Here’s something that shouldn’t come as a shock to you (not least because it’s one of my favorite talking points): Processed foods are generally a bad idea.  Even when you think they’re a good idea, they probably aren’t.  You’re better off skipping the heavily-processed cheese-filled crackers and the store-bought cookies, and you’ll also benefit from making your own pasta sauce and soups.

In an ideal world, maybe we’d have all have the time and energy needed to be make our own bread and paint the Mona Lisa.  Unfortunately, there’s a lot going on.  Sometimes, you really want chili, and you forgot to plan ahead and soak the beans, or you just don’t have the 20 minutes you need to pressure-cook them.  So…canned beans.  Should it be done?

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It’s the weekend, which means it’s probably a good time to cook up something delicious for the coming week. To help you in your endeavors toward deliciousness, I offer you the very first of an ongoing series of recipes. Here, to kick off the recipe portion of the Simple Spoonful, I present you with…Mighty Morning Granola!

Take a look–ain’t she purty?

Granola has become a staple here in our household. Either the Unicyclist or I cook up a batch on a biweekly basis, and it’s almost never the same. Granola is a very forgiving dish, not to mention a wonderful platform for experimentation. You want coconut? Toss it in! Hate cashews? Use peanuts! Want to find out what happens when you swap almond butter for some of the oil? Yee-ha! Want dried apples, raisins, and cardamom in this batch? Go for it! It is inevitably delicious.

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