1. Prepare Irish steel cut oats as directed. hopefully you are not in a hurry because this can take up to 20 minutes or more…but oh, so worth it!

2. Peel and slice soft pears into cubes.

3. Gently warm a cup of almond milk.

4. Set aside fresh or frozen blueberries in your cereal bowl. We stocked up on fresh blueberries from a local farm in Richmond and froze them so we can continue to enjoy having blueberries all year long.

5. Assemble your perfect cold-winter’s-morning gourmet hot cereal: big scoop of cooked Irish steel cut oats on top of frozen blueberries, add sliced soft pears, drizzle with pure maple syrup to taste, top with Granola Girl “The Original” vegan organic granola, pour warmed almond milk around your mountain of hot oats.

6. Enjoy.

Granola Girl has been pounding the pavement and it has *REALLY* paid off.  It is true that whatever you set your mind towards manifests into great rewards! Granola Girl is continually finding her way into your favorite local grocery stores namely, Stongs on Dunbar St, Save-On Foods Park and Tilford, Save-On Foods Cambie, Pharmasave at Kind Edward Station, Victoria’s Health on upper Lonsdale and Gourmet Warehouse on Hastings.  All these stores have joined the Granola Girl movement to eat natural foods, be active in the community and support local small businesses.  It’s all one big happy family!

Have you seen the Granola Girl delivery truck en route? Having our logo on the family car has also increased our exposure around the city. Sometimes, I’ll even get an e-mail from someone who was behind me at a red light saying they saw the logo and went to the store to buy a bag. If you see our GG truck, holla or honk or send an e-mail. We love that!

Now, onto the “Question of all Questions”! And the question is….Is Granola Girl Gluten free? And the answer is…Granola Girl is NOT gluten free but Granola Girl IS wheat free. Our ingredient list mentions Organic Oats and we use Anita’s organic oats, which is not certified gluten free.  We are told by Anita’s Organics that they thoroughly clean the machines between milling different ingredients but again, they are not certified gluten-free.  Certifying oats is a challenge because the oat fields  would need a 1 mile perimeter between fields that grow wheat and what about the “wind factor”?!?

Those of you who are Celiac or on a strict wheat free/gluten free diet due to severe allergies should not be consuming oats that are not certified gluten free –and you should check out Ed’s Gluten–Free grocery store on Arbutus Street! But if you are like me, with a wheat sensitivity and are OK to eat Oats, well…stick with us and continue to love Granola Girl!

Keep on munchin’

The love and support we receive is overwhelming! From small grocery store owners to the individuals we meet at local events…You love Granola Girl and you have made a choice to eat our delicious all natural organic vegan cereal to kick start your day. Vegan or not, our granola is enjoyed by everyone!

While we honor the amazing progress that has happened in the past year, Tanya and I are buckling our seat belts for a new adventure in 2012.  We have established a marketing plan that focusses on joining community events where we aim to keep spreading granola love to all who will listen and take a free sample! You already know once you’ve had that first mouthful of The ORIGINAL, you will want more and you will want to tell all your friends about the best tasting granola you have ever tried!

Here are a few 2012 Granola Girl resolutions that we can all benefit from:

Try new activities outside your comfort zone. Attend an event by yourself and meet new people (this is really scary for some of us!)

Have a vegan food day once a week (if you are not already vegan).

In cold weather, do hot yoga. In warm weather, ride your bike.

Find a healthy balance of family time/partner time/me time (most important!)

Create a sacred space in your home for meditation, quiet reading or getting the creative ideas in your head onto paper.

Connect with like minded people who share their wisdom and offer encouragement to pursue your passions.

Eat breakfast and have an amazing Granola Girl day, every day!

Feel free to share some of your resolutions for 2012 on our facebook page!  https://www.facebook.com/thegranolagirl

Granola Girl is honored to be featured in the same article as the Spirit Junkie guru, Gabrielle Bernstein and conscious community locals, Julia King and Kate Muker  (Conscious Divas), Susan Washington (Master Success Coach) and musical talent/yogi Will Blunderfield.

