In this kid‑focused cooking episode, host Thea assists child chef Sienna (Chef Siya) in preparing a grain‑free, paleo‑friendly granola. The video walks through a flexible ingredient list—almonds, pecans, cashews, sunflower seeds, dates, coconut flakes, chia seeds—and offers numerous substitution ideas (e.g., pumpkin seeds, macadamia nuts, walnuts, Brazil nuts). Thea measures approximate quantities (2 cups almonds, 1 cup each of pecans, cashews, sunflower seeds, 2 cups coconut flakes, ~6–8 dates, 3 Tbsp chia, 2 Tbsp butter or coconut oil, ½ cup maple syrup, spices, ½ tsp salt) and explains optional vegan swaps. After mixing dry and wet components, they bake at 350 °F for 15–20 minutes, turning the mixture several times to avoid burning and to create crunchy clusters. Thea emphasizes keeping the granola bunched rather than flattened to allow air flow and crispness, and notes that pressing it would yield larger bars. The episode ends with a taste test, a thumbs‑up from Chef Siya, and a brief discussion of serving the granola plain or with unsweetened yogurt. Throughout, the tone is conversational, encouraging, and instructional, with repeated emphasis on flexibility, safety (removing date pits), and dietary considerations.
Chapters
My name is Thea.
And this is Chef James.
I'm her assistant. What are we making today, Chef?
We're making granola!
We're making granola! Okay, so what we have here are cashews, pecans, almonds, sunflower seeds, we have some dates, we have some coconut flakes, and we have some chia seeds. You don't have to stick with just any nut or seed, you can mix it up. We're using sunflower seeds today, you could use pumpkin or pepita seeds another day. We're using almonds, you could use macadamia nuts. We're using pecans, you could use walnuts. walnuts, we have cashews, you could use Brazil nuts. Mix it up. For sweeteners, we're using maple syrup and what are these called?
Dates.
That's right. And what do they have in them? Pits, which have to be pulled out. Will you take the pit out of that one, please? Now, for this recipe, I'm using about 2 cups of almonds, 1 cup of pecans, 1 cup of cashews, We're using about 6 dates. We're using 2 cups of coconut flakes, and we're using 1 cup of sunflower seeds. And we're using 3 tablespoons of chia seeds. Here's your wet towel. She requested a wet towel be on the set. That is one clean, organized chef. Thank you, chef.
Okay.
Nothing gets dirty. Let's do this. So what we first have to do is we're going to throw all of our things into the bowl. Except for this. And that's it. Now I also have 2 tablespoons of butter. You could use coconut oil, you could make this vegan, you don't have to use butter. I just like to add a little fat to it. Not that nuts aren't fat enough, but I just like a little bit of extra fat. So we're going to also add 2 tablespoons of butter. And then, oh, okay, then let's add the dates, 8 dates. And now we're going to add our spices. We have cinnamon, we're going to do 1 teaspoon. That's a rounded teaspoon, it doesn't have to be perfect. You're really going off of the flavors that you like. Now for the nutmeg, which we also have, we're going to use a half of a teaspoon. Half a teaspoon. A little less, yep, perfect. So she leveled that off, that was very good, chef. And then we have some ground ginger, and we're going to do also a half a teaspoon of that.
No.
You want to do a teaspoon of ginger? We can do that, because it's kind of nice to have that stronger ginger taste. I say let's That's real little. We have so many nuts, so let's go a little bit bigger. So either choose this one or this one. It's pretty flexible. It's really, once again, we're just going off of what flavors do we want in our granola. And this is grainless granola. Why grainless? Because that makes it paleo, that makes it gluten-free, and We really like it that way. Okay, now we have our bowl is filled with everything except for the maple syrup, which we're going to add after we mix it. Okay, so one thing that we need to add is some salt. You could have added it earlier. I'm just adding it now, and I'm adding about a half a teaspoon. So see, we go ahead and mix that together. We added half a cup of maple syrup, and that just makes it a little wet. Mix that up.
I can't do it.
Here, let me get that. So when mixing it, you want to kind of get it underneath it and fold it over. And it's okay if you have bits, because when there are bits like this kind of stuck together, that means you're going to get that nice clumpy granola, which I personally love.
Me too!
Okay, so is that— that's well mixed. We have the oven at 350. We're gonna go ahead— how's it taste?
Good. We don't actually have to cook it. It actually tastes fine.
Does it? Oh, well, we're gonna cook it just to kind of caramelize the maple syrup a little bit, make it a little crispy, because right now it's very like soft.
I want some salt.
Do you? Oh, there you go. You want to lick that, miss? So I'm going to have to, during the baking time, I'm going to have to kind of turn it every now and then. And really what we're doing is we're drying it out a little bit. Like I said, we're caramelizing the maple syrup that's in there, drying it out a little bit, and making it crunchy. And this is going to be delicious. We don't want to flatten it out though, Chef. We want to keep it kind of bunched up like this so that air can get inside it and dry it out.
And it won't flatten out.
I'm glad she did that, actually. It's an important note. You don't want it to flatten out. But you could, and you could turn it into like granola bars or something like that.
Yeah. And it won't flatten out.
Here they go. We're going to put this in the oven. Granola's in the oven, and now it's just about waiting. Now we just gotta, you know, hang out, just wait a little bit.
And stop the show.
So, Sienna, what do you like to put granola on? Do you like to eat it plain? Do you like to put it with anything?
I like it plain.
And when you do add it to something, what do you add it to?
Not like a not sweet yogurt.
Oh, like a not sweet yogurt.
Yeah, and I add it to sweet things so it can taste good.
Yeah, because it's already a little sweet, right?
Yeah, so the granola is sweet, but the yogurt's not sweet, so we can just put it in there. But I don't like sweet things on other sweet things.
Yeah, it gets too much. Well, there you go.
Grainless granola. We'll be right back as soon as it's ready.
Can you help me get this? Whatever thing off.
I thought you were leading this show. What happened?
You haven't wiped the spatula off.
Ah, geez.
Thank you. You're welcome, sir.
This is what I have to work with?
Ready, set, go!
I've lost the chef. The assistant is left all alone.
Alright, Chef Siya, here we have our granola. You can see it's now kind of a golden brown. You do have to watch when you're baking it for the edges because nuts burn really easily. I turned this and flipped it a little bit about 4 times during the 15 or 20 minutes that I baked it. Now if we had pressed it down the way Siya was doing it, it would have made it more of like a block and then you could break it up. That's actually a really great way to get nice big chunks. This is not necessarily big chunks, but I kind of wanted it smaller because we're going to use it for cereals and yogurts and whatnot like that. So, Siya, why don't you give it a taste and tell us what you think? Clearly your sister likes it. Is that a thumbs up? We got a thumbs up from Chef Siya! Wow! What do you think? Is it good?
