Granola

Years and years ago, I got frustrated with the price of granola and decided that it couldn't be that hard to make it myself. After looking at some recipes (I think one was an Alton Brown recipe) and at the ingredients in one of the bulk bin granolas sold at the Good Food Store in Missoula (see, it was at least 8 years ago that this happened!), I came up with this recipe. I am, probably, far to proud of it because I made it up myself (standing on the shoulders of giants) and because I really like it. This is a very forgiving recipe; for example, if we are out of oat bran, I just replace it with oats. No flax seeds? Oh well. Flaxless granola is eaten the world over.

Mix together in large bowl:

12 cups oats
2-2.5 cups sliced and/or slivered almonds
2 cups roasted salted sunflower seeds
1/2 (ish) cup brown flax seeds
2 1/4 (ish) cup oat bran
1/2-1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt

Mix together in smaller container (I often heat this in the microwave for 1 minute or so to make it more liquidy);
3/4 cup oil
1 cup honey
Bake at 250 in 3 greased (it's very important to grease the pans) 9x13 pans, stirring every 25 minutes, for 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool completely before storing.

To make it slightly more chunky, squish it all down with a spoon after you've taken it out of the oven the last time. According to the internet, there are ways to make granola more chunky, but I prefer my granola less chunky since I mix it in yogurt, so I don't bother with any of those ways. :)

Enjoy! This makes probably 4-5 quart jars full. I always store it in quart jars so that only small amounts are opened at a time, keeping it fresh (I'm too lazy to make it terribly frequently, so this is my solution).

Since the kids and I usually eat our granola with yogurt and blueberries, here's a picture of Judah with some of the blueberries we picked last summer.