Date Sweetened Granola

I love granola. It's probably one of my biggest weaknesses. As such, I knew I needed to create my own, delicious, nutritious, unique granola. I also wanted to make it as IBS safe as possible by not using a lot of oil and keeping the sugar as low as possible. The dates add a light sweetness that is perfect! 

This granola is also free of almost all common allergies: soy, nut, sugar, dairy, coconut, egg, and low fat. It also has easy options for gluten free.

This may be one of the best recipes I've made yet!

It goes great on yogurt, fruit, and oatmeal. Or just by itself! 

I don't know about anyone else, but I have a habit of eating handfuls and handfuls when it comes out of the oven and for the next several days. In order to change that I came up with this nifty little trick: put 1/4-1/3 cup of granola into individual baggies or containers. Then have just one bag each day. It really helps if you don't have any self-control like myself :)

Date Sweetened Granola

Soy free*Coconut free*Nut free*sugar free*low fat*dairy free*egg free

Ingredients:

            4 cups rolled oats (not instant)

            2 cups, lightly packed, cooked couscous (3/4 cup uncooked)

            5 corn or rice crackers

            ¼ cup flax seeds (optional)

            1 ½ Tbsp. cinnamon

            2 dashes salt

            1 cup + 2 Tbsp. date puree

            3 Tbsp. olive oil

            dash vanilla

            1 cup dried fruit (I used raisins + craisins)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350.

Puree the dates- place unpitted dates in a blender. Put enough water in so that the water reaches the top of the dates. Blend until smooth.

Cook the couscous- boil ¾ cup water. Add ¾ cup couscous and stir until water is completely absorbed and couscous is cooked. Remove from heat and let cool.

When the couscous is cooled, mix the oats and couscous together in a large mixing bowl. Then crumble the corn or rice crackers and mix (I like mine to be bigger chunks). Stir the flax seeds in.

Mix in the cinnamon and salt.

Add all of the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and stir until well combined. If the mixture still has loose oats, etc. add more date puree in little by little.

Stir the dried fruit in.

Lightly spray a cooking sheet with cooking spray, or cover the pan with foil and spread the granola mixture on the pan.

Bake until crispy and golden, stirring every 5-10 minutes. (I think mine baked for 30-40 min.)

*Let cool completely before placing in a container or bag. Even then you might want to leave the bag open overnight to stay crispy.

*Substitutions:

            couscous- quinoa, millet

            crackers-just omit altogether

            flax seeds-chia seeds or just omit

            date puree- prune puree, honey, molasses

            olive oil-any type of oil

This is shared on The Tasty Alternative and simplysugarandglutenfree

Pictures of Chambok

Here are the pictures from our trip to the Chambok waterfalls (see my recent post).

Our little bungalows!

Disneyland!!! :) not

Their little "zoo"

Paris? ok

millipede!!! 

No I was not brave enough to go in the outhouse!

The "bridge"we crossed-extreme adventure right there!

We felt like we were at the cabin.

The deserted "restaurant-with-an-awesome-view"

Cow cart up to the waterfall

Chambok!

Chambok Waterfall Adventures!

Hello! It sounds like Utah got lots of snow! I'm glad I'm not there :). Also, I can't believe what happened in Boston! I feel so out of the loop, but I'm glad that your safe, Kelcy and Ben. 

This was quite an exciting week with lots of adventures so I'll get right to it! I didn't have school at all this week due to the Khmer New Year. Unfortunately though it's not much of a break because I have exams in about 2 weeks, so I did a lot of studying. However, mom, dad, and I enjoyed a fun little trip to the mountains/jungle of Cambodia on Monday and Tuesday. We decided to go see some waterfalls called Chambok. When we got to Kirirom (the province) we first went to our resort. It was a fun little place where the rooms were bungalows. Dad had supposedly booked a "deluxe bungalow", but we decided their idea of "deluxe" is very different from ours. The bungalow smelled and looked like it hadn't been used or cleaned in quite a while. It was musty with cobwebs, etc. It was also very dark which made me even more apprehensive. Being the wimp that I am I was very frightened of the bathroom (I couldn't see in the dark so I couldn't see what bugs were there). I finally braved it (I felt like I was on the houseboat all over again) and just as I was leaving I see 3 large things move on the wall. I ran out of the room yelling that there were mice! Mom and dad assured me that they were just geckos. I was still very jumpy the rest of the trip :). Just a funny little side note!

