Granola

I’m sure I’m not the only one that looks at my checking account and says, “where did all of my money go”.  So one day I sat down and noticed that a large portion of my paycheck gets spent at the grocery store, considerably more than we even spend on car payments.  In an effort to try to save some money on my grocery bill, and of course as always, make sure that my family is eating healthy, I decided to try to make most of what we eat from scratch.  One of the first things on my list was granola.  Here is what you will need, but feel free to switch it up.  The only thing I tend to keep pretty constant is the amount of oats and sweetener.  (Pictured is a double recipe.)

Ingredients:

Rolled Oats – 2 cups

Wheat Germ  – ½ cup

Chopped Almonds  – 1 cup

White Chocolate Chips – ½ cup

Raisins  – ½ - ¾ cup

Pure Maple Syrup – ½ cup

Honey – ¼ cup

Melted Coconut Oil  – 2 tablespoons

Ground Cinnamon – 1 teaspoon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine first 3 ingredients and toast on a cookie sheet for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Once toasted, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly (if you mix the rest of the ingredients while the oats are hot, it will melt the white chocolate).  Reduce the heat to 300 degrees.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients except for the raisins and white chocolate.  Line a 9x9 cake pan with tinfoil and lighting oil the pan with coconut oil.

Next combine all of ingredients in a bowl.  Dump the mixture in to the prepared pan and press firmly in to the pan.  Bake for about 25 minutes.

Allow to cool and break apart, or cut in to squares.  The tinfoil will help you pull the granola out of the pan easier. 

Because this is not full or preservatives you will need to keep this in an airtight container and you should eat it within a week.  Whatever you are not going to eat with in the week can be stored in the freezer.

Don’t be afraid to be creative with your granola.  The possibilities are endless!  My favorite is switching ground flax seed for wheat germ, dried cranberries for raisins, and leaving out the cinnamon.