HI. Sorry to yell at you. How are you? Good? Yay! Hungry? Yay!
Wait. Sorry. I’m not happy you’re hungry. It’s no fun being hungry. Hungry leads to hangry. Hangry leads to not-so-nice things. But… what if I told you I had some solutions for your hunger? Are you a little less hangry now? Yay!
See, if you’ve been reading for any real length of time, you probably know I love snacks. I mean, you probably know I love food in general, but there’s just something special about snacks. They can be portable, they’re an excuse to eat a ton of times in any given day, and (duh) they quash hunger.
Sometime… I should probably tell you about all of my favorite snacks. That will be a very long post. But today, I want to focus on one of my very favorite snack components: nuts!
Guys, they’re kind of fabulous. They’re packed with a wonderful combination of protein, fiber, and (healthy) fats, not to mention a variety of vitamins and minerals. They fill you up, they’re versatile, and they taste delicious.
How do I typically enjoy them? Well, there’s really not a typical way! I don’t discriminate much when it comes to the type. I love ’em all. Give me peanuts (okay, they’re a legume, but that’s a technicality), almonds, cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts – whatever – roasted or raw, salted or unsalted, and I’m a happy girl. I’ll snack on them plain with fruit, eat them as trail mix, mix them into cereal, cook with them, and (of course) savor them in the form of nut butter.
Anyway, you can probably imagine how excited I was when Blue Diamond sent me some Blueberry and Salted Caramel almonds to try.
(Hint: I was really excited.)
What did I think of them? Um, yum. Personally, I loved the salted caramel ones a little more, but I’m a total sucker for sweet-and-salty combinations. The blueberry ones are sweeter overall, but they have a blueberry muffin flavor that I also adore. So, yeah. They’re both super tasty and totally snackable.
Still, I wanted to do something a little different with each of them. Naturally, I turned snacks into more snacks. Enter: Blueberry Almond Granola and Salted Caramel Almond Butter.
First, let’s talk about the granola. I used equal parts rolled oats and puffed rice cereal to get a nice mix of crunchy and chewy textures. A mixture of egg white, coconut oil, and maple syrup adds some sweetness to the base and binds it together. Oh, and I added a bit of vanilla and almond extracts (to pump up the flavor), cinnamon (because it makes all things better) and some salt to counteract the sweetness. To finish it all off, I tossed in the blueberry almonds and some freeze-dried blueberries. 
This would be so good on some vanilla ice cream for a pretty healthy dessert. Alternatively, add the granola and some fruit to yogurt or milk for an easy breakfast, or even just munch on it by the handful. You can’t go wrong!
- 2 c. rolled oats
- 2 c. crispy rice cereal
- 1 t. ground cinnamon
- pinch salt (to taste, I used about 1/8 t.)
- 1 large egg white
- 3 T. coconut oil
- 1/3 c. maple syrup
- 1/4 t. almond extract
- 1 t. vanilla extract
- 1 c. Blue Diamond Blueberry Almonds
- 1 c. freeze-dried blueberries*
- Preheat oven to 300°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Combine the oats, rice cereal, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl.
- Whisk the egg white until frothy, then pour into the oat and cereal mixture.
- Melt the coconut oil in the microwave (mine took about 30 seconds).
- Whisk together the coconut oil, maple syrup, almond extract, and vanilla extract then pour into the oat and cereal mixture.
- Mix the oat and cereal mixture until it is evenly coated with the wet ingredients.
- Spread the granola base onto the parchment-lined baking sheet and put it in the oven for 10 minutes. Stir the granola base after 10 minutes and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes more.
- After 15 minutes, stir it once more and add the Blue Diamond Blueberry Almonds. Allow it to cook for 10 more minutes.
- After 10 minutes, remove the granola and almonds from the oven and add the freeze-dried blueberries. Don't touch the granola at this point. This helps it stick together!
- When the granola is completely cool, break it up a bit and store it in an air-tight container or Ziploc bag. Alternatively, portion it out into individual baggies.**
- * Feel free to use any toppings you like. I chose freeze-dried blueberries to enhance the blueberry flavor, but any combination of additional nuts, seeds, freeze-dried fruit, dried fruit, coconut, or chocolate would be lovely!
- ** I did this. In 1/4 c. measurements, I got about 20 baggies.
- Enjoy! This granola would be wonderful with Greek or regular yogurt, topped with your choice of milk, over ice cream, or on its own.
Honestly, I just dumped the container of salted caramel almonds into my food processor (after sampling a few 😉 ) and let it turn the nuts into butter. When it was mostly butter, I added a dash of vanilla and almond extracts to enhance the flavor, and then let it keep on processing. Easy-peasy. 
- 1 container (6 oz.) Blue Diamond Salted Caramel Almonds
- 1 t. vanilla extract
- 1/4 t. almond extract
- Pour the almonds into a quality food processor and process until you have a coarse almond meal.
- Add the extracts and continue processing until you have almond butter, scraping down the sides of the processor as needed.
- Store the almond butter in an air-tight container in the fridge to prevent the natural oils from separating too much.
I’d love to know if you give the recipes or the almonds a try! Have a fabulous day!
Sweet, salty, or a combination?
What’s your favorite way to snack?
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds, but all opinions are my own! I love these products, truly think they’re delicious, and wouldn’t have accepted the offer to write a post on them if I didn’t.
Yum! I need to make some granola, but I fear I will eat the entire pan once it is out of the oven. Haha! I bet the blueberry almonds gave it the perfect hint of sweetness!
Hahaha I was definitely snacking a little 😉
Yum! Also, I love that hangry is now a normal term haha
LOL it describes that feeling so well 🙂
I’ve been dying to try those Salted Caramel ones for awhile! Every time I pass them in the store, they call to me. 😉 Even though I’m mildly allergic, I think maybe at lest a small handful would be worth it. These recipes sound incredible!
Haha don’t make yourself sick, but they are pretty tasty 🙂
My husband loves blue diamond almonds! I usually get him the wasabi flavor, but I’ll have to grab him the blubbery next time 😉
My favorite way to snack is to have a lot of something… like melon balls, grapes, blueberries. Makes it last longer 😉
I’m a bit of a volume eater, too!
Yum! I love almonds, I’ve never tried those flavors though. I would go with the blueberry personally, I can not stand caramel! I love the trail mix recipe, I definitely am a fan of the salty, sweet combo.
While I would probably pick sweet, the sweet/savory combo is pretty bomb! I can never keep myself from snacking from nuts when they are out on the open ;). I looooove stuffing dates with nuts/nut butter and munching away!
Dates + nut butter = heaven. YUM.
Salty AND sweet is my favorite combo! Why not both, right? 😉 The salted caramel almond butter looks absolutely mouthwatering. I have been wanting to try Blue Diamond products for awhile now. The different flavors sound really good!
I love the flavors! It’s a nice change of pace from *just* nuts. But I love those too 😀
I just finished my container of the salted caramel flavor last night. What a sad moment 🙁
Aw 🙁 Buy another 😉