Breakfast of Champions

Around our house the cold cereal of choice is granola.  We used to buy it in bulk from the Co-op.   Then, one day, I found a recipe for what looked like the same basic granola (Maple Almond) and decided to try it.  It was really yummy, especially after tweaking the recipe a little to suit our tastes.  Being the smart shoppers we are, we priced out the bulk vs. the homemade.  The homemade came in a few cents less expensive.  Plus, we liked it better.  Thus began my career of making granola for the family.  Even the 10-year-old likes it.  

Personally I like fresh fruit on my granola, when I have it.  Luckily so does the rest of the family, so no dried fruit in our cereal.   I also prefer mine with yogurt but milk tastes pretty darn good on it, too.  

This granola is really easy to make and fairly low fat.  I'm sharing it with you just in case you want to try it.  Plus it makes the house smell wonderful!

Dona’s Granola

3 ½ cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup sliced raw almonds OR coarsely chopped pecans

3 T. packed brown sugar

¾ t. ground cinnamon

½ t. ground ginger

¼ t. salt

1/3 cup maple syrup OR honey

2 T. vegetable oil

1 cup dried fruit, if desired

Preheat oven to 300º F.  Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment.  Mix first 6 ingredients in large bowl.  Stir syrup (or honey) and oil in saucepan over medium-low heat until smooth OR microwave it for about 10 seconds (This is what I do).  Pour liquid mixture over oat mixture; toss until well mixed together.  Spread on prepared sheet.   Bake until golden, stirring every 10 minutes for 30 minutes.  Place the baking sheet on a cooling rack.  Stir granola; cool.  Mix in fruit, if using.  Store in an airtight container.

Our latest version is with almonds but we like the pecans, too.  I think any kind of nuts would be fine.

We also switched from honey to maple syrup but we like them both.  I think the maple syrup version is slightly less sweet, which we like.  Also we don’t like dried fruit in our granola so we leave it out.  We prefer fresh fruit on top instead.

Enjoy!