Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola

We love breakfast in our house. I know I have said that before, but really it is one of our favorite meals of the day. ;)

Since I have been such a slacker on posting, I feel I really owe it to you to share my family’s all time favorite granola. We call it Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola. It is really the meal the kids dream of waking up to each morning and I make it more than all the other granolas we love. My kids beg for it. I usually double the batch because we like it so much and because we are such a big family.

I am calling this an original recipe of mine, because I have made so made changes over the years that you wouldn’t even recognize it coming from the original recipe. I make it how we like it, and hopefully you will like it as much as we do.

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola

1 cup Agave or Honey ( I like Xagave best)

½ cup Virgin Coconut Oil

¼ cup Peanut Butter

½ cup Cocoa Powder

Small Pinch of Salt

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

6 cups Old Fashioned Oats

1 cup Coconut

1 cup Almonds or other chopped nuts

 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine agave, coconut oil, peanut butter, cocoa and salt in a saucepan. Warm till ingredients are melted and mixed well, but not boiling. Remove from heat and add the vanilla. Combine oats, coconut, and nuts in a large bowl; Pour the chocolate mixture over top and mix well.

Pour ingredients into baking dish or dishes. I like my granola soft so I will pour mine into an 9x13” pan and a 8x8” pan. They are pretty thick layers. If you want yours crunchy consider putting yours on a cookie sheet in a thin layer. Bake for 20 minutes and let cool. We like it best when it is completely cool.

One Serving equals One Cup.

Prettiest Cook on the Block Apron

I have been gone awhile, but that does not mean I have been idle. I have a bunch of posts that I need to post.

One of the things that kept me away and busy was a Girls Camp fundraiser that I helped put on. For the fundraiser, the girls in my ward chose to do a Spring Carnival/Bake Sale/Auction. It turned out really well and was a lot of fun. Behind the scenes it was also a lot of work for the leaders and a couple of the girls, but that is another story.

Anyway, for the Auction I chose to make an apron, because it is one of my favorite things to make. Who doesn’t want a cute apron to wear while you make all the yummy food, right? Honestly, I love to wear an apron that makes me feel pretty while I cook. I found this adorable fabric on clearance at Joann’s and I knew I could find a good use for it.

Yes, it was Easter fabric, but I thought it was cute enough for a year round apron.

The Picture really does this apron no justice. It was quite stunning. I wanted to keep it myself, but I decided since I had made it for the auction I should still donate it. 

I gathered the top a little to give it an even more feminine look.

I serged the edges with a rolled hem, because I think it looks nicer and is much faster and easy.

 

Unfortunately, I did not have time to make a tutorial, so hopefully you can either figure it out by the pictures or it will inspire you make a style of your own. Making a pattern for an apron is not as hard as it sounds.  Here are some starting points to help you along:

1.    The waist piece should be 18-19inches long, finished, so add enough for a seam allowance when cutting.

2.    Choose where you want the waist piece to sit. I like to have my waist piece to sit a little high, just a little under the chest.  Measure from the top of where you want the waist piece to lay to the collar bone. Use these measurements to make a pattern for the top. I made mine into some sort of triangles and made them wide enough to overlap and to gather in the center.

3.    My bottom piece was only 19 inches long. The part matching the waist piece was 19 inches wide plus extra for a seam allowance. But the lower hem was a few inches wider (somewhere around 4 inches wider).

4.    My waist ties are always the full width of fabric 40-44”.

I hope these tips have helped somewhat. Next time I will make sure to make a tutorial. Good Luck!