{a guest post}

I am so happy to know that my friends & family are enjoying my blog 🙂  My good friend, Lauren, texted me the other day to tell me about her delicious homemade granola.  I was so proud of her and asked if I could guest post her recipe.  These granola bars are packed with delicious & very healthy ingredients.  Coconut oil is a perfect substitution for oil in certain recipes.  Granola is a great recipe to use the coconut oil because it adds a teeny bit of sweetness.  She also uses almond butter.  I recently got a jar of almond butter from Whole Foods and I really liked it.  The earthy, rawness of the almonds tastes so pure and makes you realized how processed other peanut butters can be.  I have added it into some healthy shakes and recipes.  Almonds have wonderful health benefits so it definitely adds to the nutrition of her granola.  

The coolest part of her granola recipe is that she uses homemade honey!  Her mother actually harvests and distributes her own honey from her beekeeping company.  I am eager to get my hands on a bottle of this deliciousness.  Check out her Facebook page and “like” it!  I have seen a lot of really informative articles on the site about honey and the health (and beauty) benefits.  She also shares yummy recipes featuring your truly, honey.

CHECK IT OUT HERE:  Long Limbs Studio LLC on Facebook

Preparation time:  10 minutes    I   Cook time:  20 minutes    I   Servings: yields 3 cups

Ingredients

1/4 cups almond butter
1 Tbsp coconut oil
3 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups oats (old-fashioned or quick cooking, just not instant)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

*I added ½ cup sliced almonds (crushed for smaller pieces) and about ¼ cup flax seeds

Optional ingredients:
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 c raisins, fruit, nuts – or as much as you want!

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 325 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium-large microwave safe mixing bowl, combine the almond butter, coconut oil, and honey.
3. Microwave for about 30-60 seconds, until the almond butter is slightly melted. Stir until smooth. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, shredded coconut and oats and stir until everything is combined.

4.  Spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and turn/flip the granola. This is when you can stir in your raisins or other dried fruit. Bake an additional 10 minutes.

5.  Allow the granola to cool before transferring to a storage container

I opted not to include shredded coconut or dried fruits because I wanted to cut back on the sugar. I didn’t want to super sweet granola but the coconut and fruit will definitely add the sweetness 🙂

enjoy.

Would you like to guest post on Not So Doughie?  Head to the CONTACT tab and let me know!