Grain-Free Granola Recipe

A favorite breakfast of mine, growing up, was cereal and milk.  Through my stomach healing journey, I gave up all of my favorite cereals and granolas.  I tried granola recipes made with nuts and coconut flakes.  My body didn’t tolerate them very well.

I decided I can’t tolerate honey or maple syrup.  I can tolerate date syrup.  I created a granola recipe using date syrup instead of honey and maple syrup.

My favorite date syrup is Date Lady date syrup.

The kitchen smells so good, when the granola is cooling, my family has been known to eat it from the baking sheet.  You will want to bag this up as soon as you can.

Grain-Free Granola Recipe

  • 3 cups coconut chips
  • 2 cups nuts (walnuts, macadamias, pine nuts, cashews, pecans)
  • ¼ cup coconut oil
  • 3/8 cup date syrup (Date Lady Date Syrup)
  • 1 ½ t vanilla
  • 1 ½ t cinnamon
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  2. In a large mixing bowl add the coconut chips and nuts 
  3. Place parchment paper on large baking sheet
  4. Stir together until mixed
  5. In a small saucepan, over low medium heat, melt the coconut oil.
  6. Stir in the date syrup.
  7. Continue stirring until it boils.
  8. Stir in the vanilla and cinnamon.
  9. Pour over the coconut and nuts mixture.
  10. Stir until the nut mixture is coated with caramel mixture.
  11. Pour the mixture on to the baking sheet.
  12. Press it down into one layer on the baking sheet.
  13. Put in a preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Stir halfway through.
  14. Take out of the oven and stir again.  Let the granola cool.
  15. Use a spatula to break the granola into bite size parts.  
  16. Put the granola in a large baggie.
  17. Keep in the refrigerator.

Grain Free Summer Vacation Food Plan

Going on vacation for my family has always meant eating at restaurants.  Usually we made unhealthy food and drink choices. Camping for my family has meant “traditional family camping food” again usually unhealthy food and drink choices.  Both vacation and camping eating usually result in low energy, bad digestion, leading to more unhealthy food choices. Also eating fast food and at restaurants is expensive.

After a year of practicing Whole 30 and feeling great, I decided this vacation we would take our camper and stock it with healthy choices.  I would know that all of the food I ate would make me feel great. My family knew we had good tasting food in the camper, so they wouldn’t be tempted to eat fast food or other unhealthy choices.

The trip was for 6 days.  I selected 5 salads. Our vacation was planned for the end of June.  The weather was 80 to 90 degrees. I didn’t want to do much cooking inside the camper for our dinners due to the heat.  All 5 salads included meat protein. We were going on a physically demanding vacation with hiking and stand up paddle boarding adventures and needed to have lots of energy.

I selected these salads for their ease and their great taste.

BLT Salad. Meals Made Simple pg 104

Asian Sesame Chicken Salad  Whole 30 Cookbook https://www.whole-sisters.com/asian-sesame-chicken-salad/

Warm Taco Salad with Creamy Avocado-Cilantro Vinaigrette Meals Made Simple pg 102

Beef and Broccoli Slaw Lettuce Wraps Whole 30 Cookbook pg 48

Six Ingredient Chicken Salad Whole 30 Fast & Easy pg 22

I completed a shopping and preparation list for the trip which is available if you contact me by email.

I cooked the meat portion of the salads during the 2 weeks before we left.  I made double recipes of the meals we ate during those 2 weeks. I froze the meat in ziplock bags for our trip.  I purchased the vegetables for the first 2 dinners because the camping fridge isn’t very big. We shopped at the local grocery store to purchase ice, lunch meat, and the next 2 days vegetables for dinners.

For breakfast, lunch and snacks, I followed the Whole 30 travel guide, https://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-travel.pdf.  Our cooler included boiled eggs, canned tuna fish, cooked bacon, canned olives, whole 30 compliant condiments, dressings and fresh produce.   I kept a copy of the Whole 30 seasonal fresh produce guide https://whole30.com/downloads/seasonal-produce.pdf in my purse for my shopping trips to keep my costs down.

I felt great the entire trip.  My energy was great. I was up at sunrise every morning.  My family enjoyed the flavorful meals. They also enjoyed the stocked fridge whenever they were hungry.

My family’s favorite part of vacationing with the camper was lunch time.  We would stop to fill up with gas. Move to the side of the truck stop to make our lunches in the camper.  Everything they wanted or needed was right there. They had a great lunch and we all felt great after eating it.  Lunch time was fast, fun and cheap.

Camping Whole 30

The Italian Beef Soup recipe from Whole 30 Fast & Easy cookbook is a great recipe to make camping. 

I purchased a yellow zucchini and heirloom tomatoes at the farmers’ market.  I can’t tolerate the sweet peppers so I doubled the zucchini for the recipe.

For prep work, I browned the beef burger in my kitchen and froze it in a large baggy prior to leaving on the trip.  

The ingredients were easy to store in the camper.  I put the beef pouch in the freezer, chicken broth and herbs in the pantry, and I placed the whole fresh vegetables in the refrigerator.  

The soup is assembled pretty quickly.  Cut up the vegetables, thaw the burger, put in the soup pan with broth and cook.  Clean-up is quick because the beef was pre-cooked.

The soup is very flavorful and very satisfying.  Leftovers can be warmed up for lunch. A very easy recipe for camping.

Italian Beef Soup
Whole 30 Fast & Easy Cookbook