Granola has been a long time staple in our house. I always have our big, glass cookie jar filled with some baked granola clusters and dried fruit, or chocolate chips. My six year old daughter has acquired a new kindergarten boyfriend because he loves my chocolate chip granola so much. My husband brings it to work to share with his co workers since he is so impressed with it. I think “what’s going to happen to our granola?” was the first thing that came to my family’s mind when I said I was going to stop eating so much gluten.

I am not avoiding gluten for any autoimmune ailments. I am blessed to be free of food allergies, and the only foods that I can tell truly disrupt my system me are food coloring and processed vegetable oils, like canola or soybean oil. The reason I decided to stop eating gluten (at least on a regular basis) is that I noticed my mood is actually very disrupted by what I am eating through the day. In the last year I moved to a new country, and came across some truly life changing resources and a wealth of information about “diet culture”, and have managed to not be sucked into it. I have rebuilt my relationship with food, and resisted any restrictive diets. I ate my fair share of croissants and macaroons. The French baguette and Tunisian bread with harissa were introduced in every meal. I often made comments while out to brunch with the ladies that – I couldn’t believe I once lived a life without bread. There was no way I was going to give all of this up. I love my body, and I LOVE my bread.

Then – something changed, I noticed I didn’t feel well emotionally on the days I skipped any semblance of a real meal (unintentionally, of course) but then ate madelines and fruit that I provided as a snack in our weekly girl scout meetings. This happened several weeks in a row. I thought back to the time I felt best, and that was undeniably when I was gluten and dairy free. These days, it’s easy to do with a large market for substitutions, and of course, my new favorite (gluten free) granola!

AuthorstrawberrybuckleyCategorygluten freeDifficultyBeginner

I’ve been enjoying this granola for the last week every morning with some vanilla almond milk. I hope you will try it and enjoy it just as much! If you make it, please let me know 🙂