Granola

Most mornings at our house breakfast is either eggs, oatmeal, or cereal. Except for Sundays, that is pancake day. 🙂 I think eggs and oatmeal are great wholesome options for breakfast. Cereal on the other hand… Well I have a love/hate relationship with the stuff. It’s nice for the convenience but we can go through a box in just a couple of breakfasts and I’m hungry again an hour after having it. Plus, most cereals are full of a bunch of sugar and they don’t come with a lot of nutrients. So I started searching for granola recipes and tweaking them and this is what I came up with. It makes a ton, its nice and crispy/crunchy, and I always have these ingredients on hand. It’s great with yogurt or just good ol’ milk.

Homemade Granola

8 cups old fashioned oats

2 cups shredded coconut

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

4 t cinnamon

½ cup honey

½ cup coconut palm sugar (you can replace with brown sugar)

1 cup melted butter

2 T vanilla

dash of salt

dried fruit (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl combine oats, coconut, nuts, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl combine honey, sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt. Pour honey mixture over oats and stir to evenly coat. Divide onto 2 cookie sheets. Bake for 45 minutes stirring every 10 minutes until granola is golden brown. Remove and allow to cool completely. If you choose to add in dried fruit or any other add ins now is the time to mix them in. Break up and store in an airtight container.

Recipe adapted from crumbsandchaos.net