Tag Archives: Trader Joe’s

Homemade Granola

The inspiration behind making my own homemade granola: spotting a $1.99 bag of coconut flakes in Trader Joe’s this weekend. First of all, do you know how delicious coconut flakes are all on their own? The second these were spotted, my friend Stevie told me how they would be perfect in granola. What a brilliant friend I have!
So I bought a bag and was told that Sunny Anderson’s granola was a fantastic recipe to go off of. But, if I’m going to make some homemade granola, I’m going to make it with the ingredients I love most. Inspired by Sunny’s recipe, I took the base of her granola and molded into my own personal Happy Trails granola combo.

homemade granola recipe

Here’s how I made it:

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
  2. On the stove, heat up 1/4 cup vegetable oil + 1/2 cup maple syrup (the good stuff, folks. no Aunt Jemima crap) + 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Whisk these 3 ingredients together just until they start to bubble. Remove from stove and let cool
  3. In a mixing bowl, stir together 3 cups rolled oats + 1/4 dark brown sugar + a pinch or two of salt +1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  4. Once cooled, pour the vegetable oil/maple syrup/cinnamon combo over top of the mixing bowl ingredients. Be sure to mix these well.
  5. In a small bowl whisk together 2 egg whites and pour over top of the other ingredients. Mix all ingredients well.
  6. Spread the granola out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper
  7. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and flip the oats. Repeat this 4 times. This will take a total of 40 minutes.
  8. Remove granola from the oven and let the ingredients cool.
  9. Once cooled, add 1/2 cup of dried cranberries + 1/4 cup coconut flakes to the mixture.

If you want more flavor — here are a few other fabulous ingredient ideas: dried banana chips, dried mango (for a summer-time granola), slivered almonds instead of walnuts, sunflower seeds, pistachios, and honey. And if you have a massive sweet tooth — throw in some chocolate chunks!

This granola on top of just regular plain yogurt is to-die-for! But of course it tastes fabulous on raspberry yogurt too!

Festive Holiday Inspiration

You can’t really miss holiday inspiration “this time of year” — it’s every where! And I love it, it’s exactly what we need. And, when I say “we” I mean — “we, people, that live in cold locations”. Holiday cheer excites almost everyone and it’s that perfect joy I need — it lifts my spirits in the dead of winter.

So, I thought I’d share with you some of my holiday inspiration that has kept me excited for Christmas and Hanukkah this year — remember, folks, Hanukkah starts this Saturday!

home alone soundtrack

I heavily rely on my Pandora radio, it’s free and it seems to play the music I like (most of the time). But it’s always right on the money with my favorite holiday songs. This past weekend some Home Alone music popped up on my Pandora Christmas station and it inspired me to watch the movie. I was flooded with nostalgia as I watched Kevin set up the house to scare off “the bad guys” — I watched this movie ever year growing up, it’s such a classic!

holiday glitter tree

Check out this adorable mini Holiday Glitter Trees I came across at Trader Joes! How darling and festive! They are real trees and need to be watered, hopefully mine won’t fall over from thirst! A bigger hope I have is that I won’t continue to find the glitter around the house far after the holidays are over.

holiday food network magazine

The one thing I rely on every year is my Food Network Magazine — this never lets me down on great inspirational recipes to make for the holidays. One recipe I am obsessed over this winter season is the Oatmeal Lace Cookie recipe I can’t seem to stop making. Seriously, I can’t stop making it; I have made this recipe 4 times since my December issue arrived in the mail and I think I may have gained a couple cookie pounds.

Something cute I thought I’d share is this really fun pin I came across on Pinterest. Last year I had a very New York City festive seasonal/holiday card and when I saw this pin I thought how perfect it would be to turn into greeting cards.

christmas color palette

Be sure to follow me on Instagram for some of my personal Holiday photos! And of course, be sure to follow on Pinterest too, I can’t help go a little crazy over all of the seasonal ideas — from baking to decor, I love (and pin) it all! Above is a color palette I adore, Design Seeds has some fantastic ideas for color palettes — I promise, you’ll be inspired!

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Recipe: Homemade Whipped Cream

It’s almost that time of year where strawberries will be back in season! I’m already finding beautiful strawberries for an inexpensive price at Trader Joe’s!

I’ll typically eat strawberries by itself, but yesterday I wanted to spice it up a bit and add some whipped cream. When a friend told me how easy it is to make whipped cream from scratch I figured I’d give it a shot rather than buy it at the store.

This recipe for whipped cream is so easy — even someone who may consider themselves a horrible cook can pull this one off!

how to make whipped cream from scratch

So here’s the scoop:

1. Put 1 cup heavy cream, 3 tablespoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract into an electric mixer.
2. Whip ingredients together on medium speed until you can form soft peaks (meaning the peaks are able to bend over at the top when you remove the whisk from the electric mixer).
3. Scoop into a bowl, and serve with strawberries (or any other dessert you’d like to pair it with).

It’s seriously that easy! It’s Whipped Cream 1-2-3! My favorite part (besides that it’s so easy to make) is that the flavor is a 100 times better than the fake stuff at the store! The flavors are real, the texture is soft, fluffy, and of course creamy at the same time!

Trader Joe’s “Dunkers” Cookies

Have you ever heard how big chain stores will put products you don’t really need on a shelf at the end of the aisle?? They do that because they know they will sell more items. That’s where customers are sucked into buying things that they probably don’t need. Well, I have to thank Trader Joe’s for doing this because if they hadn’t applied this method in their store then I probably would have never discovered the most delicious cookies! While making my weekly run to the store I eyed down cookies called “Dunkers.” They are “oatmeal cranberry cookies with a white fudge drizzle.” How delicious does that sound? I grabbed a tub of the cookies along with other groceries and headed to the checkout line. As soon as I got home, I opened the container of cookies and dug in! I wanted to taste them before I offered them to my friend Ken during our ‘Modern Family dinner night.’ I took one bite and spooked Hudson when I yelped “YUMMMMM!” I am close to finishing the tub of cookies and it has only been a few days. I hope everyone who has a Trader Joe’s finds these cookies and gives them a shot. I promise you, you’ll be surprised and will fall in love with these treats!

Who Loves Whole Foods?

My cat, Hudson, climbed into this Whole Foods shopping bag to take a nap!

I love Whole Foods, but to be honest it’s not the only place I go shopping for my groceries. In addition to Whole Foods, I go to Trader Joe’s and the Chelsea Market — I know, it seems crazy that I go to multiple places to get all of the groceries that I need, but I have discovered where to find the good deals and where to find the best products. Trader Joe’s is where I get all of my basics, Whole Foods for specialty fruits or veggies as well as meat for a special holiday, and the Chelsea Market if full of amazing things like local and imported cheeses, fruits and veggies, nutella (yup, nutella is a food group in case you didn’t know), desserts, seafood, and much much more! I do love Whole Foods, but it looks like I’m not the only one who likes the store … My cat, Hudson, loves to crawl into shopping bags — this bag he ended up taking a nap in!