bakery on main granola

I love granola. I don’t care how hippie that makes me sound. I don’t care that it’s one of those health foods that’s secretly laden with fat. When going gluten-free, giving up granola made me nervous. What was I supposed to put in my yogurt now? Dried fruit alone is too much sugar for me. Flax seeds just don’t crunch. No granola also meant no granola-type cereals, too, and cereals were a major source of my whole grain intake. Now what?

While visiting my mom in Rhode Island, she introduced me to a gluten-free granola that she picked up at a local health-food store. I bought a couple bags to bring back to California with me, ate them, and sort of forgot about them. I assumed they were locally made for that one private store. Besides, I was living in California; if I didn’t see gluten-free granola there, it must not exist anywhere except for one little Rhode Island pocket. (And there are quite a few products that exist only in Rhode Island, so it’s not crazy for me to assume that.)

Last summer, while browsing for gluten-free foods to stock up on for our move to Burundi, I rediscovered Bakery On Main. More flavors! And available in bulk on Amazon.com! Now I have my grains and dried fruit and nuts to take with me.

The Rainforest mixes well with the tropical fruit salad I’ve always got in the fridge here. When I tried the Cranberry Orange Cashew, it was like opening a bag of Christmas, with the orangey-spice scent that wafts from the bag. I’ve tried all the flavors and they all suit different snacking moods. Sometimes I mix it with other cereal (the Cranberry Orange Cashew is yummy mixed with EnviroKids Koala Crisp); sometimes I eat it straight up with milk. As I noted before, I mix it into fruit salad. I also mix it into muffin batter for hearty breakfast muffins. I try not to snack on it right out of the bag, because then I’d eat it too quickly. It’s tempting but my fear of not knowing when my next fix will come keeps me at bay.

Bakery On Main gluten-free granola is available from their website and in bulk from Amazon.com groceries. Their website has a store locator to help you find granola near you. Not all their products are gluten-free, so read the packaging carefully.