Chai-Spiced Granola with Almond Milk, Roasted Veggies, Spicy Baked Cauliflower & Sweet Potatoes, and Clean Popcorn

2nd meeting of the group Eat Clean, Train Mean in 2015!

Great time this afternoon with this bunch!!  The group was developed by Cindy Giacobbe with the intent to bring support to those of us who want and need to eat a healthier cleaner lifestyle.   What a fabulous idea and it's taken off to be something pretty cool. If you are interested in our group message me or Cindy on Facebook and we'll let you in our cool club.  

After each meeting I agreed to post what we learned, shared and ate at our meetings so others who can not make them or live out of state can participate and take advantage of the great ideas and recipes we share.

Today we had breakfast, lunch/dinner, dessert and snack.  

We all started with this treat. And let me tell you, with almond milk as a cereal this is crack.  You can't eat just one bowl.

CHAI-SPICED GRANOLA

INGREDIENTS:

CHAI-SPICED GRANOLA INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup honey or agave, warmed
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted and hot
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 4 cups old-fashioned oats (or gluten-free oats)
• 2 cups nuts (I used half almonds, half pecans)
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• chai spice mix (see below)

CHAI SPICE MIX INGREDIENTS:

• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• DIRECTIONS:Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.  (Or if your baking sheet isn't very large, I would recommend lining two smaller sheets.)
• In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the warmed honey, coconut oil, vanilla and almond extracts until combined.  Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, toss together oats, nuts, coconut and chai spice mix until evenly combined. Add in the honey mixture, and toss until the dry ingredients are evenly coated. 
• Spread the mixture out on the prepared baking sheet in an even layer. Bake for 20 minutes, removing the sheet from the oven at the halfway point to give the granola a good stir for even cooking. Remove sheet once more and sprinkle coconut flakes on top of the granola and gently stir them into the mix. Return sheet to the oven and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, or until the coconut and nuts are toasted.
• Remove sheet from oven and cool on a wire rack.  Store in a sealed container and keep for up to 3 weeks.

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/chai-spiced-granola-recipe/

Next we had veggies, veggies and more veggies.

End of the week, clean out the fridge roasted veggies

What ever veggies you have left over in the fridge.  Julieann used the following:

• onion
• broccoli
• yellow squash
• zucchini 

Cut up veggies into bite size pieces, sprinkle with seasonings of  your liking. Julieann used the following:

• Fiesta Lime seasoning not familiar, click here
• Garlic Grinder (Trader Joes)maybe this one
• Garlic Salt

Spread them out on a cookie sheet at roast in the oven until crisp.  350 for maybe 20-25 min. Julieann suggests finishing a glass of wine before checking to see if they are done.  The time also depends on your veggies.  Once done, take about 1 Tbls of melted coconut oil and mix together.  This will soften the veggies. If you like them crispy omit the coconut oil.

Then we had more veggies

Spicy baked cauliflower and sweet potatoes, you can find this on an earlier blog of mine.  http://susiespaleoishlife.blogspot.com/2014/06/spicy-baked-cauliflower-and-sweet.html

Then we had soup.....

I'm posting the recipe I followed. However, I did not follow the recipe exactly.  I had several variables that I've listed within the recipe below.  So what we ate will never be duplicated.  But I'm sure you can come close.  Soups are kind of like that.  Mix it up a little and if your close it's still going to be delicious. 

What You Will Need:

2 strips raw bacon - diced  Yep did this

1 small onion - yep

2 stalks celery - yep

1 lb ground uncased bratwurst sausage - yep

1/2 cup red wine - yep

1 lb lean ground beef - yep

2 cloves garlic - yep

2 tbsp oregano - yep, I used fresh chopped up

1 tbsp creole seasoning -  you can use any spice here that you will give your soup some kick - I didn't have this so I looked up whats in it and just sprinkled each seasoning in the soup.  I didn't measure just guessed.

1 tsp thyme - yep, i used dried fresh

1 small red pepper - diced - yep

1 small yellow pepper - diced -  yep

1 small zucchini - diced - yep

1 cup green beans - diced -  yep

1 28oz can tomatoes - diced - nope, didn't have.  So I added a cup of chicken broth I had in fridge and small can of tomato sauce and a small can of tomato paste.

2 cups beef broth - yep maybe a little more.

How To: 

in a medium size stock pot, cook bacon on medium heat until it starts to brown, but not crisp!

add the onion and celery and cook until onion becomes translucent.

add the ground sausage and cook until meat is brown

if the pot starts to dry out, add a bit of olive oil or coconut oil

remove meat mixture from pot and set aside

pour wine into pot and deglaze (I drank a glass also....ha)

pour that yummy goodness into the sausage meat mixture

if pot is dry add a tbsp of oil or some of the deglaze and add beef

start to brown then add garlic, oregano, creole seasoning and thyme (I added lots of cayenne pepper)

cook until spices are well incorporated and remove from pot and set aside

put the peppers, zucchini and beans in the pot and cook for a few minutes to release the sweetness of the peppers

add the meat mixture, broth and tomatoes

stir to incorporate, set heat to low and simmer, covered for 30 minutes stirring occasionally

http://www.momcookingpaleoglutenfree.com/2011/12/brat-burger-soup.html

Last but not least we enjoyed fresh clean popcorn.  Made on the stove top with olive oil and sea salt.  The olive oil gives it a buttery taste without the bad of butter.

Use a large tall sauce pan, cover the bottom of the pan with kernels.  Pack them in there so you don't see the bottom of the pan, but only in a single layer.  Next drizzle them with olive oil.  How much is up to  you.  The more olive oil, the more flavor you'll have.  Cover the pan and set heat to medium high.  Shake the pan back and forth to mix up the kernels and oil.   Let cook.  Go relax and have a glass of wine....but listen....when you hear it start to crackle and pop, shake it again to keep it mixed up.  Let it go until you don't hear popping anymore.  Careful.....don't burn it.  Keep shaking it back and forth every so often.

Then we had....

Homemade granola bars....posted earlier on my blog.

http://susiespaleoishlife.blogspot.com/2015/01/nut-fruit-bars.html

Thanks to everyone who participated!!!

NEXT MEETING JANUARY 18th at Susie's House again.  2pm.....BE THERE