Dang Good Granola

Good afternoon, y'all.

Do you make your own granola?

Who, me?

I didn't, either until yesterday. I'm no authority on making granola. All I can say is this is a dang good recipe & I'm looking forward to making more.

This granola has fruit puree (applesauce) in it, which I think is just grand. Using fruit purees with no added sugar are a good way to cut back on the sugar you have to put in!

Each 1/4c serving of granola has 6g sugar.

Granola is fun because you can do whatever you want to it, and then you really feel like you have your own little recipe. Also, it makes your house smell good. Like, really good.
  (Useful for when the male strangers from craigslist you moved in with smoke a lot of dank weed).

No dried fruit because it's summer and you can eat it with fresh fruit, dummy.

Do you want the recipe?

Dang Good Granola adapted from this guy (without many changes)

Ingredients:::

• 2.5 cups of rolled oats (I used Kroger brand old fashioned oats--a tip for you: old fashioned=rolled)
• 1.25 cups walnuts (I grabbed the ones I had in my freezer, and roughly chopped them. Pecans would have been good too)
• 1/2 cup salted sunflower seeds (you can get a giant bag from Kroger for 3$! Flax seeds would work too, if you like them but the sunflower seeds add A LOT and I do not recommend their omission.)
• 1/4 cup unpacked light brown sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon (or more, if you like cinnamon, or less if you don't. Other spices to consider... nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice mix?)
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp salt (if you like a less sweet and more salty granola, add more)
• 3/4 cup no sugar added applesauce (they sell this really cheaply in big plastic jars on the dried fruit aisle! you can use the rest as an egg substitute for other recipes, or just eat it, or make a lot of granola.. I mean, not that I'm bossing you; you do you girl)
• 1/4 cup honey (this might can be replaced with agave, or other liquid sweetener if you wanted)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

So, you preheat your oven to 300F (150C). Meanwhile, mix the oats, nuts, seeds, sugar, spices and everything nice all up in a bowl. 

Over the stove, warm the honey, applesauce, and olive oil in a small pan. I did this over high heat which I later lowered to medium heat when it accidentally began to boil. Whoops. You just want to make it all combined and not viscous and easy to pour.

Pour it in the bowl with your dry stuff. Mix it all up with a spoon, so all the oats and everything is covered--it doesn't have to be soaked so you don't need a ton of sauce. I gave you the right measurements! 

(well, I might have listed a little extra applesauce)

Take yourself a pan, don't worry about greasing it or lining it. (That's right, don't you dare cover that sucker in tin foil! It'll only get in your way.)

Cookie pan, casserole dish, rusty metal sheet... What do you bake on?

Pour the mixture onto the pan, spreading it evenly across the surface.

Put it in your oven for 45 minutes, stirring every 10. 

(whoops, did I forget to mention you have to babysit it? 

You don't want all the clumps to start sticking together

 and you definitely don't want it to burn your nuts, so just stir it!)

That's right, bitch. Stirring is some serious shit.

Maybe while you make it you can pop in that yoga DVD you've been meaning to try, and pause it for a break every 10 minutes.

Once it's finished, leave it on the counter to cool completely! This is what it needs to get all crispy and wonderful. I took the dog on a walk to the farmer's market while we waited for it to cool.

Nutrition Information

Ingredient	Calories	Fat (g)	Carbs (g)	Protein (g)
Total Recipe	2685	157	293	65
Per Serving	128	7	14	3

Recipe above makes 21 servings of 1/4 cup.