Granola

Nothing smells better than fresh granola baking in the oven, and if you have never made it you need to make some...today! Here is the thing with granola, at least with mine. I never make it the same. I use up whatever is in my cupboards/pantry and don't worry if I don't have an ingredient (at least any of the dry ingredients). This recipe is made up of about 9-10 cups of dry ingredients, so really you can use whatever you would like for those 9-10 cups. I have used all nuts and dried fruit before and it was still super good. Plus it was SCD (specific carbohydrate diet) friendly. You can store it in an airtight container, but trust me, it won't last long!

Right out of the oven, perfect golden color and smelling amazing!

Granola

• 4 c oatmeal
• 1 c wheat germ (I don't have this right now, so I am going to use coconut flakes that are not sweetened)
• 1/2 c nonfat instant milk
• 4 more cups: nuts, raisins, other dried fruit, total, grapenuts (I usually do one cup less of the oatmeal and then two cups of total or multi grain flakes)
• 1/2 c vegetable oil
• 1/2 to 1 cup of honey (I always use 1 cup)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, add cinnamon to this mixture and mix well.
3. Heat oil and honey to a simmer and let simmer a few minutes and then add the vanilla and remove from the heat.
4. Pour honey mixture over the dry mix and stir well.
5. Put the granola on a big cookie sheet that has sides and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, making sure to stir it half way through bake time.
6. Serve warm or let cool.

So, after the granola was made and I had a bowl, I took a shower. I should have picked up the gronal mess first, because the boys decided they were going to make their own batch of granola. Theirs has some nuts that they smashed with a kitchen mallet, smashed animal crackers, oatmeal, raisins, roasted pumpkin seeds, and honey.

 Here is their mixture

 The floor where they were making their mixture

 My honey bottle with some of the mixture in it (and the little chefs themselves in the background)