Coconut Oil Honey Almond Granola

I'm a big granola eater if you didn't already know. I eat it with yogurt, on top of my smoothies, with my oatmeal and by the handful. Sister Kathleen got the whole family hooked on homemade granola. I couldn't tell you the last time I had or bought store-bought granola. She made the yummiest sweet potato granola for a travel treat last weekend that it's times like this I wish she still had her blog so she could post the recipe, maybe a guest post is in order!

I had already finished off my batch at home and was in need of some more to get me through the week. I compiled a few recipes to create this honey almond granola made with coconut oil. It's super crunchy and not too sweet, just perfect if you ask me. 

Coconut Oil Honey Almond Granola
makes 3 cups

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup honey
3 Tbsp. coconut oil (sub 2 Tbsp. olive oil if don't have coconut)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl combine oats, almonds, coconut, salt and cinnamon. In a small microwave safe bowl, melt the honey and coconut oil for 40 seconds. Stir the extracts into the melted coconut oil mixture. (If using olive oil still melt the honey to make it easier to mix in). 

Pour the honey mixture over the oats until it is all coated evenly. Spread out on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake in two-20 minute increments, stirring halfway through for a total of 40 minutes. 

Before eating at Jack's Wife Freda in New York I scoured their Instagram and Yelp page to help decide what I wanted to order (I do this with every new restaurant I eat at). Their food is so colorful and pretty it didn't really help narrow it down. I wanted something a little more hearty, but my eyes were struck by their pretty bowl of yogurt with grapefruit and granola. I passed it as my order but made note to recreate at home! I'm on a huge grapefruit kick right now. Bright citrus mixed with creamy yogurt and my crunchy honey almond granola makes for the perfect start to your a.m. 

Annie

Serial in my Cereal

Disclaimer: this post has nothing to do with cereal I just thought it was funny. I was always a fan of homophones in grade school.

image via P.S. Remember This

I've been sucked into the Serial sect, serial for real-ial. It has been on my to do list to listen to the podcast for a while now, and with a three hour flight in front of me, it seemed like ample time to start. Oh and if you don't know what I'm talking about, come out from under your rock and Google Serial, it's taking over. Created by The American Life, reporter Sarah Koenig goes week by week investigating the murder of Baltimore high school student Hae Min Lee. Was it Adnan, was it Jay, was it the man in Leakin Park? Who knows who did it or what really happened, but the podcast has me on a roller coaster I can't get off. 

I ask myself why Serial has gotten so popular and I really have no idea. Yes it's a thrilling mystery on who really killed Hae, but I'm still puzzled on why this 15 year old crime is resurfacing now and catching people's attention nation wide. I guess that's beside the point because I'm totally one to give in to what's popular at the moment so I too am now a serious Serial listener. I'm only on episode 8 though so don't give anything away!

The Everygirl wrote an article called "Life after Serial," a hilarious list of 9 ups and downs you may face once you get sucked in to the podcast. StyleCaster also has a list of 20 similar podcasts to kill the time until season 2 comes out. Listen to Serial here or download the episodes from the podcast app on your phone or iPad. Both ways are free.

Annie

Sisters and the City

My sisters and I grew up watching Father of the Bride and can probably agree it's our favorite movie. We always pictured our dad as George Banks and us as his little girls. When it came to one of us getting married I never really pictured it happening. It's one of those things you know eventually will but just can't picture it. Well the time has come. Kathleen got swept up and she's the first one to walk down the aisle. This whole Maid of Honor thing is new to Claire and I, but when Kat said she didn't want a conventional bachelorette party, we easily supported that. A trip up to New York (Claire's home) was the substitute bach party! 

Claire and I are six years apart, so until recently, we haven't really been on a similar page of life. Now that we are all technically "grown up" we could have fun grown up sister time! Nothing crazy here people, but having a drink at dinner changes things. We spent the weekend shopping, getting manicures and eating, typical Tucker sister things but double the fun when you're in New York. 

Our fancy dinner at ABC Kitchen may have been our favorite meal of the weekend. We went all out on crab toast, kombucha squash toast, roasted butternut squash with hazelnuts and goat cheese and the roasted carrot and avocado salad for apps. That was just the beginning. A variety of fish dishes and an amazing brussels sprout pizza with jalepenos and garlic for our mains then somehow stuffed in their famous salted caramel and popcorn sundae.  

Kathleen and I may be little Barre3 ballerinas, but Claire is an intense Soul Cycler. We all signed up for a class Monday morning before coming home and holy cow. Fifteen minutes into the class I hated it. Cursing under my breath about to give up then all of a sudden I loved it. A black room with candles burning, an insane/awesome instruct and a great playlist really gets you in the groove. I was a nasty sweaty mess afterward, but I'm already having withdrawals. 

Okay enough of the workout, back to the food. Hello beautiful brunch. Saturday at Prune and Sunday at Jack's Wife Freda. I couldn't pick a favorite. They are both equally tiny and have amazing menus. Kathleen and I both mentioned how there are few places at home we would wait an hour for brunch, but since the spaces are all so tiny in New York and the food knocks it out of the park I didn't mind at all. 

