I’ve shared this family favorite gluten free granola recipe in the past, but it was time for a refresh! Such an easy and healthy breakfast to have on hand – and it’s a great one to make with your kids!
This summer, my dad and I were making 3 batches of granola in preparation for in the past. He took out his handwritten recipe cards containing his current recipe, my sister’s version, and mine. While we were measuring and mixing, I started wondering just how many times he’d done this — how many batches of granola has he made in his lifetime? We laughed a bit as we talked about the history of his granola recipe and the memories I have of it growing up.
Fun fact: he bargained with a local food co-op back when he was in college. He made big batches of granola for them to sell in exchange for his membership. I don’t think he’d agree to anything like that now. (And I don’t think a food co-op would be allowed to sell something made by a member in their home kitchen – times have changed!)
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One of my favorite memories is Sunday mornings before church. Back in church choir days, he would wake up early to eat his breakfast before heading out the door for choir practice. Even though he was diligent in avoiding milk before singing, he held fast to his granola commitment. My sisters and I made it very clear that we didn’t think (and still don’t!) granola with orange juice is a great combination.
You are welcome to try that combination, however and let me know!
I love that the roof of my mouth isn’t completely ruined when I eat this for breakfast — and I don’t need to let it soak in milk for ages to soften to the point of being safe to eat! My kids love it – Lucia legitimately wakes from her nap asking for ‘nola more often than not. I feel great about letting them have granola with yogurt/almond milk as a snack, breakfast – or heck, dinner too!
You can get everything you need for this gluten free granola at Whole Foods or a local co-op. I can also find just about everything at Trader Joe’s as well. Below are a few supplies I love and items you can also order on Amazon!
So many memories wrapped up in this granola recipe. I don't remember a time when my dad wasn't buying oats in bulk from the local food co-op or taking a small bag of granola on every trip (because you can't miss a morning!). The love for this granola has truly grown - my kids and I make it every 2-ish weeks, and I know there are countless others who love it as much as we do!
Course
Breakfast
Keyword
Gluten Free
Prep Time15minutes
Cook Time1hour30minutes
Total Time1hour45minutes
AuthorKacia Hosmer adapted from Jeff's Original Recipe
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
11cupsGluten Free Rolled oatsNot quick oats! I get from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods or Sprouts
1 cupSliced AlmondsI get from Costco or Trader Joe's
1cupCoconut Shavings/flakesI get from Trader Joes (unsweetened)
1 cupBuckwheat GroatsI get from Sprouts or Whole Foods
2cupsRaisinsI get from Costco
4-6TablespoonsCinnamonOr more or less depending on your love of cinnamon!
Additional/Optional Add-ins - modify quantities above if adding additional items below. Or choose to increase liquids a bit to accommodate.
Mix all dry ingredients together. I like to break up the raisins a bit before adding the cinnamon. Add cinnamon and continue to mix together until evenly dispersed.
A few options for combining your liquids - and feel free to use avocado oil or even light olive oil if you would prefer that over coconut oil.
- Using a microwave safe measuring glass, measure and melt coconut oil. Add in honey and heat until hot enough to stir to combine.
- Using a double boiler, combine honey and oil. Heat, stirring regularly until thin enough to combine.
- *lazy lady method: IE: what I do!* Eyeball the coconut oil and measure out the honey. Pour directly into a saucepan and heat on low, stirring regularly until thin/hot enough to combine. :)
Pour over the dry ingredients while hot. Continue mixing/folding the mixture until the honey/oil has coated all of the granola. Make sure to get down at the bottom/base of your bowl!
Pop in the oven for 90 minutes at 225. If you prefer your granola a bit crunchier - I prefer the roof of my mouth to stay intact ;) - you can spread the granola out on a backing sheet.
Allow to cool and enjoy with milk, over yogurt (we love the honey yogurt from Trader Joe's!) or even ice cream. So good!
Recipe Notes
This is not a crunchy granola, but if you prefer your granola on the crunchy side, I've offered a modification during baking.
Do you have any family recipes like this one? I love that it’s as much about a delicious recipe as it is the memories and history that go along with it. I’d love to hear what recipes and memories are special to you – if you’ve posted them, please share the link below as well! I’d love to go read.
I can think of so many others right now as I type this — I’m excited to share more with you as I update them to fit our gluten free needs and paleo-ish (c’mon, I’m from Wisconsin: cheese!) lifestyle.
To say that we devoured this paleo fig cake would be a bit of an understatement. What put this gluten free paleo cake a step above? Well, you’ll have to read on to find out!
Tired of figs yet? I’m not. I promise I won’t change my name to Figgy Robot or anything like that, but I have named our sweet tree in the back Miss. Figgy. She’s really becoming part of the family – and she’s pulling her weight! So many figs, and I can’t complain!
