Healthy Homemade Granola

Breakfast is an essential part of our day. "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch as a prince and dinner like a pauper," someone smart said. As much as I try to follow those guidelines, I think that a king's meal should be not only fulfilling but healthy and nutritious as well. When I was little, my mom cooked hot meal every morning and she always said, "Our body is like an engine. Whatever we put in the engine every morning, that way our body will work." Back in the day, I did not care about it much. All I wanted in the morning was my sweet sleep. Things have not changed much since then. I still love to sleep and to have my "9-hour-queen-sleep":-) However, I became more alert to what I like to have on my plate for breakfast.

Today I started the morning with homemade granola. I used to get it in the store and became a little upset when I ran out of it. I find granola nutritiously delicious. It combines all the ingredients I love: baked crunchy oatmeal, a variety of my favorite nuts, colorful fruits and aromatic honey. Besides, as I found out, it was very easy to make on my own at home. So, here is the recipe of my happy healthy granola:)

Ingredients

3 cups of oats (I like to have a big pack of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats. That way you will never run out of them:-)
1/2 cup of sliced almonds (any other nuts will work as well)
1/2 cup of chopped pecans
1/2 cup of dried cranberries (or any fruit you like)
1/4 cup of sesame seeds
3 Tbs of orange zest
1/3 cup of olive oil (Extra virgin)
1/2 cup of honey
1Tbs ground cinnamon
1 tsp of salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 300F and prepare a sheet pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients: oats, sesame seeds, nuts, fruits, zest, cinnamon and salt. In a small bowl, mix honey and oil.

3. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well. Spread the mixture on the sheet pan and place in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Stir the mixture every 10 minutes so that granola cooks evenly.

4. Take the sheet pan out and cool.

* Granola can be stored in a plastic container or a jar for up to 3 weeks.

Bon Appetit!

Spinach Crust Mediterranean Pizza

What a beautiful Saturday morning in Florida. As soon as I thought that autumn was not coming to the southern side of North America, the reminder of home arrived to us. In November, Moscow streets are usually cloudy and grey. The early September sun travels far away to the south, somewhere to Sochi. As much as it sounds depressing, it is actually lovely weather. Maybe because I grew up with that weather, there is calming, romantic and slow-paced atmosphere. Slow pace is the opposite of what one might think of Moscow. However, cool and cloudy days are what brings people together in one place.

Returning to my life in Florida, it has been almost six months since I moved here. In retrospective, I feel like this was one of the biggest changes of the year 2013. My move to Florida allowed me to pursue my dream - going to culinary school. Every day at school is different. Sometimes I feel like I learn a lot, sometimes the water seems calm and stagnant. At times, days are emotionally and physically challenging. Truly, the doubting thoughts visit my mind. After a while, I come only to one conclusion -I would not wish any other path for me right now. From my observation, often people are consumed by daily activities and details that they do not see the bigger picture. When we do look at the bigger picture: how amazing our life actually is and what incredible things happen to us every single moment.
Also I agree with my favorite writer Paulo Coelho that when we choose to follow our path, the rise of emotions such as fears, happiness, worries, show that we follow the path that truly matters to us.

Because my culinary life brings so much joy and happiness, I decided to stop being lazy and finally use the computer to put in words what I make from day to day:-) Lately, I worked very often with dough: pastry, yeast bread, quick bread and so on. I learned there are couple ways to prepare yeast dough. One of them is straight dough method - the liquid ingredients are placed on the bottom then the dry ingredients are added to mix all the parts together. At school, we use mixers only. However, my grandmas, aunts and my mother have been making dough by hand ever since I remember. So, comparing two methods, I go 200% for the mixers!! It saves so much time and energy!!! I feel especially lucky to live in the time of progress and Kitchen Aid:-) So, here is a super easy and quick recipe of Spinach crust pizza with fetta, olives and preserved basil.

Ingredients 

1 Tbsp of active dry east
2 fl oz of warm water
14 oz of bread flour (sifted)
6 fl oz of cool water
1 tsp of salt
2 Tbsp of olive oil
1 Tbsp of honey
4 oz of spinach leaves
1 cup of feta cheese (crumbled)
1 onion (sliced)
1/2 cup of boneless olives (I like to buy big olives with bones from Costco and remove bones myself)
1/2 cup of basil and olive oil preserve ( the recipe is found here:  http://yayaskitchentoday.blogspot.com/2013/07/frozen-basil-preserve.html)

Instructions 

1. In a large bowl, combine warm water with yeast and add some flour. Let the yeast mixture rise.

2. Meanwhile, process spinach in cool water (the amount of cool water in the recipe).

3. Caramelize onion slices in olive oil on a pan.

4. Stir the remaining ingredients in the large bowl with the yeast mixture: spinach water, salt, olive oil, honey and flour.

5. Knead the dough until it becomes elastic and smooth.

6. Place the dough ball on the slightly floured surface and cover with material. Let it rise for 30 minutes.

7. Preheat the oven to 400F.

8. Punch the dough and roll it to the desired thickness (or 0.5 of inch). Brush generously with basil preserve, add caramelized onions, sprinkle feta cheese and olives on top.

9. Bake pizza in the oven until crisp and brown (10 to 14 minutes).

* Instead of the basil preserve, you can brush the crust with olive oil and sprinkle fresh basil leaves.

* The dough can be divided in parts and refrigerated for up to 2 days.

* On the bottom picture, the pizza is with regular dough, grilled chicken and salsa. To make regular dough, use water without spinach.

Bon Appetit!