We then walked around the resort grounds a little bit. It was kind of sad there were 2 long-abandoned and ignored gardens, a pretty little lake, a mini-zoo, and an "amusement" park with a couple disney statues and water things. We decided that the resort had a lot of potential to be a really amazing, beautiful place, but had obviously not gotten sufficient business. After eating lunch at the only eating place there, we tried to find some waterfalls. We spent most of the day driving around on very bumpy roads trying to not get lost among the maze of red dirt roads. By the end of the day we were definitely "bumped-out"! We did find a couple of waterfalls that were more like fast water going over rocks. To get to one of them we had to cross a "bridge" that was more like criss-crossed beams (they weren't even nailed down!). There are few times that I've been so scared crossing a bridge. Mind you this was quite long and the bottom rocky. Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'm probably exaggerating slightly :). But it was definitely high adventure! We crossed and then trekked for a little while in the real jungle. Here I am not exaggerating-this was pure, Cambodian, tropical jungle! It was so cool! There was a little pipe showing the trail, but other that we just climbed, hopped, leaped (some of them were literally leaps of faith!). We even saw a snake! After a little while we decided to turn back. I think if mom and dad were not in charge of the mission we would have kept going, but it would not be good to be getting lost or hurt in the jungle. So, we turned back. It was really fun though! 

In the morning we found the real Chambok waterfall that we had been trying to find. We took a little cow cart for a ways and then we hiked for a ways to get to the waterfall. The waterfall was so beautiful! It was about 40 meters high with HUGE boulders at the bottom. I decided waterfalls are one of my very favorite creations of God. They are so gracefully majestic!! After that we headed home. It was a very fun, very adventurous escape into the nature. It was so nice to breath clean, fresh, jungle air instead of car exhaust. 

Like I said the rest of this week was pretty typical. I invited some of my friends from school to conference over facebook, but unfortunately none of them came. I absolutely LOVED conference!!! I received so many answers to my questions. I usually don't feel like all of the talks apply to me or answer my questions, but this time it was so different. I don't know if I was more prepared or what, but it definitely strengthened my testimony that Heavenly Father is very much aware of each one of us personally and He knows our problems. It also strengthened my testimony of personal revelation. From the very first talk until the end I felt such an overwhelming outpouring of personal revelation. Very neat. Conference is such a great thing! 

I love you! Have a great week! Remember: "Oh what a glorious morning"! 

Love, 

Kenzie

Creamy Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm in a little bit of a creamy mood. Something about the word just makes the dish better!

I made this the other morning because I had roasted pumpkin waiting to be used, and I wanted to get a little bit more vegetables into my day.

This is a quick, easy breakfast recipe that will spice up your normal morning routine. It seriously takes 5 minutes. 

Creamy Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Serves: 1

Ingredients

            1/3 cup unrolled oats

            2/3 cup water

            2 Tbsp. flax meal (optional)

            1/3 cup mashed or pureed pumpkin (I used roasted pumpkin, but canned works too.)

            dash of vanilla

            cinnamon (to your liking)

            2 Tbsp. sweetener (I used honey)

            3 Tbsp. milk

            raisins (optional)

            walnuts (optional: I did not have any)

Directions:

            Put oats and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. When the oatmeal is done to your liking, remove from heat. Stir in the flax meal. Add the pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon, and sweetener. Stir the milk in last. Scoop into a small bowl and top with raisins or walnuts.

Enjoy!

Creamy Shrimp & Veggie Couscous

Creamy Shrimp & Veggie Couscous

"Restaurant worthy!"

