Delicious Homemade Granola

Who knew making granola was so easy? The benefits of making my own are many:

• I know what's going into my husband's stomach, and it's all good stuff
• It's fresher than you could possibly get in the store
• I can pick and choose each ingredient that goes in
• I can adjust the amounts to make a batch that's just the right size to last the week and fit into the container

lots more. but that's a start. I worked off of a recipe i found online.  I didn't have all the ingredients he used, and would rather use locally sourced or on hand stuff anyway. I also changed the sweeteners around to be more healthy and low glycemic. The process was super simple and i could do several other things while the grains were cooking.
I think next time i'll try this with some mixed rolled grains, not just oatmeal. But this is sure tasty! (I would have put in raisins, but hubby said no thanks)

• 2 cups rolled oats (preferably organic)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt (i used fine sea salt)
• 3 T plus 1 tsp veg. oil (i used safflower this time)
• 1/4 cup honey (i mixed honey and agave nectar - would have used all agave but it's a bit spendy. Be sure and use local honey)
• 1/4 Rapadura
• 1 tsp vanilla (i snuck some almond extract in there also)
• the recipe calls for assorted nuts and fruits, i used what we had: about a cup of chopped walnuts and pecans plus some flax seed and hemp for omegas.

Preheat to 325. Toss the oats, cinnamon and salt together. In another bowl mix the wet stuff.  Add the oats to the gooey stuff and mix with your hands well, squishing into several balls and scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula. Spread oats evenly on a pan lined with parchment.
Bake 10 minutes, remove and flip, add nuts
Bake another 5 minutes, remove and flip, add flax and hemp
Bake 10 minutes,  remove and cool. Add fruit now if you're using any.
Let cool completely and transfer to an air tight container. Try not to eat it all now.

Should keep about one week. As if we can keep our hands off that long! This stuff is so good - great balance of sweet and salty. The recipe called for hazelnuts, which i'd loved to have used if i had any. Someday we plan on raising an orchard with filberts and other nuts that i can't wait to use in recipes like this. We have a pecan at this house, but naughty squirrels ate all the nuts before they even got ripe.

A brekkie of granola may not be as satisfying as porridge, but sometimes you need to give the husband something a little sweet to keep him happy (and to thank him for being such a great guy). Plus the house smelled like oatmeal cookies for hours afterward - you can't beat that!

Do you have a favorite granola recipe?