So at Prune we started with banana bread after having order envy with the table next to us. Then we got the huevos rancheros, pear dutch pancake (so dang fluffy) and the spicy stewed chickpeas with crispy battered egg. Unusual but spectacular. 

At Jack's Wife Freda I went in knowing I would get the avocado toast. I'm on a huge avo toast kick right now, but with their sweet cherry tomato jam on top it really kicked it up. Claire got the green shakshuka and the mediterranean breakfast for Kathleen. All a win. 

Lox and bagles and of course some soft serve from Milk Bar also made the food list. It was cold and rainy, but we didn't let much rain on our sister bachelorette weekend. Who knows if and when we will be able to do something like this again so I'm really cherishing it. Maybe when the next sister gets married...

Annie

Bites of My Life

First week back to school is down and a very successful sister weekend in New York is now over. A busy few days getting adjusted to my new schedule, internship and classes was followed up by bachelorette fun! More on my weekend to come. 

-A pile of fried eggs and green things while plopped in front of the TV for the Golden Globes last week. Sunday dinners are always a favorite of mine.

-Sifting through my cookbooks to kick off one of my New Years Resolutions. 

-Phamen. 

-Cherishing time with this pup!

-#KatsBrooklynBach weekend finally arrived! My sisters and I had a whole weekend in NY for just the three of us to celebrate our soon to be bride of a sister. 

-First stop in New York was for lox and bagels.

-Custom tattoos in case anyone forgot what we were celebrating. 

-Cheers to the bachelorette!

-New York brunch you never disappoint. Sunday morning at Prune.

-A stop at Milk Bar of course. Went for salted pistachio caramel soft serve with crunch. Everyone ooh and ahh with me now. 

-Us Tucker's eat a lot so a butt kicking workout at Soul Cycle was just what we needed and actually amazing. 

-Last meal at Jack's Wife Freda. Home of amazing avocado toast and adorable sugar packets. 

Annie 

When You and Your Sister Get Each Other the Same Thing for Christmas...

Okay so funny story. My oldest sis Claire and her boyfriend are asian food connoisseurs like myself. They recently took a two week trip to Japan where they had some of the most amazing authentic asian cuisine (jealous). I wanted to get them something unique and different for Christmas this year. I decided on getting some big ramen bowls and spoons, as well as little soy sauce bowls etc. I wanted to get them the works to recreate amazing asian food at home. So here's the funny part, without mentioning anything about my gift idea, Claire got me the EXACT same thing. I'm not kidding. And this isn't just some present you find on display at a department store, we both ventured into random asian markets to scour for this authentic gift. Pretty hilarious, but I guess great minds think alike. 

My big Chinese dragon bowls have been sitting around since Christmas waiting to be filled with a brothy asian noodle soup. Would it be miso ramen or seafood pho? Soba noodles or curry? I had been researching all different recipes, but ended up combining about five. This dish is sort of like ramen and pho had a baby. I call it phamen.

Asian Rice Noodles Ramen Pho Soup
yields one large bowl of soup, recipe mostly adapted from Love and Lemons

Ingredients: 
1 egg
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
5 oz. shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 green onions, white and green thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbsp. peeled and minced fresh ginger*
16 oz. (half a box) vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 (2.2 oz) package rice noodles
1 big handful of spinach or kale
drizzle of sesame oil (optional)

Garnishes:
red pepper flakes
sriracha
sliced green onions
sprouts
bean sprouts
chopped cilantro

Directions:
Fill a small sauce pan about halfway up with water, enough to cover your egg. Over high heat, boil just your water. Once boiling add your egg and reduce heat to low. Simmer your egg for 8 minutes to create the perfect runny ramen egg. 

While your egg is cooking, heat your vegetable oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Sauté mushrooms, green onions, garlic, and ginger. Season with salt and cook until mushrooms are tender, about 6-7 minutes.

Your egg should be finishing up by now. Take out of the hot water and run under cool water. Peel your egg and set aside. Place in a deep bowl or cup. Pour the soy sauce over your egg to let it marinate a little. Flip your egg every once in a while give it an even light brown color.

Add vegetable broth and water to the mushrooms and bring to a boil. Add noodles and reduce to a simmer. Add spinach and cook until just wilted. Once your soup has come together pour into a fairly large serving bowl. Flavor with soy sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil. Take your egg out of the soy sauce and cut in half. Garnish the phamen with your runny egg, chopped cilantro, red pepper flakes, sprouts, green onions, sriracha etc! Now you have a beautiful bowl of phamen!

*The easiest way I've found to peel and mince ginger is by cutting off the skin with a knife then using a microplane to mince it. This is also a great way to mince garlic!

I highly recommend the addition of a runny ramen egg. Here you can see mine marinating in it's soy bath. 

I have to give myself a pat on the back for this recipe because it was pretty outstanding. It makes a huge bowl, but I wouldn't share. I had leftovers, but I still kept it all for myself. If you want to be nice, the recipe easily doubles for sharing purposes.

Annie