coconutty in love

If you've followed my previous posts, you are not unfamiliar with the concept of a potluck, which is a go-to dinner plan for me and my friends (see fruit tacos and hummus for previous potluck ideas). It's an easy way for us all to gather and have plenty of food to eat and we've gotten good at having plenty of variety in what we make.

For Valentine's Day, my friends and I spent the night together and instead of a potluck for dinner, we had one for desserts. We all ordered in salads from Mixed Greens, and then dug in to the love-themed desserts we each made. I made strawberry lemonade cupcakes (see bottom right of the picture), but I will not be blogging that recipe. I wouldn't say it was exactly clean eating, but we can all make exceptions sometimes. My favorite dessert though was the cheesecake filled strawberries my friend Jess made. They were sweet but not overly filling or guilt-inducing, and perfect for a Valentine's Day treat!

Here are only some of the desserts!

Along with our dessert potluck, we had a "secret Valentine" swap. Using an online generator, each of us was assigned a friend to get a small Valentine for. Expecting to exchange small boxes of chocolate and little stuffed animals or mugs, we all just liked the elements of surprise and creativity that could go into the little gifts.

I was bracing myself to have to portion the chocolate I would receive over the next few weeks so as not to eat it all at once (which is always so tempting when you love chocolate as much as I do!), but my friend Zoe gave me such a thoughtful Valentine instead. She said that she knew I wouldn't want to have so much chocolate, and with her very creative and impressive culinary skills, she made me a whole canister of homemade granola! She put in prunes because she knows they're my favorite, toasted coconut because she said it taste great with my favorite Greek yogurt, and she gave me the recipe so that I could make myself another batch in the future!

The granola tasted amazing, and within the two weeks since Valentine's Day, my mom and I finished all of it, so today I made another batch. Forgetting that Zoe told me she cut her recipe in half for me, I made the whole thing, yielding enough granola to last us a while, regardless of how much we love it! So take the yield with caution, and you might want to cut the recipe in half!

The recipe is not limited to what I put into the granola, different dried fruits, seeds, and nuts are also suggestions to throw in there. When buying dried fruit, make sure to look for unsweetened and no-sugar-added fruit. Dried mangoes and prunes are two of the healthiest kinds of dried fruit out there, and dried banana usually has added sugar.

Here's what you'll need:
yields 8 cups granola (that's a lot!!!)
4 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups shredded coconut
2 cups sliced almonds
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup diced prunes
3/4 cup Craisins
3/4 cup diced dried mango
3/4 cup diced dried banana

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Toss the oats, coconut, and almonds together in a large bowl. Whisk together the oil and honey in a small bowl. Pour over the oat mixture and stir.

2. Pour onto two baking sheets, and bake for 25-35 minutes (depending on how crunchy you want the granola, but be careful not to burn it!)

3. While the oats are in the oven, dice up the dried fruit.

4. Remove the granola from the oven and allow to cool, stirring occasionally. Add the dried fruit.

5. Enjoy (some), and store the rest in tightly sealed container!