Homemade Granola- better for you, cheaper, and easy as pie!

My family loves granola.  They like it on their yogurt, plain as a snack, and with milk at breakfast.  Sadly I am so cheap that I would only buy a box of granola from the store as a treat.  I mean those boxes of granola are expensive and small!  My eldest daughter is always begging me to buy it but I say no because it only lasts one day.

Well the other day I was browsing one of my favorite sites and came across a link to another blog about making healthy homemade granola.  And so I bopped over to see how hard it was to make.   Well I have to say that granola is as easy as mixing up mud and you just throw it in the oven.  This recipe makes a delicious granola like some of the high end ones you find in the store.  Now I make a batch every week and like it so much that I have it for breakfast.  Just to let you know I am not a big granola fan so that tells you how good this is.  My kids love it and call it yummy crunchy mix and have it for snack, on yogurt, or with breakfast.  As a side note my son will not eat vegetables willingly so he gets very little of essential minerals, but granola (with my tweaks) has huge amounts of these very important nutrients.

Also this recipe seems to help regulate blood sugars due to the use of the nuts which add protein.

Now as with most of my recipes I have tweaked it to add nutrition and cater to our family tastes so I will give you the original and then my tweaks.  Also granola is very healthy for you with tons of essential vitamins and minerals that most of us Americans don't get.  Some of the nutritional benefits of the ingredients are

Wheat germ- high in vit E
Molasses- high in
 manganese18%

copper14%

iron13.2%

calcium11.7%

potassium9.7%

magnesium7.3%

vitamin B65%

selenium3

Oats-
manganese68%

selenium18%

phosphorus18%

fiber15.9%

magnesium15.7%

zinc15.6%

all the ingredients

dry ingredients ready to mix

wet ingredients

ready to go into the oven

my additions to the recipe are underneath

Oats &Honey Granola 

6 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
3 T. wheat germ
3 T. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 t. non refined sea salt
1/3 c. raw honey
5 T. butter
3 T. olive oil or coconut oil
1 T. molasses 
1 1/2 t. vanilla
4 T. water

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.

Using a large roasting pan, mix oats, sugars, wheat germ & flour, and salt until it's all combined.

Over medium heat, bring the honey, butter, oil, molasses, vanilla, and water to a simmer. Pour over the oat mixture and stir well with a wooden spoon moistening most of the oats.

Should you choose to make clusters, you may want to oil your hands to help with the stickiness. Squeeze handfuls of the oats together to make clumps.

Bake for 30 minutes, stir. Bake for another 30 minutes and stir again. Bake for a final 30 minutes and then turn out on the counter to cool.

Here are some things I have added or tweaked to add nutrition for my non vegetable eating son

1 cup raw cashew nuts- high in magnesium, copper, vitamin E and other essential minerals.  Magnesium is especially important because most Americans a seriously defiant in it causing a whole slew of problems.  I know from first hand experience how important this mineral is and have seen significant health changes since increasing my intake

1 cup raw pecans or almonds chopped - high in these minerals and vitamins

manganese 45%

vitamin E44.8%

magnesium24.6%

tryptophan21.8%

copper20%

vitamin B217.6%

phosphorus16.8%

I use virgin coconut oil in place of all the butter and olive oil

I use raw honey in place of regular honey

I use raw cane sugar in place of regular sugar