The Beauty of Beets

Beets make the best food coloring EVER!  It's that rich pink that is usually only achieved with a strong shot of red 40, but without the harsh chemicals and additives, and it has the bonus of injecting your comeda of choice with a few vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients :-).  I am on a muffin kick and in my search to keep things fresh and interesting I decided to add some beet puree to my next batch. 

To be honest I first got the idea a couple of years ago from Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, by Jessica Seinfeld. A loves the taste and I love what's in them. Yum yum happy mum!

The Best Cereal Ever...

is the one that you make yourself... unless you love cornflakes. LOL. I have no recipe for that ;-).  Since moving to Puerto Rico I have had a hard time getting the breakfast cereal that I love.  My first choice is Kashi's lean crunch, A loves it too.  My cereal has lots of protein, fiber, vitamins, etc. without a cup of sugar to go along with it.  Here I could keep buying Kashi but it costs twice as much and isn't always fresh.  So I've looked up some recipes and got the basic ingredients and decided to make my own... and I wondered why I didn't do this a long time ago. The ingredients may seem to cost a lot on the front end, but I've made about 4 batches and am only half way through my supplies.

Ingredients - Everything varies based on your preferences

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup puffed wheat

1 cup puffed rice

1/2 cup oat bran

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup flax seed

1 cup walnuts (finely chopped)

1 cup almonds (finely chopped)

1 cup pecans (finely chopped)

1 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1 cup honey

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 tbsp. powdered ginger

1 tbsp. nutmeg

1 tbsp. cinnamon

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1 tbsp. olive oil



Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl (sin spices). Mix the olive oil, honey, and maple syrup in a small mixing bowl. Put the oil in first to keep the honey and syrup from sticking to the sides. Add the spices to the honey and syrup. mix the "wet" ingredients into the dry ingredients. Fold in the coconut. Put in a shallow pan lined with foil (to make it easier to remove when done). Bake at 350 degrees for 15 mins. Remove and let cool. Add the cranberries and move to a container. You should store it in a cool dry place. This should make about 1 bag of cereal. Enjoy!