A negative turned into a positive...

This post goes out to my sister, who was complaining that I had not updated my blog in a few days. To all of you, I apologize! My daughter has been sick this past week, and I also was not feeling well, so the time to get into the kitchen and cooking was not really taken! I got back on track yesterday though. However, it was an epic FAIL! I attempted to make granola bars. Chewy granola bars at that. Well, what came out of the oven at the end of the cook time, which was actually shorter than the length of time the recipe called for, was totally not chewy! It was crunchy and crispy, and fell apart when I attempted to cut it! 

So, needless to say, all the broken pieces and crumbs (on the right) went straight into my granola bucket for breakfast cereal instead! Which I suppose is fine, since my granola stash was getting low.  Don't think I'll attempt that recipe again.

Now, speaking of granola, we are huge fans of granola in this house. Sure it's usually pretty high in fat (good ones!) and sugar, but it's all natural, and just so darn tasty!  We love it for breakfast, in our yogurt, or on top of ice cream! We usually go through it pretty fast.  So I thought I'd pass along my super tasty recipe to you!  It started off with the bones of Alton Brown's recipe, on foodnetwork.com, and then got altered to suit my wholesome tastes!  

Granola

Ingredients:

4 cups rolled oats (not instant)

1/4 cup wheat bran

1/4 cup flaxseed meal

3/4 cups flaked coconut

1 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup pecan pieces

3 tbsp maple syrup

3 tbsp liquid honey

3 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

 

Directions:

1.  Combine oats, wheat bran, flaxseed, coconut, and nuts in a large bowl.

2.  Combine syrup, honey, oil and salt in a measuring cup.

 

3.  Add syrup mixture to the oats mixture and stir to combine.

4.  Pour onto 2 baking sheets and bake in preheat 250 F oven for 1 1/2 hours, stirring after 45 mins.

5.  Remove from oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet then crumb and store in an airtight container.

I know that it looks like loads of sugar with the syrup and honey, but it helps it all stick together!  I find that using honey helps to make it clump together, so you get those night crunchy clumps we all love.  If you want, you can use just maple syrup or just honey.  I like the way it turns out with both.  As for how long it lasts, if you can keep it in the house, probably at the most 2-3 weeks. Or you can also freeze for longer.