I like granola. A lot. When done right, it is crunchy, chewy, and a little sweet. Plus, it adds a hefty amount of flavor and fiber to my morning yogurt. I like creating granola recipes because they allow me to bring many of my favorite snack-y, breakfast-y foods together. This one is no exception. Think grains meet golden milk meets tropical fruits and you’re on the right track. Eclectic mix, right?

Creating this recipe also gave me an opportunity to bring a few other things together as well… those ‘things’ included: my blogging buddies, Edie Eats and Girasole Creation; a new friend, James, from June Oven; and a new product I discovered at the Fancy Food Show this past January,*Pranayums. Another eclectic mix!

Here are some details on how all of this came together and resulted in a tasty granola…

(L to R) Edie Eats, me & Girasole Creation

First, I believe you’ve met my fellow food bloggers in an earlier post but, as a refresher, they are the women I meet with weekly (for the most part) to write and talk about food (again, for the most part).  Well, that and to mug on Girasole’s adorable baby girl, Eloisa (who, by the way, sort of already has her own food blog @babyellieeats on Instagram. Follow the cuteness.). Sometimes we go on field trips together like, as seen here, when we went to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. You can read about some of our (mis)adventure here.

Next, there’s James from June Oven… He came into the mix when he reached out to me to discuss how June was looking to partner with Bay Area chefs and cooking instructors in an effort to introduce their new high-tech oven to a broader audience. You can find out more about them at the links provided above but I kind of like how c|net summed it up in the opening sentence of their review: “Imagine that a phone and a toaster oven got a little frisky and had a baby. The result would be the June Intelligent Oven, a countertop appliance that looks like a microwave, cooks like an oven and thinks like a computer.” Naturally, I said “Yes!” Because I’m a cooking instructor and a food blogger. In Silicon Valley. How could I say no? I invited the blog crew to meet James and the little June and so it was that we all found ourselves in my kitchen on a Wednesday morning.

WHAT? There’s a camera inside that allows you to monitor your meal remotely!

James showed us a few of the many features of the June and then we put it through its paces with a couple of different chicken recipes. And, because I had this recipe in my brain, we baked a batch of Golden Spiced Granola. More on the June’s performance and the granola (including a recipe, of course) below.

And now for the last member of the mix: Pranayums. If you’ve been with me for a while, you know that I love me some turmeric. It colors all (and I do mean ALL) it touches with golden brightness and, as you have no doubt heard, it has amazing anti-inflammatory properties. I work it into some of my recipes 0n this blog (this one is an all-time fave and let’s not forget Fire Cider) and the menu plans for nearly every one of my therapeutic chef clients.

But not all of these clients are excited about the prospect of staining their fingernails and kitchen counters with fresh grated turmeric. Nor are some particularly enthusiastic about buying a bunch of spices to make spice blends. And so I became pretty enthusiastic when I met someone who had not only concocted a delicious and healing turmeric blend, she had packaged it in neat, single-use packets that could be taken along for use anywhere: Pranayums.

When I met the creator, Sabena, I loved hearing their origin story (which you can read here) but the quick description of their product is what really drew me in:

Our Pranayums Super Spices: turmeric, ginger, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and licorice root will rock your world.

• Support excellent health
• Support your immune system and digestive health
• Comfort for your cold and allergy symptoms
• Promote overall wellbeing and may offer immune function support
• Naturally sweeten and offer a nutritional boost to your foods

I love that this blend incorporates black pepper because pepper enables the turmeric to be much more readily absorbed by the body (by up to 2000%!). Click the orange linked text above to get a brief explanation of each of the blend’s healing ingredients.

They have several recipes on their site for using the spice packet in smoothies and teas but since I’m not a huge smoothie fan, I kept thinking about how I could work these spices into something crunchy. Thus, granola! The Super Spice Packs were the ideal combo with granola. They gave it a subtle sweetness and spiciness that, as Girasole Creation noted, “was complex, delicious, and hard to pick out any one particular spice.” Keep reading and scrolling to learn more about the very delicious end product of our efforts…

NOTES: The rule when baking granola: keep a close eye on it as it browns. Oven temperatures and cooking times vary widely! Nuts and grains are delicate things and can go from golden brown to hot black mess in the blink of an eye. I will tell you that I kind of loved the June for this project for the following reasons:

1.  it has a large window that allows you to easily see how the browning is progressing without opening the oven door
2. the convection fans and the heating elements browned the granola evenly in a way that my Viking, with its hot spots and temperature fluctuations cannot.
3. their baking sheet appears to have a hollow core that allows for more even browning
4. it baked more quickly than it would have in my cavernous Viking
5. um, take a look at the results below

I did not have an opportunity to use the June enough to write a full review but hope to be able to do so in the not-too-distant future (hint, hint, James!).

Take a look at that golden deliciousness!

Bake up a batch and then drop me a line to let me know what you think!

* This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase using these links. While these commissions help support the work I do, I only recommend products I have tried myself and truly believe have value for my followers. Thank you for your support!