Sunny Millet Granola

With the rising cost of food these days, it just makes sense to go more DIY! From making your own seitan, baking your own bread, and even making your own soymilk, it seems like everybody is making an effort to make more foods themselves, which benefits the environment, your health, AND your wallet! So, I decided to make a weekly post about something completely homemade, DIY style!! I want to encourage everybody to try this out, and hopefully it will be contagious!

For this week's DIY dish, I made this Sunny Millet Granola! I just played around with some ingredients I thought went well together, and it turned out great! I highly recommend this drizzled with plenty of hemp milk, or sprinkled on top of some vanilla soy yogurt with fresh fruit!!

Step 1: Toast the seeds and nutsStep 2: Bake the granola

Step 3: Add the raisins and enjoy!

Sunny Millet Granola (makes approx. 5 lbs)
3 lbs old-fashioned rolled oats
1 lb uncooked millet
2 cups sunflower seeds
1 cup sliced almonds
2 cups flame or golden raisins
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup molasses or agave nectar
2 Tbs cinnamon
1 Tbs nutmeg
1 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 375 F. Spread sunflower seeds and almonds in a single layer on a sheet pan. Toast in the oven for about 10 minutes, until lightly browned and you can smell the nuts. Set aside to cool.
While the nuts cool, mix together the oats, millet, applesauce, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add in the cooled nuts, and stir well to coat all the ingredients with the molasses and applesauce. Pour the mixture into two baking dishes, distributed evenly, and bake for 40 minutes, stirring halfway through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Stir in the raisins. Transfer granola to an airtight container. This will keep for several weeks if well-sealed!

Now go get cooking!!

Best Week Ever?!

What a week it has been so far...and it's not even over!! Just for a quick recap: I passed all of my pre-internship exams this week, Obama was inaugurated, and season 5 of LOST premiered tonight! For three hours! I can only pay tribute to all the awesome events with yummy vegan food...

First, the end of Bush and the beginning of Obama! I am so excited!!!! I used the toppers from the Bake and Destroy blog, like the ones I used for election night cupcakes, to commemorate our lunchtime sandwiches (Obamawich?) as the inauguration was occurring. Yeah, I am pretty cheesy like that...but don't they look cute!
I also got to utilize some of the Tex Mex food Steven brought me from his Texas trip last month! Yay! I made a Pinto Bean Mole, with the jarred mole sauce he bought, onions, garlic, corn, bell peppers, local zucchini, green beans, pinto beans, tomatillos, Mexican chili powder, and lime juice. It was soooo good! I have never had mole from a jar before, so this was a cool thing to try. It got thicker than I expected, mostly because of the peanuts and cocoa, but it was still tasty. I prefer the homemade stuff, but it's hard to argue with a souvenir and a time-saver! I served it up with some homemade guacamole from the avocados, cumin-lime millet, and fresh lime wedges! I only wish I had some rice milk horchata to wash it all down!

Another plus this week was that I perfected my Creamy Creole Sauce! I am excited about this, because I really like this creamy texture and spicy flavor with dishes like the Cornmeal Crusted Tofu from Veganomicon, with my faux "crab" cakes, and even on sandwiches and veggies. I will give you the recipe, as I am feeling generous! :)

Creamy Creole Sauce (makes about 2 cups)

1 cup spicy brown or dijon mustard

1/2 cup vegan mayo

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp maple syrup or agave nectar

1 Tbs Louisiana-style hot sauce, like Frank's

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 pinch cayenne pepper, to taste

In a small bowl, whisk all the ingredients together until well combined. Pour into a sealable container and refrigerate until ready to use. Will keep for about 1 week in the fridge, but it won't stay un-eaten that long!

Now for the sweet stuff: LOST Cupcakes!! I, again, got some cutie patootie cupcake toppers from Natalie's Bake and Destroy Blog. I love these things! It really makes cupcakes taste better, if that is possible. We got a huge bag of crystallized ginger this week at the store, so I decided to make the Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemony Frosting from VCTOTW!! I hadn't made these before and I am not sure why! They are so moist from all the molasses and so flavorful and delicious! I love the little accent of a crystallized ginger piece!

Oh, and how awesome was LOST??? I will just nerd out for a second and tell how flippin pumped I am for the fifth season!! Is anyone with me on this? Maybe I am just excited for having more LOST-watching parties so I can bake and be with good friends. Maybe.

Here's all twelve different toppers, happy and together pre-premiere: