Breakfast Granola

I like clean food. I like food that doesn't have a whole lot of extra ingredients that I can't pronounce. That always makes me nervous. And, once upon a time, I read Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food, and I really liked it. There's a part in there about how our grandmothers wouldn't recognize what we call food today as food. He specifically brings up yogurt. And I discovered that even plain yogurt sometimes isn't just milk and bacteria. So I started making my own yogurt. My first attempt (I blogged about it here) was a total bust. I had icky milk with yogurt aftertaste in a jar. I then borrowed the Home Ec teacher's yogurt maker and had amazing success! Knowing I have to return it at some point, I asked for one for Christmas. And I got it! Hooray!! 

I under cooked my first batch. oops. Oh well. Today I'm making batch #2 and I have high hopes!

The question becomes though: "What? Do you just eat plain yogurt?" Um no. Homemade yogurt is delicious and doesn't really need a sweetener, but it's, um, plain. So I searched Pinterest (God I love Pinterest!) and found some granola recipes. And I started making granolas. I made this one. And this one. And this one! And I started fiddling around with the recipes. Finally I came up with a recipe I like a TON. And I'm going to share it with you. 

Princess is stirring the granola!

Another nice thing about granola, besides how tasty it is, is that the princess can help! This is especially good because we've been kinda trapped inside our home since the beginning of the year. We didn't get the giant snowstorm that was in the forecast, but it's been really really cold. And my darling princess has a cold. I think when she gets older, it will be fun to have her help me all the time, but for now we're sticking to stirring the granola and helping to scramble the eggs for breakfast.

The Princess eating eggs that she helped scramble!

Yummy Breakfast Granola

An original Shazamer recipe

4 C Old Fashioned Oats

1 ½ C slivered almonds

½ C packed brown sugar

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

¼ C canola oil

¼ C maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup sunflower seeds

½ cup dried apricots, chopped

Preheat oven to 300°F

Mix oats, almonds, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice together in large container. In a small bowl combine oil, syrup, and vanilla. Pour liquid ingredients into oats. Stir until well mixed.

Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper. Spread granola evenly on pan.

Bake 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

Add coconut, stir, and bake 5 more minutes. When finished, mix in cranberries, sunflower seeds, and apricots and allow to cool completely.

Enjoy.