Getting Crunchy in the Kitchen: Granola Recipe

I've been wanting to make granola for like 4 years now, and haven't done it, so I finally did, and since I am lazy I have really great eye, I mostly eyeballed the ingredients. The good thing about granola is, it will probably taste good no matter what so long as you use ingredients that you like and don't burn it.

Most granola recipes out there call for things like Maple Syrup (the real kind) and some kind of oil-- usually olive or vegetable oil, but I really like to incorporate the health benefits of coconut oil and honey into my diet-- so I used virgin coconut oil and local palmetto honey.

Benefits of Honey:

-Increases energy (easily digested natural source of sugar ~15 calories per tbsp)

-Aides in Digestion

-Source of vitamin C, B's, Calcium and Iron

-Anti-bacterial/Anti-Fungal

-Consuming local honeys aids in allergy prevention

Benefits of  Coconut oil:

I use it for everything....

Plus cooking with ingredients that I have deemed beneficial in some way (and actually are) makes me feel less bad about indulging. This is a high protein, energy mix-- it's perfect pre & post work outs!

Ingredients: (Makes 8-12 servings)
-3 cups of rolled oats (I just use Quaker instant)
-1 c of Pepita's (green pumpkins seeds)
-1c coconut flakes
-1/3c pistachios
- about 1/2 c Cocoanut Oil
- about 1/2 honey
-tbsp or two of cinnamon
-tbsp of salt
-sprinkles of brown sugar (optional)
-Mixed dried berries (the mix I got has cherries, blueberries, cranberries, raisins), I used about a 1cup

Preheat oven to 250 degrees-- Mix DRY ingredients (sans berries) together in a bowl. Line pan with parchment paper-- Mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients, stir until evenly distributed. Taste mixture, if it doesn't need anything, evenly coat pan with granola. If you want your granola to be less "chunky" split ingredients onto two pans.

Place pan (pans) into oven, for one hour and fifteen minutes (or until golden brown) Stir every 15 minutes to achieve even coloring. 

Remove from oven once evenly golden brown, add berries and allow to cool. 

Tips:

My oven is a lot hotter than it should be, so even on the lowest temp I had to watch the granola rather closely, keep your eye on the prize and don't burn it! 

You can use any kind of nuts, seeds, rolled oats etc that appeal to you and yours.

Once cooled store in air tight container-- keeps in fridge for about a week or so. 

I use this as cereal with almond milk, on top of apple sauce, yogurt and it's pretty yummy on a scoop of vanilla! :) It's mighty fine in the palm of your hand too.

So my crunchy kitchen adventures got me really thinking about this "food truck" idea my good friend and I have been tossing around, and I think selling granola to R's coworkers might be a great way to put some money aside to make that actually happen and/or pay for our wedding. :) We're gonna test it out next week and see if we get any bites-- what do we have to lose?

Whats in your granola?

Namaste!
r