Friday, November 21, 2008

Homemade Granola Goodness!!


This is for all you granola lovers out there. This is such a healthy homemade version of granola and I think it tastes way better than any store bought kind. It is also a lot cheaper!! This is what I love to have for breakfast. All these natural raw ingredients taste so good!! My kids will even eat it!!


Homemade Granola
2/3 cup frozen unsweetened 100% apple juice concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup real maple syrup~not Mrs. butterworths or any of the like it must be real
1/3 cup almond oil or canola oil~I use canola oil it is a lot cheaper than almond~Don't use vegetable or olive oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 T. cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
5 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup wheat grem or bran
1/2 cup whole flax seeds
1/2 cup sliced or whole almonds
1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans
1/2 cup sunflower seeds without the shell on
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins or blueberries

Position oven racks in the to and bottoms 3rds of the oven. Preheat the Oven to 325 degrees. Coat 2 large cookie sheets with cooking spray. In a small saucepan, Whisk together the apple juice concentrate, brown sugar, oil, and maple syrup. Over medium heat bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat, stir in cinnamon and salt.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, wheat germ, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, and pecans. Stir in the juice mixture and mix until well combined.

Then spread the mixture out on the 2 cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes~one on one rack one on the other. Then take out and stir and put bake in the oven but reverse the pans so the one that was on the bottom is now on top and the one that was on top is now on the bottom. Continue baking for another 15 minutes. Take out. Let cool 5 minutes on pan.

Then dump into a large bowl. Dump the cranberries in and mix well. Let cool completely then store in a ziploc bag or a cereal container.

Note: I always double the recipe. It makes a ton but it stores well in a Ziploc bag and you can even freeze it if you want or vacuum seal it in bags you if have a vacuum sealer. You can use any kind of nuts you want~You don't neccesarily need to use pecans and walnuts. Same with the cranberries use any dried fruit you like.













1 comment:

Erin said...

If kids will even eat it, then it's definitely worth trying!