Serves: ~6

Avocado Lemon Cilantro Dressing:

            2 ripe avocados

            not quite all the juice from ½ lemon

            Leafs from a small bunch of cilantro

            1 garlic clove, minced

            1 Tbsp. olive oil

            dash sea salt

            water

Blend all of the ingredients together in a blender. Keep adding water until desired consistency. Should be medium thickness/thinness, but more toward being on the thin side.

 Veggie Couscous:

            2 cups couscous

            2 cups bone, vegetable, or chicken broth

            shrimp (as many as you want)

            2 zucchinis, quartered

            corn kernals from 2 corn on the cobs (canned corn works too)

            15-20 small mushrooms, chopped to desired thickness

            ¼ onion, minced

            2 garlic cloves, minced

            ~6 green onions, chopped

            zest of 1 lemon

Boil the zucchini, onion, garlic, and shrimp in a medium saucepan. When the shrimp is nearly done, put the corn and mushrooms in the pan, still boiling.

Meanwhile, prepare the couscous. Bring 2 cups of broth to a boil in a pot. Stir in 2 cups of couscous. Cover and let boil for 1-2 minutes (I would turn down the heat slightly). When the water is completely gone, remove couscous from heat (be careful not to burn-couscous cooks in seconds!) Stir the lemon zest into the cooked couscous.

When the shrimp is cooked and the veggies are soft, drain the vegetables well.

To serve, scoop couscous into a bowl. Place the vegetable mix on top. Pour the dressing over and top with more chopped green onions and cilantro.

Bon Appetite!

* Notes: You could easily use rice, millet, or noodles instead of couscous. You can use any vegetables on hand (although I would avoid starchy vegetables). Measurements are guidelines-they can be easily adjusted for more or less servings.

Playing Cinderella and Loving It!!!

Hey everyone! 

This week has gone by quicker than I expected. It was my last week of school! This week is Khmer New Year so we get the week off. Then I go to school for 2 days, and then us seniors are given a week long study leave until exams. So technically, I only have 2 more days of real school left! Not bad, eh?! It's really weird to think that in 2 more days I will be done with grade school. I don't know, it's just weird. But, I am super excited! 

I had a pretty hefty week with tests and studying, so I spent a lot of time down in my "cave" (my bedroom). On Friday we had a large group of missionaries going home. We had a dinner for them and then a devotional. I usually don't go to the devotional, but I thought I would this time-I want to see at least one before I go. It was a neat meeting. Mom and dad both gave some very neat thoughts and the Spirit was very strong. The missionaries also bore their testimonies. I then stayed for the "red carpet" ceremony. I have to admit, I am a little sad to see this group go. And yes, that is because I have crushes on several of them! :) They are so mature in the Gospel and add to that, they are very handsome! Okay, so there you go, I do have crushes on the missionaries!! I then proceeded to the kitchen and, wait for it........I washed 236 DISHES by myself!!!!!! Yup, all 236 of them spotless and shining! I have to say, my singing voice is improving quite nicely. I like to sing Hymns while washing to help pass the time. I really enjoy being able to give service in this way. There's not much I can do here, but I can help to lessen mom and dad's load. I'll be sad when I can't do these little acts of service for them anymore; they truly make my day! It was a testimony builder for me of service in that when we go into it with a willing heart and mind, we will receive such tremendous gifts of peace and joy! 

I had a really good lesson in seminary yesterday. Usually there are a lot of Khmer's that come to get better at English so the senior couple who teaches usually speaks slow and they don't go very deep into the doctrine. Since there were only a few of us yesterday that could understand English well, they went a little faster and deeper, so that was fun. I was supposed to teach a dance class at the elementary after, but no one showed up so I went home. I also went swimming at one of the senior couples apartments. It was pretty fun, but I mostly just felt guilty about not studying so I didn't stay long (not that I did homework when I got home though!). I made a really yummy dinner last night too. Dad said it was "restaurant worthy", so that made me feel good.

That's it for this week! Have a fantastic week!

Love,

kenzie