Healthy addictions: granola is the new crack

Epicurious.com

Have you ever started eating something and no matter how hard you try, you can't stop shoveling it into your mouth? For me, the addiction is often unhealthy: Peanut M & M's, cookies, or ice cream. But recently I discovered that healthy addictions do exist.


I was visiting a friend in Philly and she took me to the Metropolitan Bakery, which has been around since 1993. She began raving about their artisan bread. I love bread and all, but what really did me in was their granola. This might as well be named "crunchy crack," and yet it is all natural and has no trans fats, no preservatives, and no added sugar. So as I munched away, I did what any sane person would do: I purchased several packets, pretending that I was buying them as gifts. I never thought granola could serve as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but let me tell you it can.


Do you have any healthy addictions?


Carolina Santos-Neves grew up in Brazil, Mexico City, and New York City. Her interest in the culinary field first surfaced in the second grade, when it became clear she only liked to play with edible play dough. Years later, after graduating from Brown University, she attended French culinary classes at the New School, honed her skills at the Grandaisy Bakery in Manhattan, and studied food writing. Her favorite pastime: perusing restaurant menus for Brussels sprouts, banana desserts, and eclectic ice cream flavors (like black pepper gelato). She attributes her interest in food to her mom's stories about growing up as an Ohio farm girl and to her dad's love of food and travel.



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