This is what Granola Girl is all about.  Our aim is to continue building the conscious community and extending the message of love, following your passion, and personal growth to the newbies who desire positive changes in their lives. This community is within your reach and shifts happen because you make it happen!  Look for those like-minded individuals that you connect with effortlessly. Find creative and fun individuals who inspire you, support your dreams and make it happen.  Give yourself permission to be the soul you were created to be!

There is an enormous amount of talent and wisdom right in the city…you won’t need to look far! A great start is attending a Diva Date night either in Vancouver or West Vancouver.

Diva Date Nights have enriched my life by providing an arena to connect with women who are on a similar journey of self discovery. Conversations are guided by conscious-minded facilitators who are there to remind us of the things we already know or read about in the collection of self help books by our bedsides! From Baljit Rayat’s “Stepping into your Power” to Susan Washington’s “Stop Over Thinking Things!”, I have grown so much in learning how to balance my life. One particular fun night was with Taaja Kayler who taught us how to “Own the Room” by learning how to walk the red carpet because “confidence is sexy”!  Take this confidence walk to your next party or low-key events like walking into your office or shopping at the grocery store for vegan granola… you will surely get noticed in a positive way!

Keep on munchin’ Granola Girl!

Last month, Granola Girl sponsored the Enspiring race and the participants and winners ended up with a couple bags of granola girl to replenish energy levels after a grueling race! Read more if you plan to join next year: http://enspireme.org/events

On Oct 2, Taste of Health distributed samples of GG The Original and I had the chance to meet the Vegan Project co-founder Bridget Burns. This website is a great (and visually pretty!) resource for local vegan fare and recipes you must try, whether you are vegan or just attempt to be on certain days! http://theveganproject.ca/ http://tasteofhealth.earthsave.ca/

Have you heard of the VEGAN PROM?!? Granola Girl donated a couple of bags and a t-shirt as raffle prizes. Sounds like a fun idea for all the creative hipsters out there to check out on November 5: http://veganpromyvr.com/

A face-to-face meeting with a twitter follower http://www.sweetonveg.com/ ended up with a great blog post about GG. Great to meet you Jennifer Vega! Here’s is Jennifer’s blog on Granola Girl: http://www.sweetonveg.com/2011/09/granola-girl/

Keep spreading the granola love ya’ll and thanks for sharing Granola Girl with all your friends. Then… as they keep dippin into your stash (because it’s hard to stop at the first fistful), you can tell them where to get their own bag!

Last year, I made an appointment with the only person who I knew could help me –a soul expert/intuitive healer. I had briefly met Baljit Rayat in 2007 through www.joshsmithtrainer.com and again for a Reiki session and then we attended a mutual friend’s wedding (www.smartbag.ca) in 2009. After going through a tough time and a little car accident, Baljit carried me through my 2 month healing crises and coached me in the right direction. As a soul expert and through the Akashic records, Baljit channels the answers to anything you could possibly want to know about your present self, your past and your future. Naturally I ask; “Do I pursue the granola business?” Her answer was “Yes, but although this will provide a good income for you, this is not your soul purpose.” Hmmm. The next obvious question is “What IS my soul’s purpose?!?” Baljit gazes upwards as she listens intently to her guides and nods “OK, what they’re (her guides) telling me is that you like to host parties. What I see is YOU in the middle of a Tea Party with a whole group of women.”

Oh-kaaay. Who?? Where?? When?? How?? I am bombarded with questions from my own thoughts. I am an impatient person. I like to know things like, 5 minutes ago.

The rest of 2010 was spent completing wedding cake orders for my previous company www.AprilCakes.com and a couple wedding shows. Then I decided I would focus on incorporating Granola Girl and start the branding and marketing process by January 2011.

