Shonna's Granola

I have been craving homemade granola for a long time. I found a recipe and ended up tweaking it quite a bit. I make this once a week (because that's what fits into my container). I love to eat it like cereal with milk or with yogurt. Enjoy!

Granola

6 cups regular oats
1 TBSP + 1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. chopped nuts (your choice, I used mixed nuts)
1 c. raisins
1 c. coconut

1 1/3 c applesauce, unsweetened
1/2 c. honey
2 tsp. vanilla
2 TB olive oil

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper (or nonstick cooking spray) and preheat oven 325.

Mix dry ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl except raisins. Put honey in medium sized microwave safe bowl for 30 seconds to liquify. Add applesauce and vanilla to warm honey and stir well. Add wet ingredients to the large bowl and stir until all dry ingredients are coated.

Pour mixture onto 2 baking sheets and spread evenly. Bake for 15 minutes; stir. Bake an additional 15-20 minutes and check again. Replace if edges haven't turned brown yet, checking every few minutes. Once edges turn golden brown, it's done. Granola firms (gets crunchy) upon cooling. Add raisins and mix well. Allow to cool on baking sheet then pour into airtight container for storage.

(This recipe is roughly derived from this recipe on Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body blog)

Granola

I use this recipe as a guide, but ratios and ingredients are incredibly flexible with granola.  Basically, I just dump whatever oats and nuts I have into a bowl and toss some honey and olive oil over the top and bake them. I love the fact that it is healthy, delicious, and my whole family loves it. I originally got this recipe from allrecipes.com (“Megan’s Granola”), but have tweaked it according to our family's preferences.  If you are looking to boost the nutrients in your granola, try adding 1 ½ cups each of wheat germ, flax seed, and oat bran. For a cheaper granola, cut back on the nuts and increase the oats. Pumpkin seeds are also an inexpensive, nutrient-boosting addition.  I find that when I make this size batch, our family of four goes through it in about the same time it takes us to eat one gallon of home-made yogurt (this easy crockpot recipe, doubled).

Home-made Crockpot Yogurt that we
enjoy with our granola

Prep time:  20 minutes

Cook time:  20 minutes

Servings: 30

Ingredients

8 cups rolled oats

1 cup sunflower seeds 

1-2 cups sliced almonds

1-2 cups chopped walnuts

1-2 cups sweetened coconut

1 ½ teaspoons salt

According to my cost-analysis, making
home-made yogurt is about 1/3 the price of
buying yogurt in quart size containers.

¾ cup brown sugar

¾ cup honey

½ cup olive or vegetable oil

½ cup applesauce

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon cinnamon

2 cups raisins or sweetened dried cranberries

Directions

1.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line two large baking sheets with parchment or aluminum foil.

2.  Combine the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, and coconut in a large bowl. Stir together the salt, brown sugar, honey or agave, oil, applesauce, cinnamon, and vanilla in a separate bowl.  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.

Homemade Granola

My husband made this amazing granola so I had to post it on here. The original source is cdkitchen.com.



INGREDIENTS:

4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cup sliced almonds (We had whole almonds so Blake used a nut chopper.)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries (We put in 1/2 cup each of craisins, raisins, and semi-sweet chocolate chips.)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a bowl mix the oats, almonds, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. In a saucepan warm the oil and honey. Whisk in vanilla.

Carefully pour the liquid over the oat mixture. Stir gently with a wooden spoon; finish mixing by hand. Spread granola in a 15x10 inch baking pan.

Bake 40 minutes, stirring carefully every 10 minutes. Transfer granola-filled pan to a rack to cool completely. Stir in raisins or cranberries. Seal granola in an airtight container or self-sealing plastic bag. Store at room temperature for 1 week or in the freezer for 3 months.