A Million Ways to Burn: Sometimes you feel like a Nut...tasty, yet easy Paleo Granola!

One of my guilty pleasures since starting Crossfit and changing my diet has become nuts, particularly almonds and cashews. I don’t know if something has changed about my metabolism or what, but I used to NEVER eat them, like ever, and now I’m fairly certain that I could live off of them alone. Tree nuts contain a good bit of fat, but it's a healthy fat so I suppose it's better to binge eat on almonds than Twinkies. This is one of my down falls though, because although they are healthy and completely Paleo/Whole30, I still believe that you should practice some self-restraint and only eat them in moderation (something I tend to epically fail at). I’ve even read in some places that you should only eat them in amounts equivalent to a topping, like for your salad or other meals, rather than eating them in handfuls on their own as a snack. On the other hand, I have read or know of many athletes who will have a palm full of nuts with breakfast or lunch, so as always you just have to figure out what amount works for your body and your level of workout intensity.

I have to admit that I haven’t had time to finish reading “Paleo Solution” by Robb Wolf, but I hope to sometime in the relatively near future and I will hopefully be able to give you a little more insight on this topic when I do. Dallas and Melissa’s book, “It Starts with Food,” contains a table that is helpful to decide which nuts (and seeds) are better for you when you do choose to eat them. The best nut choices include cashews, hazelnuts, and macadamia nuts. The middle category contains almonds, brazil nuts, pecans, and pistachios. Flax seeds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts make up the lowest tier of this type of food.

A big mistake that I made shortly after starting crossfit, but before my Whole30 challenge was that I would have peanuts as a mid-day or pre-workout snack from time to time. Contrary to their name, peanuts are NOT nuts! Peanuts are considered legumes, a food group that includes beans and lentils; and legumes are not Paleo or Whole30. The argument against legumes, and therefore peanuts, is that they act similar to how grains affect your gut, whole separate topic for a future blog.

Nonetheless, granola (when eaten in moderation) can make for a delicious, yet, healthy and filling snack. My favorite is to eat it like cereal with almond milk and maybe some fresh sliced fruit or berries, but it’s just as good on its own! Here is the original recipe, but I made a few changes: http://lexiscleankitchen.com/2013/05/25/paleo-granola/ (I get a lot of my recipes from “Just Eat Real Food” on facebook…they post a lot of great stuff, but be sure to read the ingredients because I have found some non-Paleo stuff on there and some of it is Primal instead of Paleo; you can also pin this stuff to your pinterest which is what I do…feel free to follow me there as well!).

Ingredients:

• 2 cups nuts (I used cashews, raw slivered almonds, hazelnuts and chopped pecans- pulsed in magic bullet to break into to small pieces, but not ground completely)

• 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (I used desiccated, but shredded would work as well)

• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds

• 2 tbsp flaxseed meal

• 2 tbsp sesame seeds (I used pumpkin seeds instead)

• 1 tbsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (optional and I used apple pie spice because I didn’t like pumpkin pie when I last tried it so I figured pumpkin spice granola may not be my favorite either)

• Dash of salt

• 3 tbsp coconut oil

• 3 tbsp honey (I was running short on honey when I made this last so I substituted the difference with pure maple syrup)

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup (can sub agave/or omit)

• 1 tbsp almond butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. In a large bowl combine nuts, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, flaxseed meal, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, pumpkin/apple pie spice, and a dash of salt.

3. In a pan on the stove combine coconut oil, honey, vanilla extract, pure maple syrup, and almond butter; Let boil.

4. Once boiling, pour over dry mixture in the bowl. Mix thoroughly.

5. Pour onto baking sheet. A lot of times I'll double the recipe, but regardless be sure to spread the mixture well so there's only a thin, even layer otherwise you may end up with the thinner parts burned and the thicker sections a little undercooked. Bake at 350, stirring occasionally, until slightly brown (watch carefully to ensure that it doesn’t burn!)