Weekly Recipe: Daily Granola

I found this recipe at http://orangette.blogspot.com/2008/02/consider-it.html. When I was younger, my grandfather used to make wonderful homemade granola and I've always wanted to make my own. While this wasn't as good as my grandpa's, it seems like a pretty good starting point. I like the ingredients, but the end result was a little too chewy and sweet for my taste. Next time I'll cut down on some of the sweeteners and let it bake a little longer (I did about 40 minutes this time).

Daily Granola (Modified from Orangette.com who modified it from Nigella's Feast

Dry ingredients:
5 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups raw almonds
1 1/2 cups pecan halves
1 cup hulled raw sunflower seeds
1 cup dried coconut
¾ cup sesame seeds
¾ cup light brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. salt

Wet ingredients:
¾ cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/3 cup brown rice syrup
¼ cup honey
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat the oven to 300°F. In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. In a small bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ones, and stir well.

Spread the mixture evenly on two rimmed baking sheets. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until evenly golden brown. Set a timer to go off every ten minutes while the granola bakes, so you can rotate the pans and give the granola a good stir. Remove the pans from the oven, stir well – this will keep it from cooling into a hard, solid sheet – and set aside to cool. The finished granola may still feel slightly soft when it comes out of the oven, but it will crisp as it cools.

Scoop cooled granola into to a large zipper-lock plastic bag or other airtight container. Store in the refrigerator indefinitely.

One Week Wait

Today I am six weeks (5 weeks and 6 days) pregnant. Only 6 days until my first OB appointment - and it seems like I'm still pregnant! My first appointment is on July 9th, and I'm really really hoping that we get to see a heartbeat at that appointment. If we see a heartbeat, we will tell J's family during our birthday weekend in Philly.

I haven't told my family yet, but I was thinking of telling them today. Inexplicably, I'm more afraid of saying it outloud to too many people than too many people knowing. Even when I do share the news I'm trying to approach it as a positive pregnancy test and nothing more. I know that I would call my mom if I had bad news at my first appointment, so it would be best for her to know in advance when it is coming.

I have told a total of 4 people so far - for various reasons. The first person I told was my best friend since she was in town the day after I got my first positive test. The second person I told was a girl I met at Korean class. I only told her because she doesn't have any connections to anyone else I know - sort of like sharing the news with a stranger - and only because she told me that she was 11 weeks pregnant. The good news is that if everything works out well, we may have another half - Korean family in the area with a baby at almost exactly the same age. I also told my knitting group. Since knitting group has essentially evolved into an infertility support group, we always discuss what cycle day we are on when we are planning on going to fertility clinics, etc, so it was hard NOT to tell them.

Every person I've shared the news with knows about my losses. 2 of them have gone through miscarriages themselves before and can very much relate to not wanting to share the news widely. I know there is nothing I can do now except hope for the best.