Maybe because it’s supposed to be spring and it’s currently snowing outside (WTF!?), but I’ve been thinking an awful lot about Christmas recently. Then I got hungry. That’s because my go-to homemade gift for Christmases of yore has been homemade granola. What’s not to love? It’s healthy, hip, cute, and – well – tasty! Plus, it’s incredibly versatile; use it as a fro yo topping, a healthy between-classes snack, over milk for breakfast… the possibilities are endless.

If the weather’s got you down, stay in and make some of this stuff!

Ingredients:
(Serves two hungry munchers)

1 cup slow-cooking oatmeal (dry)
½ cup shredded coconut (optional)
1/3 cup raisins
¼ cup chocolate chips
1 banana
2 TBS maple syrup

Instructions:

1)   In a blender, blend the banana with the maple syrup until creamy.

2)   Mix the oatmeal and coconut together in a bowl. Add the banana puree and mix.

3)   Spread the mixture on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, but move the granola around for even baking after about 20 minutes.

4)   Reduce the temperature to around 200 degrees and bake until dry (this might take awhile, depending on your munching preferences).

5)   Let the mixture cool. Then add your raisins and chocolate chips.

Voila! If you want to seal it away in Tupperware containers for snacking on the go, I commend you. I know mine won’t last that long.

I never thought I’d say this at the end of March but let it snow!

Got something awesome everyone needs to know about? A really great local band? An awesome website? A product that truly changed your life? Amazing deals at Starbucks?! Email your “The Know” ideas to Jill@collegecandy.com and I’ll pass them along to everyone right here, every week. Make your kindergarten teacher proud and share!

We love make your own stuff around here. That is, when we aren’t the ones that actually have to make it. (Because who wants to make dinner after a long day of class? Helloooooo, cereal for dinner!)

Make your own granola mix.
Custom build your own photo art.
Design your own Nikes.

As long as someone else is doing the customizing, I am ALL about making things myself. I’m picky and I like things my way; just ask anyone who has ever been out to dinner with me. I customize my order like it’s my job, which makes the waiter’s job that much more difficult. But I don’t care – I want what I want and that’s that.

Which is why I am obsessed with Element’s Make-Your-Own Snack/Energy bars. I always love to have a bar handy in my bag when 5pm rolls around and the entire library can hear my stomach rumble, but I always catch myself saying “I wish this bar had chocolate or cashews, or dried cherries, or a protein boost” only to be disappointed. Element has heard my prayers (and probably my stomach rumbles) and is now offering every single one of our picky selves the opportunity to create a healthy snack just the way we like it.

You pick the base (chewy, oaty, crispy, datey), the fruits, the nuts, the sweets (mmmm, pumpkin spice!) and the boosts (like protein or Omega 3) that you like. You can even see the exact nutrition information of the bar as you add each item! Then you name your bar (Jill’s Picky Protein Bar for me!) and soon you’ll be munching on a healthy snack that actually tastes good and keeps you full!

All without having to slave over the stove for hours.

Now, If only they had a build your own man. That would be something worth knowing about.

What’s not to love? It’s healthy, it’s filling, and it’s the quickest meal you can make when you’ve spent 3 hours online and are now totally late for class.

We’re so passionate about this healthy snacking alternative (it has replaced our daily Cakester intake) that we’ve teamed up with the guys at MixMyGranola.com to bring you our very special CollegeCandy blends. We got just what every college girl needs: breakfast, a late night snack and the perfect blend for those PMS-I-hate-everyone-and-everything days.

This stuff is seriously delicious and I’m not just saying that. I ate an entire canister of the PMS blend while lying on the couch with a heating pad on my belly watching a Lifetime movie marathon. Pathetic? Yes. Did it make me feel better? Absolutely.

So enjoy this gift from us to you.
Get your granola on here.

So this week’s theme is now renamed: 5 things Jill Loves this week that you should too. Because if you’ve learned anything by now, it’s that- well – I have pretty good taste. I don’t steer you wrong and I know what I’m talking about.

So here are this week’s 5 things I love that you should too.

The Perfect Spring Dress. Perfect for day (big camel bag, gold woven sandals, ivory shades and a cute scarf or headband) and perfect for night (nude or gold pumps/wedges, small metallic clutch, camel belt around the waist, gold bangles). The color just makes me happy. And ready for Chicago to warm up from its current 50 degree status since it’s – um – MAY.

Matt Kearny’s new song: Closer to Love. This little ditty will pair perfectly with your iPod,  a sunny day, iced coffee, and the perfect spring dress (see above).

Starbucks Vanilla Roobius Tea. Seriously heavenly. My mom told me about this God-send and if it’s one thing I learned (begrudgingly), it’s that she always seems to be right. About everything. Especially beverages. I tried it for the first time yesterday and this bad boy does not disappoint. To cut the cals, ask for one pump of syrup and pair it with soy or nonfat milk. It’s 100% pure summer bliss. That I am sipping on as we “speak.”

Real Life Twitter. The truth is ALWAYS funny. Really, I LOLed.

