Granola

At the church Christmas breakfast in December one of the gals had made some fabulous granola that I couldn't get enough of, and I begged her for the recipe.  A couple of the ingredients could use a healthy makeover, so I changed it up a bit, added a couple of extras and now it's just perfect.  Also, this recipe is HUGE, so I only make a half batch.  Half a batch is all you can fit onto one jelly roll pan, so you'd need two to make a whole batch.  The recipe below is the whole batch, so I cut it half to make mine.

GRANOLA

9 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup whole wheat flour  (I used a gluten free one from a previous post)

1 tsp salt

1/2-3/4 cup ground flax

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup honey

1 cup melted butter or coconut oil

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325.  In a VERY big bowl mix the oats, flour, salt, flax, and coconut.  In a microwaveable glass bowl, melt the butter in the microwave on high for 30 seconds or until almost melted.  Add the honey to the butter and cook for another 30 seconds until well heated (put a napkin on top to stop splatters).  Mix the butter and honey well and add vanilla.  Pour over dry ingredients and mix thoroughly to coat.  Turn onto an ungreased jelly roll pan, spread out evenly, and bake for 20 minutes take out and stir, then bake another 20 minutes.  Cool completely then store in an airtight container.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I get my shredded coconut from the health food store so it's natural and unsweetened, thus eliminating that sugar.  I only make half a batch of this because it's a huge amount and I don't have a container big enough to store it.  Also, you can only fit half a batch on a jelly roll pan, or you would have to use two pans and do two bakings.  That's okay if you have a double oven and can do it all at once, but I don't, so I only do half a batch.

I eat this like it's going out of style!  It's so good, I crave it all day.  I use it like cereal with coconut or almond milk.  I also eat lots of it with vanilla yogurt.  Last night I ate it with apples dipped in peanut butter then dipped in the granola.  That was a little bit awesome.  So try it out on lots of stuff and see what you think.