Granola

Picture is a bowl of homemade granola and hi-energy bars made from granola.

Granola is a good for breakfast and for snacks. Most varieties of granola that are available in the grocery store have ingredients that are not the best choices for a healthy diet. However, in making our own, we can control the ingredients that are in the granola we eat.

We use granola as cereal for breakfast occasionally when we want a change from our regular breakfast of pancakes made from the five minute pancake recipe that we included in our column of March 2. The column is still listed at our blog site listed below. We also use the granola to make a hi-energy snack bar.

When purchasing ingredients for any recipe we are always careful to look for added sugar, sweeteners or other additives. Many ingredients like the fruit and nuts we grow ourselves, so we know there are no additives in them. Dried fruits and nuts purchased in stores sometimes have sugar, salt, oil that are made from the bad fats and other things added to them. These are the types of things we try to avoid.

The granola is easy to make. We just combine the ingredients below and bake. It bakes at 225 degrees for a total of two hours. This seems like a long time but we make the recipe when we are in the house doing other activities. Also, the recipe can be changed using other nuts and dried fruit in place of the ones listed below.

Ingredients we use most often include:

3 cups uncooked, old-fashioned rolled oats

1 ½ cups unsweetened coconut shreds

½ cup wheat germ

1 cup sunflower seeds

¼ cup sesame seeds

¼ cup flax seed

¼ cup canola oil

½ cup honey

½ cup water

Mix above ingredients and bake for 1 ½ hours. Stir every half hour for even baking.

Then add:

1 cup chopped walnuts

Bake for another half hour.

Remove from oven.

Add:

½ cup raisins

When cool store in a covered container.

To make the hi-energy bars use 2 cups granola and 2 eggs. Mix and spread on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Shape into an oblong shape about 6 inches by 8 inches and ¼ inch thick. Press firmly and cut into bars 1 ½ inches by 2 inches. Bake for 20 minutes at 300 degrees. Cool and re-cut. Store bars in a covered container.

Another use for granola is as a toping on yogurt or ice cream. Healthy foods can taste good and this granola does!