 4, 2014September 4, 2014 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

I have a confession to make. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I’m not reallllly a brunch person. I’m picky about my breakfasts. I don’t really like pancakes. I’m not a huge french toast fan. Waffles? Could do without them. Eggs? Only if they’re very runny, or just the white. Granola? Love it – but I’m used to my mom’s homemade kind so it better be close. Orange juice? Ick. Cereal? Absolutely – as long as I can have 4 to 5 different kinds and can mix them together and eat it dry (without milk). I know – it’s like a crime for a girl in her late 20s to not be a fan of brunch. What can I say – I’m special?

Anyway, I know I’m in the minority. I know most people love brunch and wouldn’t rather be eating a salad, turkey chili or chicken for breakfast so I compromise. So when B suggested we have some friends from out of town over for brunch I happily obliged. And as you do know, I LOVE baking. So of course I got excited at the prospect of baking for brunch – baking a French Toast Casserole!

This recipe turned out reallly realllly good. It was so easy to prepare (you do most of the work the night before) and made our apartment smell amazing. If you have brunch plans anytime soon, I highly recommend you make this. We served ours with champagne, a fruit salad, scrambled eggs and nitrate free bacon. Cheers!

french toast casserole-ictw

Overnight French Toast Casserole

Here’s what you need:

1 (1 pound) loaf French bread, cut diagonally in 1 inch slices
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup half-and-half
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup or maple syrup

Here’s what you do:

Spray a 9×13 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange the bread slices, layered, throughout the dish.
In a large bowl, mix together eggs (beaten well), milk, half-and-half, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour liquid over bread and refrigerate, covered, overnight.
The next morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. While oven is preheating, in a small pot over medium-high heat, combine butter, brown sugar and syrup. Stir well and heat until the mixture just starts to boil and bubble. Pour over bread and egg mixture.
Bake in preheated oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Enjoy warm. B topped his with syrup, I thought it was sweet enough without it.

french toast casserole-icrashedtheweb

Pumpkin Biscotti

October 11, 2013October 8, 2013 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 1 Comment

Confession: I bought more canned pumpkin. I know, I know – after the cookies, granola and scones you think I’d be done. But I’m only just beginning! I’ve got to fuel my pumpkin addiction.

When I told B I had more pumpkin he literally groaned. When I told him I was thinking of making some pumpkin sheet cake or a pumpkin roll and he seemed less than enthusiastic, I knew I had to stray from my traditional baked goods. And when he asked, “Can you just make something not too sweet that I can have with my morning coffee?” I knew that a pumpkin bundt with cream cheese filling was probably out of the question.

Enter – pumpkin biscotti. I knew they’d be perfect – not just for B (he loved the chocolate pistachio biscotti I made), but also for my parents who would be in town visiting.

And they were. Crunchy but not too hard (pumpkin makes everything somewhat soft), sweet but not too sweet – they were just what the pumpkin doctor ordered … now what to do with the rest of that pumpkin ? 🙂

breakfast - pumpkin biscotti - i crashed the web

Pumpkin Biscotti (modified from here)

Here’s what you need:

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Here’s what you do:

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, pumpkin and vanilla. Mix in cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger until thoroughly combined and somewhat thicker. I used my KitchenAid and let it all mix for about 2-3 minutes.
Add four mixture into pumpkin/egg bowl and mix on low speed until evenly distributed.
Using a spatula or large spoon, add in almonds and white chocolate chips.
Now it’s time to make your logs! Divide dough into quarters. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, shape portions into logs, about 8-10 inches by 2-3 inches.
Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or mostly hard. Remove logs to a cooling rack and cool for 3-5 minutes.
Keep the oven on! After the logs are cool enough to handle, transfer to a cutting board and cut each log into 1/2 inch slices on a diagonal.
Bake the dough again! Take the slices and place with the cut side face down on baking sheet. Bake for 5-8 minutes on each side until hardened. I took mine out after about 15 minutes total (7ish min on each side) because I like my biscotti a little softer.

Enjoy! They make a great breakfast addition or snack. Or dessert before your half marathon (yes I had 1-2 before our half marathon last week).

pumpkin white chip biscotti | i crashed the web

Pumpkin Granola! [yes, this happened]

October 7, 2013October 4, 2013 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

As you may know, I looooove granola. I grew up eating my mom’s homemade granola and have been looking for an excuse to make a new version.

Well, I was talking with my brother recently and he mentioned that if I wanted to send him a package (which I do on occasion – usually with baked goods), to send him granola. Challenge accepted! And of course, since pumpkin season is here (as if you haven’t realized that from my plethora of pumpkin recipes), I decided to try to make some pumpkin granola to send him.

Warning – this stuff is really good if you like granola. And pumpkin. So good that my brother only got a small baggie (sorry, Greg, I promise you more if you visit!). But it’s also SO easy that you can make it and share it with friends! And really, this recipe is not much different from the original granola recipe – just has some more spices and of course, pumpkin!