MixMyGranola. We’ve talked about this before, but I am so in love with it I can’t shut up about it. You can make your OWN granola from start to finish. A healthy blend for breakfast (think fruit, nuts and organic base) and a “late night mix” for when healthy is not the first thing on your mind (peanut butter balls, choc chips and gummy bears anyone?). It comes in a cute canister with the name of your special blend on it, in addition to the exact nutrition info! It’s perf for gifts and ever more perfect for a gift to yourself. After all, you deserve it. Why? Because you’re you.

Anyways, it’s Friday and we’re ready for a night in with some hot chocolate and a good (self-help) book. We would go out and par-tay, but we had a long week (as usual), full of life lessons:

College on crutches? It sucks.
Sex is good, but being wanted is better.
Gavin DeGraw is as funny as he is talented.
All those bad habits are just not worth it.
Vitamin Water is now almost calorie-free!
There are a lot of things guys just don’t know about us.
Pretty people have it really easy.
Lindsay Lohan deserves a break from the paps.
There are a lot of things we won’t miss when we graduate.
There are lots of pros to having a boyfriend…
And lots of pros to not having one…

Whew. We’re pooped. Nothing a big bowl of (free!) granola can’t fix!

Yup, that’s right! At mixmygranola.com, you choose every single thing that goes into your very own special mix.

How does it work? There are four easy steps:

First, you pick your base (options are organic granola, french vanilla granola, organic muesli and low fat granola), and then you can add in dried fruits (I chose dried mangos, bananas and raspberries…yum!) and nuts (omega-3 rich flax seeds for me). To top it off, if you want to add some treats to the mix, pick from “extras” such as gummy bears, yogurt covered pretzels and chocolate chips.

And that’s all! Just click to order and within a few days, you’ll have a (large) container of ready-to-go granola. Mine came within two days after I placed the order and I must say, it is delicious. It even has the exact nutritionals for my personalized mix pasted right on the side so I know exactly what I’m eating, unlike when I pour a fatty bowl of the stuff in the caf. I just measure the stuff into single serving plastic baggies and grab and go on my way to class. Easy, healthy, delicious.

OMG I’m so in love. And you can start your very own love affair with mixmygranola. CollegeCandy linked up with the men behind the blend and are giving a $25 gift certificate to a very lucky granola-lovin’ CollegeCandy reader. Just tell us, in the comments below, what your ideal granola combo would be and we’ll pick a winner. You have until 5pm on Tuesday, April 14th to get your entry in. We’ll announce the winner on Wednesday, April 15th.

Yay granola!

Maybe it was the “this semester’s going to be different” syndrome that somehow possessed you to sign up for that early morning seminar. Or maybe it’s that pesky biology course that you’ve put off for the last 3 semesters — the one you have to take to declare your major. Either way, we all succumb now and then to the evilest of academia plaguing our university campuses – 8 AM classes.

After spending about five lectures cursing the school’s scheduling system, you realize that you actually have to suck up this class for the entire term. When you finally come to that place of acceptance, rely on these survival tips to get you through the long road ahead:

1. Prepare your sh*t ahead of time – It takes about 5 minutes to sleepily throw everything you need in your school bag before you hit the hay. Make sure to grab the essentials. Notebook? Check. Pens and pencils? Got ‘em. New York Times sudoku book? Hell yeah!

2. Set your alarm to your own sleeping habits – Personally, I like to set my alarm to about 20 to 30 minutes before the time I absolutely have to wake up, also known as the Oh Sh*t Hour. That way, I can have the satisfaction of slapping my snooze button without actually being late for class. Now, if you’re like my roommate, you may want to set your alarm at the actual O.S.H., or else you may automatically turn off your alarm in your sleep.

3. Drink coffee – And lots of it.

4. Bring breakfast with you – Let’s be real, most of us run a little late when it’s 7:45 in the morning, leaving no time to prepare let alone eat a hearty meal. I trust that you’ve seen the Special K Red Berries commercial, so you know that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” I don’t like to lose any opportunity to eat, so I make an easy breakfast that I can eat in class. One of my favorites is the parfait – nonfat plain yogurt, granola, and mixed frozen or fresh fruit. Clean, easy, and effectively makes everybody around you drool in jealousy.

5. Wear your gym clothes to class – This is one of my personal faves. Wear gym clothes to class so you don’t have to get up earlier to get ready. It doesn’t even matter if you plan to go to the gym or even have a membership. As long as you’re wearing gym clothes you can be certain of two things: 1) You will be comfortable and 2) You can speed walk/run to class without breaking an ankle. This also doubles as an excuse to look like crap while still appearing as there’s a purpose to your raggedness.

Good luck and take heart: you’re not the only one struggling to keep those eyes open this morning…

No, I don’t have an eating disorder. I have a working disorder—I’m a total workaholic.

