Granola and Crock Pot Dinners

One day, many years ago, Andrew brought home a cherry vanilla granola (with dried cherries, which I devour!) from Fairway's bulk section and Deston has eaten a bowl for breakfast pretty much every day since. Sometimes he asks for another bowl for lunch too. On our trip to Boston last August, my sister remarked that the granola wasn't very good--it got soggy quickly. Andrew suggested I start making granola again. In high school and college I made it fairly often using a recipe my mom gave me. I couldn't find that recipe in my messy files, so I once again looked to Pinterest to find another. I'm a sucker for an easy recipe and granola is about as quick and easy as it gets. This recipe uses flour, which was new to me, but resulted in some nice clumps.

I enlisted Deston's help to make a batch. I splurged on wild dried blueberries and we also added chia seeds for an Omega 3 boost. It turned out pretty well. Our cinnamon is old, so beyond that taste not coming through as much as I'd like, it's a yummy granola. Deston and I ate a bowl right away, though Lucinda ate at least half of mine. So, it's a hit with almost the whole family. With Deston helping, I won't mind making granola on a regular basis.



I've also been making good use of my Crock Pot lately. It's a good way to have dinner ready on Sundays when I'm home with the kids. Usually by the time I should be getting dinner ready, I just want to sit down and watch football. With the Crock Pot, I can put a meal together when I have the energy and leave the evening for relaxing (cooking is not a go-to relaxation activity for me). Lately I've made vegetarian Red Beans and Rice and a Corn Chowder with Chicken--both recipes I found on friends' Pin Boards. They were both tasty and provided plenty of leftovers (another thing I love about the Crock Pot). Trying new recipes can be fun, but having a trusty recipe I can make again and again provides peace of mind when I go into the kitchen.