Hooray for Granola! I went through an extended Earth-mother phase. When we got married, we promptly moved to Hawaii. At the time, the North Shore of Oahu was the hippie capital and even though Greg was in the Army, we tried to fit right in. I became a vegetarian, he started jogging, no TV, everything was about healthy living.
This lifestyle extended even on our return to Seattle. I made all of our bread, lots of our clothes, and with the arrival of this recipe, most of our cereal. The boys were welcome to read the labels, but if sugar was in the first 3 ingredients, we wouldn’t buy it.
After making granola weekly for about 15 years, I stopped. Those healthy little ingredients played havoc on boys wearing braces. When the braces were all removed, I could not find the granola recipe anywhere. Major crisis. We were all missing our granola. I even contacted Prevention Magazine where I originally found the recipe. No such luck.
I ended up trying about 10 or 12 different recipes. I could remember enough of my basic ingredients to know what was right and what was not. I sent out samples of the top 3 to the boys and this is the one they picked. This granola is not overly sweet. I don’t put the dried fruit in until the granola is well cooled. Baking the fruit with the granola makes for an incredibly hard raisin. It stays crunchy in milk and the flavor is nutty. Whether you like it with milk, fruit and yogurt, or dry as a snack, this granola will make you ever so happy.
Combine in a large bowl, and I do mean large bowl:
- 10 cups Old Fashioned oats
- 2 cups shredded coconut
- 1 cup raw sunflower seeds
- 1 ½ cups sliced almonds
- 1 ½ cups pecan pieces
- ½ cup sesame seeds
Blend together
- 1 ¼ cups cooking oil
- 1 ¼ cups honey
- 1 cup water
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Pour wet mixture over dry ingredients and mix until completely combined. Spread mixture on 2 greased baking sheets. Bake for 1 hour stirring and rotating pans every 15 minutes.
After cooling add:
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup dried cranberries or blueberries
This makes approximately 17 cups of granola.
* From the Recipe Box:
Back when I was in my Earth Mother phase, I found a granola recipe in Prevention magazine that everyone loved and I made it weekly. After 10 years, I quit making it and the recipe is now lost. After trying over a dozen different recipes, this is a close approximation. I sent out samples of the top 3 to get it son approved and this was the clear winner. Ina Garten’s Homemade Granola was a contender but the fruit softened the granola while stored.
and remember: Be a Fruitloop in a world of Cheerios. Big kiss, Lynn
From the Recipe Box 