Inspired by the fig simple syrup I made for the Fig Moscow Mule I shared with you earlier this week, I use a similar syrup/glaze both during the baking process…and after. YUM. Guys, this paleo fig cake is SO good, so let’s just get right to it!
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I used an 8 inch cake pan, but you could definitely use an 8×8 square cake pan as well for this recipe. Where are my midwesterners at? These are definitely more of a paleo fig bar. But outside of the midwest, I’d probably just hear a bunch of:
What’s a bar? Do you mean cake? A brownie?
I digress, clearly, so I’m going to stop, so you can go whip up some paleo fig bars cake for your family – or just you! – tonight. Enjoy!
Baking tip:
Always buy your baking powder in small quantities to ensure you are using fresh baking powder. Don’t do the bulk thing here – you’ll regret it as recipes start turning out blah after a while!
Paleo fig cake that is moist and the right amount of sweet. I love these with a cup of iced or hot coffee just after cooling, but they freeze well too!
Course
Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine
Gluten Free, Paleo
Keyword
paleo gluten free fig cake
Prep Time15minutes
Cook Time37minutes
Total Time52minutes
Servings6
AuthorKacia | Coconut Robot
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
1 1/2cupsAlmond FlourNot almond meal
1/4cupArrowroot
1teaspoonbaking powdermake sure it's fresh!
1/2teaspoonsalt
1teaspooncinnamon
4tablespoonscoconut sugaryou could swap in date sugar
Wet Ingredients
1egg
1teaspoonvanillaomit if desired
1/2cupcoconut creamPlace can of coconut milk in the fridge and measure out just the thick cream portion.
1/4cupcoconut milkAfter measuring the coconut cream, use the liquid in the can for the 1/4 cup. If using coconut cream without any liquid, you can replace this with almond milk or similar.
2figsSliced - placed on top of cake.
Fig Glaze
3figscut and muddled
1small plumquartered
1cupwater
1teaspooncoconut sugarif desired, can omit
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut parchment paper to fit bottom of cake pan. I like to keep 2 longer tabs, so I can easily lift out - if you're really fancy, I would do 4 tabs. :)
Start glaze on the stove, letting it simmer until liquid is reduced to about half. Muddle the fruit as it softens from the heat.
Combine dry ingredients.
Mix wet ingredients. Add wet to dry ingredients, and combine just until incorporated.
Cut your figs into small slices and arrange them around the perimeter of the cake.
Pour batter into prepped cake pan. Bake in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, remove cake. Poke about 10 holes in the top of the cake and spoon 1/4 - 1/2 of the glaze on the cake.
Place back into the oven for about 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Allow to cool before removing from pan.
Drizzle glaze, if desired, on pieces while plating and serving.
This is such a fun and easy recipe to make with kids! I’d love to hear what you think of it — we will definitely be making it again this week. I have 2 more fig drink recipes and something savory as well – wasn’t able to commit to a full fig-week like I’d planned, but I’m going to call better late than never on this one!
Read on for one of my spins on the traditional Moscow Mule: No Sugar Added Fig Moscow Mule. Today marks the first day of week full of fig recipes! Enjoy!
The short story? I love putting my own twist on my favorite drink, the Moscow Mule. For this version, I challenged myself to create a simple syrup of sorts with no added sugar. It not only was delicious: it looks beautiful too! I originally put it in the traditional mule copper mug, but that beautiful color was begging to be seen!
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Now for the long(er) story. If you follow me on instagram, you know that I’ve recently become a bit fig-obsessed. If you don’t follow me on instagram, you may not know that we’ve moved to California. From Pittsburgh, to Boston to the Bay. I’ll definitely share more of a life update soon, but instead of dragging my feet and making excuses to post anything at all to the blog: I’m going to jump right in and post this drink recipe.
As I mentioned above, I love Moscow Mules. Love. Them. I love when restaurants have their signature twist on them, and I love doing the same with what we have on hand. What do I have a lot of currently? FIGS!
How No Sugar Added Fig Moscow Mules Came to Be
My challenge for this drink was to create a simple syrup of sorts without adding any sugar. I’m definitely not an expert: can it still be called a simple syrup? I’m not totally sure, but this beautiful bright pink of the drink comes from cooking down figs and champagne grapes with mint leaves. Don’t have champagne grapes? No worries! Grapes of any kind (I’d halve them first) or even plums would do the drink and give you a similar, light and summery take on the classic Moscow Mule. It’s also excellent with just a little extra ginger beer — leave out the vodka altogether. Mocktails are definitely a summer staple for me!
