Recipes From Friends

I received a cute card in the mail from Cara with pictures of her kids, and a recipe for "Riganilla" which is I think her kids way of saying "granola". It's in the oven right now and smelling wonderful so I wanted to share it.

"Riganilla"

5 cups rolled oats
2 cups chopped nuts (I used sliced almonds)
1/2 cup each chopped pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds (I used a cup of craisins instead of the seeds)
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1 Tbsp. grated orange peel (I used 1/2 tsp.orange oil)
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup safflower oil
1 1/2 cup honey

Mix together and bake on a cookie sheet (I greased it just in case) at 350 for 25 minutes. Break apart before it cools!

Yesterday I tried the recipes for Barley pancakes from Cara and the breakfast cookies from Jessica. Both turned out great! It helps that they are both good cooks. I'd pretty much trust any recipe from either one of them.

Jessica asked my advice about the cookies. Here's what we did different.

I find that any recipe that has oatmeal or a lot of spices (like gingerbread) can have white flour switched to wheat with out anyone noticing. I substituted King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour. It is a different, more mild wheat, but it still has all the whole grain benefits. I reduced the sugar to 1 cup and used Sucanat instead. Next time I'll use just 3/4 cup I think. I also added 1 tsp. cinnamon, a dash of cloves, and a dash of ground ginger. My kids really liked these as cookies. I didn't give it to them for breakfast, but I'm sure they would love it if I did!