While giving out samples of granola at Greens Market on customer appreciation day in last March, I was approached by a woman who invited me to her BNI chapter at Monk McQueens. It’s a lunchtime event (usually they are in the wee hours of the morning during which time I am making the kids’ breakfasts) so I agree to go. 45 members of this chapter got a sample of GG granola and I experience my first BNI meeting. First impression: It was cult-like, kinda awkward! Get me outta here! What?!? They want $600 a year for me to join plus $25 each meeting for a so-so lunch -Rip off!  One person on the panel exclaimed (in the most fake-enthusiastic way) he’s glad he didn’t stay home today because he was feeling sick because this was the most fun meeting he has been to in a while. WHAT?!? This was his idea of fun?! Again, weird.”

As I was racing out of the parking lot (couldn’t get outta there fast enough!), I thought “Why should I join this weird group of people I would never hang out with and PAY to hang out with them when I can hang out with some fabulous women I already know (and really like!), are all self employed entrepreneurs and have a lot of knowledge to share with me!?!” It was a big A-HA moment.

The first person I called was Baljit and “Serendipity Tea Party” was born. The Facebook page was created and the first Tea Party was held on April 7, 2011 -the same day as my birthday! https://www.facebook.com/SerendipityTeaParty

More about Baljit Rayat and Serendipity Tea Party in a future post…stay tuned!

My biz partner Tanya approached a potential grocery store and some of their staff who are die-hard vegans came back to say that sugar is refined using bone char –huh?!? Bone char is crushed cow bones (but not the head or spine – again, huh?!?) and is used as a filter to whiten cane sugar during the refining process. In response, all sorts of retorts came through my mind “but we use BROWN sugar”; “it’s not like we add bone char to the granola!”; “Maybe our local manufacturer uses an alternate refining process”. This is the day April got schooled on sugar! Firstly, brown sugar IS refined sugar with molasses added to it. Really! Bone char is used in the refining process but since it is an animal product used in the manufacturing of sugar, vegans are not happy campers. I don’t think many vegans in general are aware of this as I have a few vegan recipe books such as “The Kind Diet” by Alicia Silverstone where the refining process is not mentioned at all, and “Veganomicon –The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook”, where sugar is used in many recipes!

The Granola Girl is honest and thorough in her research. I call up Roger’s Sugar. They DO use bone char. Oooh strike one! I look up vegan sugar on my mini Blackberry web browser…Alternatives: organic cane sugar, demerara sugar, beet sugar, raw sugar. I call our ingredient supplier to ask if they carry any vegan sugars and how does the price compare to the brown sugar we were using before? The woman is puzzled and says she’ll get back to me. Oooh, could this be strike 2? Great news… demerara sugar does NOT go through the refining process and costs only a few cents more (even though is it not refined, eliminating an extra step in the process make is slightly more expensive –huh?!?). So there you have it, DEMERARA SUGAR it is! Problem solved.

Our first official batch of new packaging granola (and all previous batches in the white coffee bags) contained the original brown sugar recipe and although we cannot trash the 10,000 bags we ordered with the brown sugar recipe, we posted Demerara (unrefined) sugar on the ingredient list of our website and began using it right away. Visually, you may notice that our granola will have a slightly darker tan (no props to Vancouver weather!) but fear not, “The Original” is still the same fanta-licious taste!

While we are on the topic, did you know that gelatin (good ‘ol Jello) is an animal product as well?

To read more about “Is Your Sugar Vegan?” here is the article.

The amazing and multi-talented photographer, Georgia Esporlas walked into my life at the Serendipity Tea Party – are you noticing a serendipitous pattern yet? The creative photographic elements were manifested after my simple instructions to Georgia: Make this granola look like it came down from heaven. And (wo)MAN did she deliver!
Designing and packaging was a three-month process but finally the bags have arrived and NOW we can stock the shelves and NOW we can introduce our fellow citizens of Vangroovy-Vancouver to the most beautiful, most delicious, make-you-feel-good granola you will EVER eat.

Enjoy!