Hello Wonderful people!
Thank you for visiting my blog and giving me the support to continue and share 🙂
Let’s talk about Rawnola!!!…wait first let’s talk about ‘blogging’, I really want to blog more often, I actually have this fear that I’m no good at writing. Maybe it stems from my days in high school nearly failing English cause my spelling and grammar weren’t great and the teacher just put me down so much I stopped putting effort into it and instead fell deep into my art subjects, like photography, painting, film developing, studio arts and graphics. I guess I personally thought that writing could not be a true ‘creative’ form up until this part of my life. I pretty much just stayed away from it up until years into my Instagram posting and now more so after having children. So maybe you will see me open up and share my tales, in a blog version or maybe even in vlogs on youtube, I just feel as though Instagram can be a little restrictive when coming to sharing enough information. All I know is that I have an urge and it wants to ooze out in some writing or vlogging manner.
So don’t be too hard on me hehe, I sure am no Shakespeare but I would love feedback on my writing so I can learn more. The blogs are for you to read, so I want them to be interesting and something you want to read. Please let me know in the comments on my Instagram page!
This post is all about my new obsession – Maple Toasted Rawnola! Vegan, Oil free, refined sugar-free, fat-free and only 4 ingredients!
If you have been following me for a while and have read my Feel The Lean eBooks you would know that years ago I created a life changing recipe (seriously haha) which was #Rawnola!! You may have seen it all over Instagram, youtube and pretty much on top of everyone’s banana ice cream and smoothie bowls or you probably made it yourself or could even be eating it while you read this! And there is a good reason for that cause I don’t mean to boast but seriously every person who has tried my recipe loves it!
And mind you, finding the perfect recipe for Rawnola wasn’t something I thought ‘oh this would be the perfect way to make a raw granola’, it was a complete fluke! It came about while making something else and my blender burnt out and the base to my raw cake I was making was no quite blended, still chunky and I hadn’t added liquid yet. I opened the lid of the blender and instantly it tickled the fancy of my senses and smelt amazing and then I thought mmmmmmm… this could be something better.. a raw granola! it actually looked and smelt like Anzac biscuit mix (which I once loved so much as a child when Mum would make Anzac’s). So at this moment my blender was broken and I couldn’t do anything about the mixture so I just spooned it out into a jar and before I knew it, half the jar was eaten and the other half was on top of my banana ice cream! I started eating my Rawnola with everything, on top of berries, with coconut yogurt, on smoothie bowls, acai bowls, I would dip bananas in it, eat it out of the jar, roll it into balls, add chocolate in, add dried fruit, take out the oats, add maple syrup and no matter which way I made it just tasted so amazing over and over again and the texture was just perfect. Chewy, raw cookie dough like and sweet. Also, it was wayyyyyy cheaper than any of the granolas I was buying from the store.
Up until about a week ago, I have never thought about toasting my Rawnola, maybe because I had this notion that granola has to have oil added to it?? Ohh the silly notions we keep are insane. So I was like ‘hey why don’t I put it in the oven without any oil added to it and see how it turns out?’… well it turns out that it is amazing and now we can all have Rawnola just that little bit more crunchy if we want it! winning.
So instead of doing the same things over and over and being comfy within routine stir it up, mix it up and try something different, it may just surprise you. And in this case, you will end up with delicious chewy crunchy maple Rawnola!
So now I have two huge jars in my fridge, well actually sometimes three, one is original Rawnola, one chocolate Rawnola and now one toasted Rawnola! and they are all exactly amazing.
I will stress the importance of making Rawnola in large batches, because if you make enough for just one serving it can be a real shame, for you will soon realise that when you have taken your last spoonful you will be saddened to know you have to make more when really you could have just made a large batch and ate seconds straight away or just grabbed it out of the fridge whenever you liked! Trust me on this one. And hey, now you have three main Rawnola staples to choose from!
So let’s get stuck into the recipe!
You will need
- 2 cups of pitted Medjool dates
- 2 cups of rolled oats (don’t use oatmeal or instant oats, well I guess you can but it won’t be that same obvs)
- 2 cups of raw dried coconut flakes
- 3 tbs pure maple syrup (pure maple is 100% maple syrup with nothing added)
Ingredients may vary and you many need more dates or more oats depending on how dewy your dates are or the texture of your oats.
In a high-speed blender or a food processor add in your dates first then add the coconut then the oats on top, (don’t add maple syrup yet) this will create the best blend and consistency, if you do it the other way around and put the dates in last they may not blend well and you will end up with powder oats and crunks of dates = not what you were going for.
Its also more about pulsing than blending, just keep pulsing it to get it mixed together evenly. If you just continuously blend then it can just process half the mixture into a paste and the other half it still too chunky.
Once you have the consistency perfect, scoop out the mixture onto a clean oven tray (you may want to use baking paper if you wish) the tray I use is fine without paper.
Spread it out evenly onto the tray then pour on you maple syrup, lightly toss to ensure the mixture is coated well
Place the tray into the middle of the oven at 180 (celsius) for 10 minutes. Now this does vary depending on your personal oven so please keep and eye on the mixture and toss it at least once in the time, if it is browning too fast then toss it and turn the heat down. You don’t want your mixture to cook too much because you still want a slight chewiness to it.
When the mixture is done allow it to cool slightly and then add it to a glass jar and store in the fridge, better yet put the warm mixture on ice cream straightaway! ooooh so dreamy!
You can enjoy this toasted Rawnola or any of my other Rawnola recipes on top of smoothie bowls, ice cream, yogurt, sliced bananas, fresh and frozen berries, as a cereal with milk, on acai bowls, smoothies, sorbet etc. I have plenty of recipes that feature my Rawnola in my ebooks that are available here, including all of those listed above 🙂
This Rawnola is completely guilt free, 100% natural ingredients and with no added refined oil or refined sugar added! A yummy recipe that can become a staple in your diet and meal prep that will still help assist weight management and weight loss. If you attempt to make some of the granolas you get from the store at home, you would be blown away with a number of ingredients they have in them. So make your own! it is so so simple and you will enjoy it all the much more knowing you made it yourself.
Hope you enjoy this as much I do 🙂 and dont forget to leave your comments about this blog on my Instagram, I would love the feedback and most of all the encouragement to do more.
Always,