Making Granola…Yum.

My new Flickr-blog friend Prairie Girl posted a photo of her breakfast the other day on her shared blog-home: 2 Blessed Beyond Belief . (This is the most gorgeous blog. It’s two beautiful “friends sharing their day to day creative journey”… Kim (also a new flickr friend and a kindred spirit, she and I may be related…) and Prairie Girl inspire me every single day. They have also been sources of gentle, loving encouragement over the past few weeks when I needed it most. I’m growing to love these gals more and more. Click over, you’ll love them too.)

Prairie Girl’s breakfast was granola and yogurt. Simple. But her picture was gorgeous. And I couldn’t stop thinking about homemade granola.(I’m so impressionable)

I poured over  recipes and basically found out…making granola is easy.

So on our Georgia snow day this week I made my first batch of granola.

I didn’t want to simply make a sugary fatty granola. (well, honestly I did want to but I behaved. I’m trying to “Live Well”!)

To keep it healthy, I didn’t use oil and sweetened it with molasses and honey. But many recipes call for a bit of brown sugar or Splenda for sweetening. It’s up to you!

Here are the basic proportions for the healthier version. Start here and the sky’s the limit! (I’ll give you my recipe, adapted from bunches of other recipes, in a moment!)

* 1 part oil

* 2 parts honey

*3 -4 parts seeds and nuts

* 4 parts grains

* 3-4 parts dried fruit

Here’s what I put together…

Healthy Granola

* 6 Cups Old fashioned oats

* 3 Cups Steele Cut oats

* 1/2 Cup flax seed

*1  1/2 Cups slivered almonds

* 1  1/2 Cups chopped walnuts

* 1  1/2 Cups water (splash more in when mixing if needed)

* 3/4-   1  Cup honey

* 3/4-  1  Cup molasses (could use maple syrup or sorghum)

* 2 teaspooons cinnamon

* 1 Tablespoon vanilla

*2 Cups dried fruit (I used cranberries, but blueberries would be yummy too!)

~Heat oven to 300*

~Combine oats, flax seed and nuts. Mix well.

~In large saucepan, combine water, honey sorghum, cinnamon and vanilla

~Pour syrup over dry ingredients and stir until coated well.

~Spread onto parchment covered cookie sheets.

***To create clusters: Squeeze the granola with your hands to form small clumps. If you need to add a bit of water to your hands to get it to stick together. (1/2 cup Wheat Germ will help the water form a “mortar”.  Next time I’m adding wheat germ!)***

~Bake 20-30 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes.

~Store in air-tight container. Add to yogurt or just snack on it! The Husband ate it with skim milk and loved it!!!

Thank you to the moon and back Sweet Friends for all your support this past week. I’m going to share very soon all that’s been going on around here. I just need a bit more time. Thank you a million times over for the prayers and sweet encouragements you’ve sent my way.

Those things matter.

xoxo

(Linking to Michael West’s Foodie Friday today.)

Tagged as: granola recipe, healthy granola, liviing well