Coconut Granola

This is an easy coconut granola recipe that I love to eat with greek yogurt and fresh fruits!  Great to have on hand for breakfast or a quick snack or to give away as a gift!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup of mixed nuts (i buy it from the grocery store because it's cheaper than buying everything separately)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup Lehua honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine oats, coconut, mixed nuts, cinnamon, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and coconut extract. Pour liquid mixture over dry ingredients. Stir until dry ingredients are well-coated.
3. Pour the granola mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Spread granola into an even layer. Bake for 30 minutes or until granola is golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes.
4. Turn down the oven temperature to 250 degrees F and bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 mins.  Let granola cool completely. Store in an air-tight container. Makes 12 servings

** Every oven is a little different, so  the granola might require a little less or little more time in the oven. 

Calories  204 cals; Carbs 25 g; Fat 11 g; Protein 4 g; Sodium 5 g

Easy Summer Pasta Salad

I was invited to a 4th of July potluck with some friends last night so i was trying to decide what to bring.  I woke up at 5:50 am because that's what time my cocker spaniel's internal alarm clock is set to go off, but back to the pasta.  So I decided I'd whip together a pasta salad for the get together.  This is just what I happened to have on hand so these are the ingredients I used.  It's a pretty flexible recipe, so get creative!

Easy Summer Pasta Salad
1 box tri-colored rotini pasta
1 can of sliced olives (actually, I only had whole olives so I sliced them all in the egg slicer!  Pretty fun!)
1 cucumber, seeded and diced
2 small roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/4 red onion, very finely sliced
3/4 cup feta cheese
12 slices of pepperoni, sliced (you can use more, but i only had 12 slices because it was leftover from something else i made)
3/4 to 1 cup Paul Newman's light Italian dressing

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box.  Rinse off pasta in cold water to stop the cooking process.  Toss all ingredients in a gallon sized ziplock bag and refrigerate, flipping the bag over every couple of hours.  I like tossing it in a ziplock bag because 1) it takes up less space in my fridge and 2) it's easy to coat all of the ingredients with the dressing. 

You can make the pasta salad up to 24 hours ahead of time.  The longer you let the ingredients marinate in the dressing the better it will be! 

When you're ready to serve, plate it up and enjoy! 

Did I mention I don't like popcorn?

That's right. I don't even like popcorn! But apparently I can't stop covering it in all kinds of deliciousness. My friends are either gonna love me or hate me. It's such a vicious cycle! Lol.

Last night I made some cookies n creme popcorn drizzled in milk chocolate for my friend's birthday today. I'm gonna blame pinterest when she slaps me for giving her sweets (after all it's not really my fault that I don't really care for popcorn!)

Anywho, it's super easy to make and I did get the recipe off of pinterest.

All you need is some popcorn, about 12 crushed Oreos per bag of popcorn. Melt some white chocolate (I melt it in a double boiler because I'm never successful melting chocolate in the microwave) and coat the popcorn. Slowly adding the crushed oreos to the mix. Let it sit do the chocolate can harden. (I threw mine in the fridge for about 15 minutes). Then I melted the milk chocolate and drizzled it over the popcorn/Oreo mixture coated in white chocolate. Store in an airtight container!