Homemade Granola

Between Adam and I we go through a lot of cereal. Adam eats it every morning and I tend to go through trends of eating cereal, switch to eating toast with some sort or natural nut butter on it for awhile and then repeat ( I have one of those personalities where I eat something until I get sick of it and then switch to something else for awhile and do the same thing...).

Since we try to do our best to stay away from food with preservatives in it I decided to try my hand at making homemade granola. I searched the internet for awhile and didn't see exactly what I was looking for, so I just took a bunch of idea's from different recipes and created my own. It's pretty healthy, VERY tasty, and I know everything thats gone in it (an added bonus).

Quite a few people have asked for my recipe lately, so I thought I would post it on here in case any of you want to try your hand at making your own yummy granola!

Suzanne's Granola Recipe

** It should be noted that I don't measure anything but the liquid ingredients, so these are approximations, feel free to add more of whatever you like!

**For the nuts and dried fruit you can choose whatever you like, these are just our favorites!

4 cups rolled oats (the real type, not the quick ones

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup ground flax seeds

1/2 cup bran

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup chopped cashews

1/2 cup oil (whatever you have at home... I use either sunflower or olive)

1/2 cup of honey

3 tablespoons of cinnamon

1 cup raisins

1 cup dried cranberries

Steps:

1. Put oats, coconut, bran and flax seeds in a large mixing bowl

2. Chop nuts

3. Add nuts to dry ingredients and stir to mix thoroughly

4. Gather oil, honey and cinnamon

5. Go get baby who has just woken up 30 minutes early from nap (OK you may not need to do this step:)

6. Mix the above ingredients together in sauce pan over medium heat until they reach a fairly thin consistency

7. Pour liquid mixture into your dry mixture and stir until all of the dry ingredients are evenly coated with liquid mixture.

8. Take picture of your baby who is sitting in his swing laughing at you (OK you don't really need to do this step either... )

9. Spread mixture evenly over 2 un-greased cookie sheets

10. Bake at 325 degrees for 12 minutes (stirring every 4 minutes) remove from oven and let cool (do not over cook)

11. Add dried fruit, put in an air tight container and enjoy in a bowl with some milk, by the handful as a snack, or on top of some yogurt with fruit

Jacob says "that looks great Mom... when can I have some?"