Granola, for real

I am proud to announce that just a few days ago I officially underwent an important hippie rite of passage and made my first batch of home made granola!  I found this awesome menonite cookbook that used to be Ami's grandma's.  Can you believe it? A hidden gem lurking unbeknownst to me for all this time inconspicuously tucked into our bookcase.  It's got all kinds of goodies in it, really practical stuff like basic recipes that you can add to depending on what you have and need to use up or whats in season (like for muffins).  It also has this recipe for a home made baking mix (think Bisquick) that you store in a container to make quick biscuits, pancakes, muffins, etc.   So this has been the first of what I anticipate may be many recipes from this cookbook.   Although, I actually think I deviated significantly enough that it was kind of my own recipe by the end.  The original wanted me to use things like wheat germ.  I know it's high in vitamin E and iron, which are really important nutrients in pregnancy but I took one look at it in the bulk bin and saw what, to me, obviously looked like chicken feed.  I decided that since I don't have a gizzard I probably don't need any right now.  Maybe next time :)  Anyway, this is one of those projects like making my own bread that amounts to pretty fantastic savings in the grocery bill compared with buying the prepared product.

The Recipe:

4 cups old fashioned oatmeal
2 cups puffed millet cereal (any puffed grain cereal could easily be used)
1 1/2 cups coconut flakes
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup chopped almonds
1 1/2 cups dried cherries
2/3 cup melted coconut oil
1 1/2 cups honey

Mix it up, press it into a generously oiled cookie sheet, then bake at 325 for about 30 min.  Allow to cool then crumble and store in an air tight container.




This recipe made me over a gallon of finished cereal, so I might caution that if anyone else decides to try this is for serious hippies only (tee hee hee).  Maybe cutting it in half or even down to a quarter of the amounts above might be advisable if you're not cooking for a family (or in my case mostly your pregnant self since Ami doesn't eat much cereal and Chobe has to be rationed or he'll try to live off of it and go CRAZY).   My review, after having it for breakfast for the last few days is that it's delicious.  It's a little sweet, it doesn't make my blood sugar spike and crash or anything, but you could probably get by using less honey.  Agave or maple syrup would probably work too.  I can't do agave because it makes me feel like I've been drinking heavily minus the whole drunk part, so I just feel like I have a mild hang over the next day (I've heard it can be hard on your liver, but I haven't heard anyone else with as dramatic of a reaction to it as me).  Maple syrup I think would be more tasty, but it's not as cheap for us over here as honey is, and the honey is local for bonus hippy points.



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