38 Power Foods -- Week 32 -- Flax Seed -- Flax Seed Granola with Dark Chocolate

EAT ALL YOU WANT OF MY GRANOLA...

well......maybe not ALL:

Granola has a bad rep.  I have relatives who, when they want to make a derisive remark, say something like, "Those granola eaters  are tree-huggin' their way to ____. (Fill in the blank.) Others say, "Granola is just a crumbled up reason to call an oatmeal cookie breakfast."  (That might have been Melissa Clark, but I'm not sure.)  And, definitely, granola has the reputation of being full of fat and terribly caloric, despite its delicious character.

DANGER, DANGER, DANGER!!!!   TOO FATTENING!!!!

38 Power Foods, Week 29 -- Pecans -- Light Winter Vegetable Gratin with Savory Granola

Each Friday, a wonderful group of women reaches across cyberspace and joins culinary hands to salute one very healthy food, one single beautiful ingredient from Power Foods : 150 Delicious Recipes with the 38 Healthiest Ingredients.  (Scroll down for the list of blogs.)
 

I won't say it's not a challenge to come up to that gorgeous plate each week.  If I'm busy learning music for church or have my daughter home, or am busy with the soup book, I sometimes can't give the opportunity the intelligent focus and attention it deserves.  I used one great recipe for more than one blog recently....life can get ahead of me sometimes.  Hopefully I'm forgiven!

Trading Granola for Eggs - My Urban Barter Tale

I was on the road a couple of weeks ago and checking my computer when my I-Spy Radar saw an email with a subject line that had something to do with too many fresh eggs and trading cookies for them.  I try and stay off email a lot when I'm away seeing my kids or on vacation, but I couldn't NOT look at this one.  Backyard eggs just hook me right in.  And, of course, cookies fall right out of my oven.

My siblings and I grew up with fresh eggs; my dad either traded produce for them or shelled out a little cash to his Swedish farmer friend Munson.  When our  parents retired and took it (ha!) easy on a little "hobby" farm,  they had their own chickens and, hence, their own eggs, to say nothing of a garden that produced tomatoes the likes of which I've never again tasted.  When Dave and I visited as newlyweds, we had fresh eggs (fried in bacon or sausage grease) every morning early.  Why would you want anything else?  And why not at 6am?  There, of course, were also biscuits.  With sour cream and honey or molasses.  Unending pots of coffee.