Sugar-free granola and going organic.

For quite some time now I have been erring towards organic products where it has been convenient and easy to do. But since last week, while being caught up in all the Monsanto protests, we have decided to go as organic as it is possible for us be. We get our weekly veggie box from Ethical Co-op and add selected products from their website to bulk up our order. 

I get a lot of my organic grains, nuts, dried fruits and seeds from Komati Foods which is just round the corner from me. They have an online shop too but the selection is much bigger in store. It really is worth popping in every month or two to stock up, even if you don't live in the area. The prices and selection are good. 

Some of the larger Woolies stores have a fabulous organic selection of fresh and dried goods. I buy their organic dairy products and eggs and they have a nice selection of organic dry, tinned and bottled pantry items. I love their organic veggies as they are so picture perfect and beautifully packaged but I need to keep and eye on budget too. So I mostly stick to my Ethical co-op veggie boxes. 

In the picture above was the organic breakfast I made myself yesterday. I had some lovely yogurt and banana's but no granola to give it sweetness and crunch. But I did have most of the basic ingredients in my pantry. So this is what happened. 

Organic sugar-free wheat-free granola

2 cups of organic whole rolled spelt (rolled oats would be great too)
1 tsp of vanilla essence
a few drops of almond essence
a pinch of salt
2 Tbsp of xylitol stevia blend (I mix about 1 - 2% of stevia powder to my xylitol)
1/4 cup of flaked almonds
1/2 a cup of organic flaked coconut
1 tbsp of organic cold pressed coconut oil
6 dates chopped into little pieces

In a large non stick pan on medium heat dry toast the spelt for a few minutes until hot. Add the vanilla, almond essence, salt and xylitol to it while tossing and toasting continually. Add the almonds, coconut and coconut oil and combine. While allowing this to slowly toast and crisp up, I chopped up some organic dates into very small pieces. Once the granola was toasted and crisp I allowed it to cool a little before adding the dates and tossing them around with my finger tips breaking them up into bits until the spelt and coconut coated the dates and stopped them from sticking to each other. 

This I sprinkled onto my yogurt and banana and felt very virtuous while eating it.