Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Simple Granola (a base, ready for your additions)

I love oatmeal, so naturally I love Granola! I am not sure why the heck Granola is so dang expensive! That totally bugs the heck out of me! It is oatmeal with a little bit of extra stuff for crying out loud! Anyway, I mostly refuse to buy Granola which is why I make my own. I am happy to say, that it taste a whole lot better than the store bought, preserved, expensive "crap".
The batch I have now uses this recipie as my base then I added a bag of chopped dates, tropical fruit trio ( in the dried fruit section, it pre-diced), craisins, slivered almonds and extra coconut. It turned out VERY tropical and super yummy.

Ingredients:

2 c. whole wheat flour
6 c. rolled oats
1 c. coconut
1 c. wheat germ/wheat bran
1/2 c. ground or whole flax seed
1/2 c. water
1 c. oil
1 c. honey
2 t. vanilla
1 T. salt

Additions:
Chopped nuts, raisins, craisins, dates, tropical dried fruits, dried apples, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried and chopped berries, any type of chocolate chips (if using for a snack instead of cereal)....you create your mix.

Pre-heat oven to 250.
Mix dry ingredients (except dried fruits, add those after baking!). Mix wet ingredients. Combine mixtures and evenly coat. Lay out on 2 foil covered baking sheets and bake 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes or so. Bake an additional 30 minutes if a more crispy texture is desired. If you like the "chewy snack" type. Make additional wet mixture and drizzle over the granola after having baked 1 hour. Let set on the cookie sheet for 1 hour after baking and crumble up and store in air tight containers. Dry granola can be placed into containers once cooled completely.

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