A few of my favorite Moscow Mule-making supplies are linked below. While I would typically say that a copper mug is a must, for this version – I’d skip it! Show off the pretty color and use whatever clear glass you have on hand. I absolutely LOVE my because the top doubles as a measuring cup – maybe they all do this? Ha! I tend to live under a rock these days.
These delicious drinks were the result of a personal challenge: create a light, summer drink with a simple syrup made from fruit alone. It's delicious, balanced - and not too sweet!
Course
Drinks
Keyword
drinks, mocktail, moscow mule, no sugar, paleo
Prep Time5minutes
Cook Time10minutes
Total Time15minutes
Servings2drinks
AuthorKacia | Coconut Robot
Ingredients
Fig and Fruit Syrup
2cupsWater
2Figsquartered
1cupChampagne Grapesswap in: plums (quartered) or grapes (halved)
5leavesMintmuddled/bruised/ripped
Drink Ingredients
1-2ozVodka
1/2limeroughly one tablespoon
Ginger Beerdepends on glass size/mocktail/preference
3leavesMint
1/4Figsliced
1/3cupIce
Instructions
Fig and Fruit Syryup
Combine water, figs, grapes and mint to a small sauce pan over medium heat.
As fruit softens, smash with a wooden spoon. Simmer for roughly 10 minutes, uncovered to allow liquid to reduce.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Put it All Together
In your cocktail shaker, add vodka, lime, half of your fruit syrup and ice.
Pour into your cup or mug of choice, top with ginger beer.
Finish with a fresh mint leaf and a fig slice.
Enjoy!
I’d love to hear what you think! I’ll be sharing more fig recipes this week — pizza, burgers and more drinks. I can’t get enough of these figs, and I also refuse to let them go to waste. It also will keep me accountable to get these posted and to you all!
“In the craziness of packing up our home in Pittsburgh and moving to Boston, meals and groceries were often an afterthought.” <– that was how I was originally starting this post, but the reality is that meal planning was an afterthought just in our every day life in general. It’s definitely not my spiritual gift.
My Aunt Rebecca gave me a great piece of advice when she learned we were moving, however: “your uncle and I have moved many times over the course of our marriage, and every time we moved to a new city, we made a point to think of habits we wanted to leave behind and new habits we wanted to create.” Those words of wisdom really lingered with me as I thought about ways I could improve our family’s dynamic through habits left behind and habits created.
Let’s just say it how it is: I’m awful at it. I’ve tried reading about the “20 crockpot meals in a day” or “45 freezer meals in a weekend.” When I really get down on myself about it, I’ll have about 30 tabs of Pinterest open to various ideas and recipes — but then I’ll end up on a kick of one specific thing (Moscow mules, for example) and end up down a rabbit hole of things that really have nothing to do with meal planning, even though I started out with the best intentions.
And then I would read through those crockpot recipes, and they just didn’t sound very good. Or on Sunday night as I planned meals, I struggled finding a balance between tried-and-true and try-something-new. The trying something new when it comes to something food is something that terrifies me for a few reasons:
It often means that I’m buying a slew of ingredients for a specific recipe. Those ingredients add up and may or may not be used again frequently.
What if it’s awful? I have a family waiting to eat.
Forgetting an ingredient — what if I get half way through preparing it only to realize that I forgot to grab one of the most important things? Shopping with two kids? Definitely more than a possibility.
So needless to say, I’ve been terrible and boring in the meal planning and dinner department.
That all changed when my friend, Audra, introduced me to Blue Apron. I signed up thinking of it as a bit of a splurge, but after receiving a box for a few weeks, my outlook completely changed. We now get Blue Apron 2-3 weeks a month. During the weeks we don’t receive a box, I typically make recipes we received (and loved!) in previous shipments or from their database of recipes. I’ve never enjoyed cooking so much, and these are a few reasons why:
Blue Apron forces me to meal plan. A week’s box includes 3 meals, so it means I’m only planning dinners for 3-4 evenings. I can plan what we will eat around the meals we are eating when I prepare Blue Apron meals.
We get to try so many new recipes, without spending a ton on new ingredients or large quantities. Living in a tiny apartment, this has been huge for us as well! I didn’t bring many spices, nor do I have room for very many.
I feel empowered as a cook — and Harlow loves to help! I absolutely love the new groove that we’ve started with Blue Apron. Harlow and I chop and prepare the ingredients while Jones takes his afternoon nap, and then we head to the park or to meet Andy at the station. Harlow has started being so exploratory in her eating, asking about various ingredients and spices as she asks to “try new foods ’cause it might taste goooood!” <– she sings what she says whenever possible. And who can name that tune!?
No commitment. None. Nada. Never. I look ahead and see what Blue Apron is cooking up and decide if it’s a good fit for us. If it’s not, I skip that week.
