White Chocolate Cherry Granola

(Inspired by this Barefoot Contessa recipe)

 Ingredients:

4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut
2 cups sliced almonds
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup good honey
1 t vanilla
2 t ground cinnamon
a dash nutmeg
1&1/2 cups dried cherries, chopped
1/2 cup cherry flavored craisins
11 oz white chocolate chips



Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Toss the oats, coconut and almonds together in a large bowl.

Add in cinnamon and a dash nutmeg. Stir to combine.

Combine the vegetable oil , honey and vanilla in a separate bowl. Pour over oat mixture. Stir until the oats and nuts are coated with the honey mixture.

Pour onto a large sheetpan (*or 2 smaller sheet pans) and bake in a 300 degree oven for 25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Coconut should be toasted and almonds lightly caramelized on the outside.

Remove from oven and allow granola to cool. When cool, add in chopped cherries, craisins and white chips. Mix to combine.

Texas Caviar

This is an easy peasy salsa/dip to serve with some blue corn tortilla chips or alongside some chicken or fish. I adapted this recipe from Mckmama, originally found here. The sweetness complements the salty chips so well, though. In as much time as it takes to open a few cans and rinse, you can get this ready in the morning, refrigerate overnight or during the day, drain the salsa and serve.

Ingredients:

1 can black beans (drained/rinsed)

1 can garbanzo beans (drained/rinsed)

2 cans corn (drained/rinsed)

1 small carton of cherry or grape tomatoes (halved)

1 small white or yellow onion (diced)

1 bunch cilantro (shredded or finely chopped)

1/3 bottle of Italian dressing

lime juice (1-2 limes' worth)

sugar to taste (I start with 2 T and add more if needed)

salt to taste (I start with 2 T, but remember the salt from the chips)

Directions:

Drain canned ingredients and rinse well (especially the beans). Combine all ingredients, unless you're worried about the tomatoes or cilantro going bad, in which case you can add those right before serving, but I love the cilantro infusion as it marinates and have never gotten sick since it's refrigerated. Mix well and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 6-8 hours, though I'm sure it would still taste great if you did at least one hour. Excess liquids will accumulate during the marinating process, so drain before serving.

I would recommend serving with Tostidos corn chips or blue corn chips. Mckmama also adds kidney beans and avocado to her recipe, but I don't like either. If you do work with avocado, add it at the end or squirt it with a little lime juice to keep it from browning. Enjoy this easy hit!