Granola Recipe

     Earlier this year I posted a picture and recipe of my heart-y breakfast.  After years of starting my day with a warm bowl of rolled grain, I've changed it up a little.  This year for Christmas, Ben and Amy Riemer gave us a really tasty batch of granola, filled with nuts and fruit and seeds.  We really enjoyed the gift and when it was gone, decided to make some ourselves.  I searched for the perfect recipe and in the end, realized granola was actually pretty easy to make.  The main ingredients you need are grain, nuts, oil and water.  You also need to cook it on a low temperature for a long time.  After spending some time looking at other recipes, I created one that I thought would be good.  It was great, so, here is my new favorite breakfast....

Granola (doesn't it look yummy?)

Granola is a great source of protein, iron, fiber and calcium.  The nuts and grains make it a complete protein.  I mix equal parts of rolled barley, rolled rye and rolled oats for use in this recipe.  

Step 1-  Preheat oven to 275F

Step 2-  Gather your ingredients

The Ingredients 

5 Cups of rolled oat/barley/rye mixture (you can just use rolled oats if you like.)
1/2 cup pecans-chopped
1/2 cups almonds-chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil

Step 3-
Measure your rolled grain mixture, your chopped nuts and your brown sugar into a large bowl and mix well.

                            

Step 4-

Measure you oil, water and maple syrup into a bowl and mix well.

                           

Step 5-

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix them together until all of the dry ingredients are moist.

                               

Step 6-

Spread the mixture evenly in a cookie sheet with sides.

Step 7-

Bake for 30-40 minutes on 275F.  Pull the granola out of the oven and stir it up a little then smooth it back down and bake for another 30-40 minutes.

Step 9-
When your granola is done, it will be golden brown.  Pull it out of the oven to cool.  At this point you can add a cup of dried fruit like raisins, currents, apricots, cranberries, cherries, whatever, or just leave it plain.  We like to just leave it plain and add fresh fruit when we eat it for breakfast.  But you can do whatever you want.

You will want to let it cool completely before eating it or putting it in a storage container.  

It only takes a few minutes to mix the ingredients.  This is an easy recipe to try.  

Linking to....  Sincerely, Paula-No Rules weekend blog party with link #79; A Round Tuit ; Flamingo Toes-Think Pink Sunday No. 159;