Homemade Granola

I have never been able to find a brand of purchased granola that I like.  Either they have too much sugar, too much salt (Why would you put salt in granola anyway?), bad for you oils or GM ingredients (plus assorted other nasty stuff) ...

YUCK!

So ... after perusing multiple recipes I came up with my own ...

Ingredients:
1) 4 Cups Oatmeal (Bob's Red Mill Extra Thick)
2) 1/4 cup Brown Sugar (organic)
3) 1/4 cup Honey (local from the Farmer's Market in Shelton)
4) 3/4 cup Sliced Almonds
5) 1/2 cup Sunflower Kernels
6) 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
7) 2 tsp Pure vanilla Extract (unfortunately not my homemade ... it's not ready yet)
8) 1/4 cup Coconut Oil (Mountain Rose Organic)
9) 1/2 cup Golden Raisins
10) 1/2 cup Dried Date Pieces (Bob's Red Mill)
11) 1/2 cup Dried cranberries
12) 1/2 cup Dried Apple Bits (Bob's Red Mill)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Place ingredients 1 - 7 in a large bowl.

Scoop out the coconut oil (which is semi-solid at room temperature), place in a small glass bowl an microwave for one minute on the defrost setting (Careful!  It melts quickly!)

A little bit is still unmelted ... it won't hurt anything ...

Add the coconut oil to the ingredients in the bowl and mix well.  (NOTE!  Do not add the dried fruit yet ... it gets mixed in AFTER the cereal is cooked.  If you add it now it will all become hard as rocks ... ask me how I know this )

Spread the cereal mix on a large baking tray lined with foil.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Stir and turn the cereal and bake for 5 more minutes ... check the cereal again and if it is a nice  golden brown it is done.  You might want to stir it again and bake for 5 more minutes.

Oops!  I let mine bake an extra 5 minutes (a total of 25 minutes ... 20 would have been enough) ... it got just a little too crispy around the edges.  The rest is fine though.

Allow the granola to cool and then mix in the dried fruit.

This is my favorite way of serving it ... over a bowl of my homemade vanilla bean yogurt and drizzled with a little organic agave nectar ... *bliss*

Enjoy!

Shhhh ... Don't Tell FitzGyver ....

Those of you who read my post on February 28 have probably figured out that I'm pretty pissed that the US Government gave Monsanto the OK to use me (and you ... and your kids) as lab rats.  Well, I'm even more pissed after reading the articles on ABC News about the "pink slime".

 I have several packages of ground beef in my freezer that I bought at Safeway ... and since Safeway won't deny that they contain that crap, I have to assume that they do.

As a result of the double whammy of discovering that 70% of the food at the grocery store contains GMOs and 70% of the ground meat contains "pink slime"  ...(what is it with that 70% thing, anyway?) I am embarking on a mission to remove all processed, "pink slime containing" or possible GMO foods from my pantry, freezer and refrigerator.  I hope you enjoy following along ... I've got a feeling it's not going to be easy ....

Fortunately, FitzGyver doesn't read my blog very often ... so he doesn't know that big changes are coming.  Any ground beef in the freezer is going to be dog food (which is what that stuff used to be sold for until someone got the bright idea to feed it to school children instead).  And I won't be shopping at Safeway again ... if they can't give an honest yes or no answer to the question of whether they use "pink slime" it makes me question the quality of the rest of their products.

So ... my first No GMO, No "pink slime" post ... Lasagna Rolls with homemade ricotta cheese will be coming soon ...

Enjoy ...  well, not really ....  Live Long and Prosper!