This coconut quinoa granola was supposed to have been posted last week. Then I ate it all before I had a chance to take any photos.
You've been warned. It's that addictive.
So here it is the second time around, tweaked and perfected. I've been making granola at home for a while, but hadn't tried using quinoa until now, even though it's a pantry staple for lunch and dinner around here. Now I think I prefer it to granola made just with oats. First off, it's crunchy but not overly crunchy, without the big hard pieces that you sometimes get with all-oat granola, homemade or store-bought. And second, think of all that iron, protein, and other nutrients you'll get just from a small bowl at breakfast!
When it comes to breakfast, I'm a creature of habit. Well, for a short period of time, anyway. I go through periods in which I would eat the same thing every single morning for 3 to 4 months: oatmeal with dried cranberries, toast with raspberry preserves, almond croissants, Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds, Barbara's Puffins. And then move on to the next thing for 3 to 4 months.
My most recent breakfast habit has consisted of combining vanilla yogurt with granola from the Park Slope Co-op. I've tried a lot of their granolas from the bulk bins, mostly settling a very minimalist one with lightly crispy oat clusters and dried blueberries. But then I started seeing a whole bunch of homemade granola recipes on Pinterest. (My fellow food bloggers are very inspiring!) So I decided to try my hand at making granola from scratch.