Granola

I've tried a few granola recipes, and this is my favorite. It makes a LOT: 2 large cookie sheets full. It is already pretty much gone and I made it less than two days ago. I found it on allrecipes.com under "Megan's Granola." I added and substituted a few things to make it more inexpensive and healthy. You can pretty much add whatever you have on hand. It takes about 20 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes to cook, so about 40 minutes total. It is packed with yummy, mostly healthy ingredients!

• 8 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups wheat germ
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup finely chopped almonds
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 to 1 cup honey
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups raisins or sweetened dried cranberries (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment or aluminum foil.
2. Combine the oats, wheat germ, ground flaxseed, sunflower seeds, almonds, pecans, walnuts, coconut and pumpkin seeds in a large bowl. Stir together the salt, brown sugar, honey, oil, cinnamon, and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to coat. Spread the mixture out evenly on the baking sheets.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until crispy and toasted, about 20 minutes. Stir once halfway through. Cool, then stir in the raisins or cranberries before storing in an airtight container.

I took a pancake turner/spatula and flattened the granola as it came out of the oven. That helped to make it more clumpy, and gave me the option of cutting half of them to make into granola bars. I used a pizza cutter to cut the cooled, smushed granola into bars, then wrapped the bars individually in tinfoil. This took some time and patience, but it is nice to have some inexpensive, preservative-free, healthy, yummy bars waiting when I need a quick snack!