When I do eat, it needs to be healthy and somewhat portable. I’ve considered trying Atkins or Southbeach protein bars, Power Bars, or even Slim Fast Shakes as a snack I can pound in the car on my way to work. But, honestly, I can’t justify consuming 400 calories in the form of a little bitty rice bar that is not going to quiet my growling stomach, or 13 grams of fat in a similarly unsatisfying wannabe-milkshake concoction.

Instead, I live off of caffeine.

One morning, before work, I stopped at my favorite coffee shop to grab a skim milk, sugar-free vanilla latte, and saw a display of Vegan Energy Bars at the counter. I’m not vegan, but was hungry and I thought that those little heart-shaped bars might be crazy enough to work! I mean, the vegans are picky about what they put into their bodies and without meat or dairy, they still need nutrients, right?

I purchased a package of chocolate chip flavored (if it has chocolate it can’t be that bad), heart-shaped, soy-filled cakes of pure delight that day, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

That week, I bought out the entire stock of chocolate chip flavored Heart Thrive bars. Contrary to my carnivorous, sugar-addicted friends’ admonishment—“Vegan anything is sooo gross!”—I found these bars quite tasty. Plus, they are only three grams of fat and 230 calories each, and I can justify eating them, especially with the “Doctor Recommended” promise on the front of the package.

The following week, these tasty energy bursts were gone! Not just the chocolate chip ones, either! The apricots and apples, too! Even the date-flavored Heart Thrives were nowhere in sight. I asked the cashier if they would be selling them again, and unfortunately the café had only ordered a limited supply of Heart Thrives.

So, I turned to my trusted friends at Google and found the company website. Just yesterday I ordered a personal supply of two dozen chocolate chip Heart Thrive bars, and they should be arriving in a couple of days. During the interval between my last Heart Thrive bar and yesterday’s order placement, I scoured the grocery store shelves for an alternative snack, to no avail. Everything is either high calorie, or high carb, and most of products are over-priced anyway.

The Heart Thrives, however, are a great nutritional supplement that won’t add many calories or fat to my diet. My mouth is watering just thinking about the next time I get to sink my teeth into a glorious vegan energy bar…and I definitely never thought I would write that sentence and mean it!

To check out Heart Thrives, or parent-product, Sun Cake breakfast bars, visit http://www.suncakes.com.

Rating: 3 out 4 stars, only because they are hard to come by!

[Photo courtesy of suncakes.com - People love these bars so much they have a whole collection of these fan pictures!]

Before you get so attached to Bear Naked that you also find yourself whittling away your life savings on it, let me turn you on to something even better: making your own granola.

Is that even possible? Yes, yes, it is, and it’s sooooo worth it.

This is a good starter recipe, but unfortunately it makes 30 servings and uses a full cup of vegetable oil. Luckily, I’ve done the work for you and am here to offer this scaled-down, simpler (yet still every bit as good) recipe:

You’ll need one cup of oats, two tablespoons of wheat germ (this is optional, but it adds great health value), three tablespoons of your favorite chopped nuts (I like walnuts and almonds), two tablespoons of flaked and unsweetened coconut, and a quarter of a teaspoon of cinnamon. You’ll also need a few wet ingredients: about one and a half tablespoons of brown sugar, one tablespoon of honey, and no more than two teaspoons of maple syrup or vegetable oil.

Mix everything together (it’s okay if it gets sticky) and spread the mixture out as best you can on a piece of waxed paper or aluminum foil over a baking sheet. Then bake that puppy at 350 for 15-20 minutes, stopping about halfway through to jiggle and turn the granola so it browns evenly.

And…that’s it! You’ll have to let it cool when it’s done, but after it does, you can add dried fruit to it and use it for breakfasts, toss it on some yogurt, or mix it up with fresh fruit.

Yum, yum, double yum, and it won’t cost you nearly $5 a bag.

While it might seem appealing to grab a triple-shot mocha at Starbucks, that’s really not the best thing for our minds or our bodies to have (or, in many cases, our wallets). If you want a snack that scores high on both nutrition and taste, consider one of the following:

Pita with Hummus. You can buy your hummus at the store (roasted red pepper is my favorite kind), or make your own for cheap using a scaled-down version of a recipe like this one. Cut a slit in the side of your pita, shovel in a few spoonfuls of hummus, and you’re good to go.

Yogurt with Topping. It’s really easy to take a container of yogurt with you wherever you need to go, and yogurt has the added advantage of meshing well with almost any topping choice. Try tossing a few chocolate chips on top of caramel yogurt, fresh blueberries atop a carton of strawberry, or a spoonful of toasted nuts and honey on top of plain vanilla.

Trail Mix. Not just for campers, trail mix is a busy girl’s dream come true because it takes only seconds to put together and it’s easy to make a little or a lot. In a Ziploc bag or Tupperware container, try throwing together some combination of the following: nuts, craisins, chocolate chips, dried fruit, granola, oats, dry cereal, cinnamon, sunflower seeds, and pretzel pieces. Then toss it in your purse and gnaw on it throughout the afternoon. It sure makes those wasteland hours go by faster!

Got any other quick, healthy snacks the rest of the world needs to hear about?! Be our chef for the moment and let us know!