Hello Friends! Today we have a super easy and delicious recipe for granola on the blog today!I made this last night, and after it cooled and I began breaking it into chunks and putting them in jars, my son Jake got the first bite. He popped some in his mouth and about a second later his eyes got super wide and he said “Oh Mom!!! This is so good!!!”

We are granola eaters, for snacks, or on yogurt, or even as a cereal. But it can get really expensive getting the store bought granola. So I thought I would try making it myself. Friends, this is like 100 times better than the store bought kind! And its so easy! And it makes the house smell heavenly! So without further ado, let’s begin!

Ingredients:

• 5 cups rolled oats (I used Bob’s Red Mill Oats)
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (we like them in bigger chunks but you can chop how you like)
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes (I used unsweetened)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/3 cup maple syrup (I used pure maple syrup – Archer Farms from Target)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 300°. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper

**Note** This recipe is a base- you can tweak to your liking. You can switch and eliminate any of the nuts, and add in 1/2 cup or so of any seeds you like such as sunflower seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds; after cooking/cooling  you can add in raisins or dried cherries or any other fruit or chocolate chips. You could add in 1/2 cup of ground flax seed or oat bran or wheat germ. You can also switch out the coconut oil for vegetable, canola or extra virgin olive oil. You can eliminate the brown sugar if you are trying to watch sugar. You could do all honey if you don’t have maple syrup. Just try and keep the liquid/dry ratio the same.

About the oats- I would definitely use the old fashioned rolled oats. Don’t use the quick cooking oats.

This is the coconut I used. I found it at my Kroger. I like it because the flakes are bigger, wider pieces than the shredded coconut.

Ready to assemble.

In a large bowl, add your oats, nuts and coconut.

Stir until well combined.

In a pan on the stove, add your coconut oil. If you’ve never used it, it looks like Crisco but it will melt really fast. Melt it over low heat.

I just used my grocery store’s organic brand. It melts clear.

Add in the honey and maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt. *Tip* you can spray cooking spray in your measuring cup for sticky ingredients like honey and syrup. It will help them pour out more easily.

Stir to mix and put heat on medium.

Bring to a boil, and let boil for two minutes. This will help give your granola a nice crispy texture.

After about 2 minutes, remove from heat and slowly pour over your bowl of oats/nuts and using a large spoon, thoroughly mix so that the syrup mixture is coating all of the oats. (This is like therapy to me… I love slowly turning the oats! And it smells so good!)

Now, put parchment paper down on a large cookie sheet and pour your coated granola on it. If you don’t have parchment, you could use foil with cooking spray or spray/butter your cookie sheet.

Using a spoon or spatula, spread the granola out over the whole sheet and gently press down with spoon.

Bake in the oven at 300° for about 20 minutes. If you like your granola broken up in fine or smaller pieces, halfway through the cooking you can gently stir it. But if you like larger chunks (like me, hah!) leave it to bake untouched. At 20 minutes, take a peek at it. You are looking for a nice golden brown color, a little darker than what you started with. This is that perfect point where it’s going to be crispy and golden bliss! Mine happened at 25 minutes. Bring it out of the oven and let cool completely.

Once it is cool, you can break it into chunks and store in a container with a tight lid.

 

Your kitchen will smell like the most decadent oatmeal cookie ever!

The granola is so pretty, I recommend a glass jar for storing it in. This is what I got from that 1 cookie sheet. 1 large jar and 3 smaller jars.

This is great to grab a handful and eat right out of the jar. You could also pour some milk on it as a breakfast cereal. It also makes a great topping for yogurt.

You know I have to laugh at myself sometimes. I can get stuck in such a rut, such a frozen way of thinking you would think I was from the Ice Age! Not that long ago, I would never have seen myself making my own granola or trying new foods or fashions or all sorts of things.

But life and circumstances can slowly begin to open your mind a bit. I call it the crowbar that can pry open my brain to new ideas. And it is absolutely exhilarating! Ok… I know, homemade granola is not exactly groundbreaking! But it is a lovely new phase I am enjoying in life learning about all sorts of things! Taking the back roads and finding all sorts of new things! There are so many wonderful places you can go and things to learn!  Isn’t life just an amazing and beautiful thing?

Have a fantastic week! I’ll be back this weekend with another post!

Love Always,

Amy

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.  ~Andre Gide