My first granola

This inspiration comes from my client Susan, who brought warm granola to my house on Monday morning. It was very sweet of her and I forgot to ask for the recipe, so I decided to make some myself and follow on an actual recipe later.

My second inspiration was reading about granola online and finding how much it has changed since the original idea of crunchy grains and nuts. If you bought granola in the store, you would expect to get something like oats, rice, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, raisins and maybe a few pieces of chocolate, all spiced up a bit and with a touch of butter for flavor.

However, if you look on the box, it looks more like this: Rice. Granola Bar Pieces, Whole Grain Oats, Sugar, Crisp Rice, Rice Flour, Malt Extract, Salt, Canola Oil, Soy Lecithin, Honey, Brown Sugar, Syrup, Baking Soda, Natural Flavor, Wheat Flour,Whole Grain Oats, Whole Grain Wheat, Whole Grain Corn, Wheat Bran, Corn Bran, Barley Malt Extract, Cinnamon, Salt, Annatto Extract Color, Nonfat Milk, Vitamin E Mixed Tocopherols - Added to Preserve Freshness.
Contains: Soy, Wheat and Milk ingredients.

Compare this to the ingredients in the granola I made:

old fashioned oats (3 cups)
quinoa (1/2 cup)
amaranth (1/4 cup)
sesame seeds (1/6 cup)
flax seeds (1/6 cup)
almonds and cashews ( 1 cup)
raisins and dried cranberries (1 cup)
honey ( 2 tbsp)
butter (4 tbsp)
sea salt ( 2 tsp)
cinnamon ( 2 tsp)

Less ingredients, for sure. Also, no low quality fats like the canola, corn, or soybean oil that you would normally find in granola. Also, no straight sugar or HFCS or anything hard to even pronounce, let alone assimilate.

To make, preheat the oven to 300F (150С). Melt the butter and mix with the honey over medium heat. Remove and add the salt and cinnamon to the mixture.

Mix all dry ingredients except for the dried fruit, in a pan and pour the wet ones on top. Mix very well and bake for 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15-20 minutes for even color.

Let it cool off, add the raisins and craisins, and store in an airtight container. It will keep for a couple of weeks.

You can serve using 1/4 cup granola over yogurt, Greek yogurt or cottage cheese or even get daring and sprinkle it on salads.


Famous granola quotes:

''I made granola once, but I don't anymore, because I just ate it all and calories make you fat.''

" This granola would be so much healthier without the granola bar pieces as a major ingredient.''