Shipping is always free. Who likes to pay for shipping!?
Harlow loves opening the Knick-Knacks Bags. :) “It’s like a present, mommy!!” Ah to be three again!
Blue Apron takes pride in where they source their farm fresh ingredients. That makes me proud to feed my family — especially after watching this video from an insert they included in a box a few weeks back:
If you talk to me long enough, you’ll hear me singing the praises of Blue Apron. I can really say it’s been a game changer for us, and I’m so excited for you guys to try it too! The first 50 of you will get TWO FREE meals off your first Blue Apron order. Not sure if Blue Apron delivers to your zipcode? You can check out the full map of delivery zones here! And here is some news for you: Blue Apron is launching in Texas and will soon ship to even more of the country very soon! So go ahead and sign up!
These fish tacos we made during Cinco De Mayo week — they were so delicious and the guacamole was ridiculous–in the best way possible. We will definitely be making them again!
Want to know what’s on our menu this week? I’ll be cooking the three meals for the week – Flat Iron Steaks, Turkey Kibbeh, and Rice-Flake Crusted Hake – along with 2 recipes from the Blue Apron recipe database. (yup! You can get ALL of their recipes online!) I made the Hearty Chicken Salad last night and it was awesome.
When I was pregnant with Harlow, all I wanted was Pad Thai. Always. Since I was traveling weekly for work during most of my pregnancy, I would map out my client, my hotel…and the closest Thai restaurants with the best reviews before even boarding my plane.
I have my priorities down pat, people.
Unfortunately for me, my strongest craving this time around has been a forbidden fruit: a Moscow Mule. I completely blame this girl for introducing them to me.
They are traditionally served in a copper mug, so of course I’ve wasted spent time researching and scouring the web for a few copper mugs to purchase. I was going to wait until I found some to post this recipe for you all, but I couldn’t wait any longer.
More on the copper mugs I’ve found at the end of the post!
The problem with the Moscow Mule is that it’s just made up of too many amazing parts. The ginger beer, the copper mug, the berries, the fresh mint — basically the problem is that there is no problem at all. But thankfully, my crazy strong craving had me determined to create a mocktail version of this favorite of mine — and I need to share the wealth with y’all. These are becoming a bit of a constant in my summer, and I’m not complaining.
I am not a food blogger and am reminded of that fact every time I post a recipe
I never make cocktails at home because hello, I have no idea what I’m doing
I am fully aware that this quite possibly cannot even be categorized as a Moscow Mule variation of any kind, but in my mind it is, so I’m going with it.
Got it? Good. Let’s carry on. Hopefully that removed all fear or anxiety you might have had about making this drink. If I can make it? You can. Promise.
1 | muddle about 10-20 berries, 4 mint leaves and the juice from 2 limes in a cocktail shaker
Want to know how legit I am? I use the handle end of my ice cream scoop as my official muddler. I scoured my drawers for my best “muddler,” and that was what I landed on. Works for me!
Don’t have a cocktail shaker? no problem — just use a glass or mason jar.
2 | add a handful of ice to your cocktail shaker and give it a good shake.
I’m legit in these instructions, I know.
3 | grab your mugs from the freezer, throw in a handful of ice and berries if you’re feeling fancy.
Sometimes, if I’m feeling really fancy, I add some berries to an ice tray. I know, it’s like a Pinterest explosion of fancy.
4 | pour the muddled and shaken mixture into your chilled mug
5 | and because I have no idea if this is allowed or not, I pour about 6-8 oz of Ginger Beer into the cocktail shaker too
I figure I need to get all of the muddled goodness I can get! Shake it up a bit — carefully…. — and pour into your mug as well.
6 | sweeten to taste.
You can do no wrong, I promise! Take a small sip. Want it sweeter? Add a little ginger beer and agave to your cocktail shaker or directly to your mug. Want it diluted just a bit? Add a little more ginger beer. Throw in more mint, more berries — whatever!
Make it perfectly yours.
I like my mocktail a bit tart with strong berry and mint flavors. I usually add a bit of that muddled awesome stuff to my mug as well. See? I told you. No rules.
So let’s talk copper mugs. They just look awesome, right? And a Moscow Mule — mocktail or for-real-tail — just tastes better in one. It’s probably 100% a placebo and mind thing, but I’m going to go with it.
Here are some of the copper mugs I’ve found and love:
I hope you love it! I am not a big juice or soda (pop for my Wisconsin people) drinker — in fact, I really only drink coffee or ice water — but this Berry Mocktail Mule has been the most refreshing thing for me during these hot summer days!
I’d love to hear how you like it! Or how you tweak it! Let me know!
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