granola recipe

I spent spring break with my friend and her mother, who got me hooked on the idea of eating as close to nature as possible. Yea, I know, I'm one of those people who scrutinizes all the food labels before I buy food to figure out which has the fewest ingredients. She actually convinced me that that is more important than the calories on the nutrition label. So I put fairly strict limitations on the the things I eat and try to eat as few boxed foods as possible. I guess you could say I like to keep it fresh. Or maybe you will just say I'm a food snob...*sigh.* Anyways, while I haven't gotten to do a lot of research on my own yet (I plan on reading a book about it when I'm at the beach this summer-I'll let you know how that goes), I have switched one of my favorite meals to a less processed version. Normally, I eat pre-made Special-K Granola. And while it is pretty good, I like my version soooo much better. Actually, the old, boxed kind just tastes like cardboard to me now. So, for my first step in sharing my journey to eating better, less processed foods, here is my recipe for homemade breakfast granola.



You will need:
2 cups oats
1/3 cup honey
1/6 cup vegetable oil*
a teeny tiny bit of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional, but I use it)
1 Tbsp brown sugar (optional, but I use it)
sliced almonds (optional, but I like them)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix them until the oats appear to be wet. Sometimes, the oats cluster up. At other times, they do not. I've read that if you want them to cluster more, you can add 1-2 tsp of water so that they stick together. Personally, I have yet to try that. Once you have it all good and mixed together, spread it out on a baking sheet. After multiple tries, I finally found that the best thing to do is cover the baking sheet with Reynold's Nonstick Aluminum Foil. Bake for 10 minutes, then add in any other rando ingredients (see note below) and then bake for 2-5 more minutes. After 12 minutes, keep a really good eye on it because that's when it will start to get very golden brown. And since it's your very own granola, you can take it out of the oven whenever it looks the way you want it to. But I normally leave it in for 13 minutes total. Then, remove from the oven and and let it dry for a bit. I store it in a Ziploc bag afterwards and then eat it with milk and fresh fruit :)

Add-Ins:
You can add goodies such as craisins (my favorite), raisins, chocolate chips, other nuts, basically whatever you want. For chocolate chips, wait until after you have taken it out of the oven to add them. Otherwise, they'll melt...duh.





*I make a low-fat version. Most recipes I looked at call for more oil. If you prefer fattier-tasting granola, use 1/3 cup.