San Diego Throwback

People, like our mothers, says "breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" Which seems pretty hypocritical when you watch her choke down a few cups of coffee and a handful of dry granola. But most people find out quickly that in the real world that breakfast is often a luxury and sleep takes precedent. We disagree with this notion, life is too short to not enjoy every opportunity for an experience. Breakfast should be an experience. Why not?

Every year we join Christian's parents for a weekend as they vacation in San Diego for a few weeks on the beach. Ocean Beach always seems to be the favorite destination for our accommodations. Perhaps its the soft ocean breeze and the nightly bustle in downtown. But maybe, just maybe, its about breakfast. In Ocean Beach everyone is selling the same thing: Acai bowls. So its all about trying them all and finding the one that speaks to you the most. From uber healthy bowls with chia, flax, and piles of fresh fruit to bowls covered in chocolate chips and other forms of sugar and everything in between. Ocean Beach has it all. Our go to is always the Tiki Port. Despite their lack of seating and often slow service, their acai bowls are unmatched in our minds.

But inevitabily the vacation ends, and with it our steady supply of acai bowls topped with delicious granola and fresh berries. So naturally when we came across acai in the frozen section at Costco we couldn't stop ourselves from imagining what it would be like to recreate these beauties at home. So this post is for Christian's mom... vacation all year long.

Acai Bowls with Banana Nut Granola

Since yogurt with store-bought granola was a staple breakfast for us, we decided to start here by working on creating a granola that was hand-crafted for optimal flavor and pairing with both breakfast options. Banana Nut was the obvious choice since its our #1 quick bread favorite.

Started out by just playing around a little and trying to recall some internal notes on our previous granola adventures from college. For starters, you need oats... lots and lots of oats. We start out by combining oats, walnuts (that have been chopped to about pea size pieces in our food processor), cinnamon, salt, a little flax seed (texture and we suppose it helps the nutritional value...), as well as some FRESHLY GRATED nutmeg. Note*: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS grate your own nutmeg fresh; if you don't, you'll never know the great smell and flavor that come with it. Just trust us. Just do it.

Once you got that all together, heat some coconut oil, honey  (or agave if thats your jam), and some vanilla til its warmed up and mixed well. Vanilla is another thing thats worth doing high quality. Why eat imitation when the real thing is within reach. We have an amazing bottle from our recent trip to Cozumel. Once thats heated through, add a mashed banana and mix til combined.

Then it's as easy as combining the wet and the dry oil thoroughly mixed and everything is nice and hydrated. Then spread it out and bake until nicely browned. How much you bake it or mix it during the baking is up to you. if you like it chunky then don't mix it. We, however, mix it like crazy to make a nice fine granola, but thats personal preference. but you should let it cool and store in airtight container to optimize shelf-life.

We either pair this granola with yogurt and berries or we top an acai bowl with it. As for acai bowls, we use our much loved Vitamix blender to mix up some frozen acai puree, fresh banana and gala apples, as well as some frozen berries. Then we can top the acai cocktail with everything from coconut flake, to chocolate chips, and the granola in this recipe!

Banana Nut Granola

Dry Ingredients

• 3 C quick oats
• 2 C chopped walnuts
• 3 tbsp flax seed
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
• pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients

• Heavy 1/3 C Honey or Agave
• 1/4 C Coconut Oil
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 ripe banana, mashed

Combine dry ingredients and mix. Heat all wet ingredients, except banana, til warm and combined. Add banana and whisk to combine. Fold wet ingredients into dry until thoroughly combined. Bake @ 350 degrees for 20-30 min mixing granola occasionally. Cool completely and store in airtight container.

Acai Mix

• 1/2 C Juice (cran-rasp is a fan favorite)
• 1 Banana, peeled and broken up
• 1 Apple, cored and quartered (Gala or Pink Lady is good and economical choice)
• 2 C Acai Puree
• 1 1/2 C Frozen Berry Medley

Combine ingredients in Vitamix blender in order written. Blend, increasing from variable 1 to 10 slowly, for 1-2min depending on consistency desired using the tamper to push ingredients into blade to ensure even blending. Serve immediately.