Breakfast Time!

Mornings have always been a challange for me. I hate waking up early and any communication between myself and another person usually just sounds like grunting. Sadly, I'm not of the coffee drinkers camp so waking up is slightly more of a challenge. Since I'm usually half asleep, making a complicated breakfast isn't really in my best interest. Enter the old stand-by: Cereal. Just add milk and, BOOM, done! Only one dish to clean and there are plenty of varieties to choose from.

Unfortunately, I never realised how expensive cereal was. I eat about one box in a week-and-a-half and with my favorite cereal averaging $4 a (small) box, I wanted to find an alternative. I like granola-type cereals (such as Kashi Berry Crisp, yum) so I thought giving homemade granola a whirl. Result? Crunchy cereal with healthy dried fruits and no unhealthy additives. It's simple and so easy to customize for individual tastes.

Granola with Dried Fruit

adapted from King Arthur Flour

I tweaked this recipe a lot. First, I halved the recipe because it makes 18 cups of granola and I didn't want that much. Second, I didn't add a lot of the ingredients called for since I didn't have them on hand. I left out the coconut, wheat germ (subbed a small amt. of wheat flour), almonds, and sunflower seeds. Lastly, I used half Orange Blossom honey and half corn syrup instead of pure maple syrup. It added a nice floral element to the granola without overpowering it.

3 1/3 cups quick rolled oats
1/3 cups wheat flour (this helped make crunchy clumps)
1 1/4 cups chopped pecans
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup orange blossom honey
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2  cups total of raisins and dried apricots, apricots chopped
1 cup Rice Crispies

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, wheat flour, and chopped pecans.
Make sure you use humongous pecans like I did (Terri Lynn has the best nuts...hahahaha)

In a measuring cup, measure out the oil, honey and corn syrup, then add the salt and vanilla to this mixture and stir. Pour over the oats and mix until well coated.

Spread onto a lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 250 degrees for about 90 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Once the granola has finished baking pour into a large bowl, chop up the fruits and stir them in along with the Rice Crispies (I would have added these at the beginning, stirring them in with the oats, but I forgot).                                                                     

Voila! Granola!