What Comes First? Breakfast!

Today I received an email from a past reader asking what had happened to my blog. I almost died of flattery. I stop blogging back in September 2011 because I went back to school. Between my two girls and reading 100 pages every night for homework, I had to put blogging on the back burner. I've been dying to blog though! It was my intention to start blogging after I graduated last month, but instead I got caught up re-organizing/decorating our home that we moved into back in December. It was nice to finally have the time to do that!

So much has changed in our lives since the last time I blogged, and I certainly will be sharing some of the many changes in our lives. First and foremost, we are expecting baby #3! Any day now actually because our due date is July 14th! We don't know if we are having a boy or a girl. This is our first surprise! 

My 20 month year old Monique, loves cereal. The problem is, i don't like to serve packaged sugary cereals. Healthy boxed cereals that are agave sweetened are super expensive, and to top it off, Monique is allergic to nuts! So we are very limited on the healthy cereal we can serve her.

I have modified my favorite granola recipe from Vegan Family Meals so it is allergy-free and contains much less sugar. Because this granola is high in calcium, contain a low amount of natural sugar and healthy fats, this serves as a great snack. Monique gobbles it up and asks for it multiple times a day. Every time I bake this granola, I want to hit myself over the head. We go through a batch within one week. You would think that at least once I would remember to double it! To make it completely allergy free we serve it with rice milk.

Photo from Diary of a Vegan

Allergy-Free Granola Version:

Replace almond and Brazilian nuts with 3/4 cup pumpkin seeds. Use 3/4 cup sunflower seeds. 

Also, I eliminate the brown rice syrup. I think it is plenty sweet with just the maple syrup alone. If you don't have coconut oil, use canola oil instead, but I highly encourage using coconut oil because it is so beneficial. I also eliminate all the dried fruit. I don't think this granola needs anything else to sweeten it, also without the dried fruit it is much cheaper! I bake this for 20 minutes, flip the granola over so the other side can cook, and bake it for another 20 minutes. Then I let it rest for a bit before transferring it to an airtight container. I also store this in the fridge since seeds preserve better that way. 

I'm so excited to blog again, I have so many things to share! And I will keep you all updated on baby!