Pumpkin Granola

Here’s what you need:

3 cups old fashioned rolled oats, or organic oats (I used the amazing oats we got in our CSA)
1/2 cup flaxseed
1 cup your favorite dried fruit (you can use any combination of dried fruit – as usual, I used dried blueberries, dried cranberries and dried cherries)
1 cup your favorite nut, loosely chopped (I used almonds and cashews – but I imagine pumpkin seeds would work really well this time!)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
3/4 – 1 cup maple syrup (I used about 1 c. of what we had on hand which was pure maple syrup from Canada!)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin

Here’s what you do:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Combine oats, flaxseed, nuts, dried fruit in a large boil.
In a smaller bowl, combine brown sugar, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, maple syrup and pumpkin. Combine until well mixed.
Add brown sugar-pumpkin mixture to oat mixture. Mix well until oats, nuts, etc. are well and evenly coated.
Pour out onto a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.
Bake for about 40 minutes, checking and stirring at about 15-20 minutes and again at 30ish minutes. Careful not to let it burn!
Let cool and enjoy!

Nuts and dried fruit. Yum!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Scones with Maple Butter Glaze

September 29, 2013 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 3 Comments

Pumpkin season is here! For all you pumpkin haters out there (you know who you are) stop reading this NOW because there is nothing more in this post for you. But if you’re a pumpkin lover, I promise you’ll love this recipe.

B loves scones. He started enjoying them when we went to Ireland and hasn’t turned back since. In fact, on our West Coast trip from a few weeks ago we had quite the adventure each day trying to find him a scone he would enjoy – it was difficult. But we managed 🙂

Anyway, when B wasn’t home, I decided to surprise him with some pumpkin scones. I must warn you – these were a little moister (Yes, I went there) than the typical scone, but they were still pretty awesome. The combination of the pumpkin, fall spices and maple really works well.

I have to admit, I took some elements from this recipe, also from this recipe and then pretty much just used what I had on hand. Which is maybe why there weren’t as dry as your typical scone. Or it could be the pumpkin. I’ll have to find out next time!

pumpkin scones with maple butter glaze {i crashed the web}

Pumpkin Scones with Maple Butter Glaze

Here’s what you need for the scones:

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground ginger
6 Tablespoons butter, cold
½ cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg

Here’s what you need for the glaze:

1½ tablespoons butter
¾ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
1 Tablespoon water, if needed

Here’s what you do:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger in a large bowl.
Slice the butter into small pieces and use a fork to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. Combine until mixture is crumbly and butter is no longer visible.
In a small bowl, combine pumpkin, buttermilk and egg. Fold pumpkin mixture into flour butter mixture and combine.
Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form into two balls. Push down lightly on the balls and then use a knife to cut the dough into slices (like a pizza). Place slices on prepared baking sheet. Warning – the dough will grow larger!
Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.
After the scones have cooled, drizzle the glaze on top. To make the glaze, melt the butter in a saucepan on low. Add in vanilla and powdered sugar and combine until smooth. Add maple syrup. Add water if glaze is too thick. Drizzle on the scones.
Enjoy!

promise they taste better than they look.

My mom’s homemade granola {recipe}

July 25, 2013July 22, 2013 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 6 Comments

Remember when a few weeks ago we got some organic oats from our CSA? I’ve been debating what to make with them – cookies? Energy bites? Oatmeal? These awesome oatmeal caramel cookie bars? But when our CSA this week gave us some organic yogurt, I knew exactly what I’d be making – homemade granola.

I looooove homemade granola. My mom makes a fresh batch of it nearly every week (probably more when my brother and I were home) and this is the recipe she used when I was growing up. I will warn you – it’s addicting. My brother and I could probably eat the whole recipe in one sitting! With or without yogurt.

easy homemade granola

The Best Homemade Granola (my mom’s recipe, with a few of my own twists)

Here’s what you need:

3 cups old fashioned rolled oats, or organic oats
1/2 cup flaxseed (my mom doesn’t always add this but I did)
1 cup your favorite dried fruit (you can use any combination of dried fruit – I used dried blueberries, dried cranberries and dried cherries)
1 cup your favorite nut, loosely chopped (I used almonds this time – my mom has used pecans and slivered almonds as well and they are AWESOME)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3/4 – 1 cup maple syrup (I used about 1 c. of what we had on hand which was pure maple syrup from Canada!)

Here’s what you do:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl – oats, flaxseed, nuts, dried fruit, cinnamon and brown sugar.
Add in vanilla and maple syrup. Mix well until everything is well combined and dry ingredients are coated.
Pour out onto a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.
Bake for about 40 minutes, checking and stirring at about halfway through. Your house will smell amazing. I LOVED waking up to the smell of homemade granola cooking in the oven!
Let cool and enjoy! Serve with yogurt, cottage cheese, mix with other cereals or just enjoy on its own!