home sweet home granola

It feels great to be back! After two weeks traveling across Europe, it feels great to be finally home. I started to miss my good old home cooked meals and also breakfasts that did not involve weird tasting milk.. and most probably croissants and chocolatines. It was a great trip! Here's a little sneak peak of some of the many pictures I took. I might have went a little overboard with the pictures.. but the more the merrier! And I can't wait to see the girls' videos and pictures too!

At the top of Mt Rigi

Honestly, all of my pictures don't capture the beauty of the scenery... It's one of those things that you need to be there to really appreciate it. Anyhow, here's a picture of my favorite destination. Out of all the cities I've been to, Lucerne would have to be my favorite.. well that'd also include Mt Rigi where we were staying at. It is in the middle of nowhere and it did require us to take that train up the mountain, but it was nice and peaceful with the constant ringing of cow bells.. and the only downside being the smell of cow dung.

Lucerne, we had to take a ferry to get there

This is actually all related to my post! One of our breakfasts in Switzerland had granola, and it was soooo good. It sort of made me miss my oatmeal. So today, I attempted to make granola. It has been something that I always wanted to make, but never quite got around it.

Choco Granola

Ingredients
2 tbsp EVOO
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp peanut butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup chocolate chips

1. In a small saucepan, heat peanut butter, sugar, EVOO, water and maple syrup until all well combined.
2. In a separate bowl, mix rolled oats, cocoa, cinnamon and salt.
3. Incorporate mix ingredients to dry ones.
4. Pour mixture on an oiled cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 275F for 30 minutes.
6. Mix in dried cranberries and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
7. Once granola cooled off completely, add in chocolate chips.

Out of the oven... after it was cooled off!

Overall, I really like my granola.. but it's also pretty sweet, especially with my dried cranberries and chocolate chips. So, unless you like it really sweet, I'd cut down a little on the sugar!