Homemade Granola (on the cheap)
If my little family had its way, we would have a hardy breakfast every morning. Pancakes, omelets, hash browns...you name it, we like it. But, then there's reality, and I don't always have (nor choose to have) an hour to cook every morning, especially lately! We don't buy boxed cereal, trying to stay away from sugar saturated puffed corn and rice. There is simply no very little to no nutritional value to them at all! Then there's the price, paying $5 a box only to open it up when you get it home and find that there's only about two bowls worth of cereal in it. In short, we make our own cereal in our house. Its healthier and way more cost effective.
One batch of our granola cost us around $10 to make and fills 2 gallon ziplock bags full of granola. For us, that works out to about 24-30 bowls full! My other tip, ALWAYS buy these ingredients in bulk! It will cost you much less and will save a lot of packaging waste.
Opal's Homemade Granola
- 10 C. rolled oats (old fashioned NOT quick oats)
- 3/4 C. brown sugar
- 1 C. honey
- 1 1/2 C. olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- Mix ins
- (optional and changeable)
- 1 C. dried cranberries
- 3/4 C.walnut pieces
- 3/4 C. almond slivers
- 1 1/2 C. date pieces
To Make: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put oats in large bowl and add brown sugar and cinnamon, mix. In separate bowl, combine honey, olive oil, vanilla and salt, mix well. Add wet to dry and mix well.
To Prep Nuts: Nut will have to be toasted before they are ready to add to the granola. To do this, put nuts on pan and toast at 350 for about ten minutes. Be careful and watch them, it doesn't take much time. Pull them out of the oven and set aside for later.
To Bake: In large pan, add oat mixture till its about 1 inch deep. You will have to toast a little at a time, if the pan it too crowded it will be hard to get any toasting done. Put in oven for about 10 minutes, then pull out and stir it up. Always pull the outside corners in, because those will toast the quickest. Put back in oven for 5 minutes and pull out again to stir. Depending on your oven, it may be done now or need one more 4-5 minute cycle. You want the oats to be a dark golden color but don't worry that it isn't crunchy, that will happen as it cools. When its done, set it aside in a clean bowl or pan to let cool. Repeat the process until all of your oats are toasted, adding it to the cooked bowl/pan as you cook. Make sure to mix every once in a while as it cools so it doesn't become a solid mass.
Mix Ins: Add the mix ins only after the oats come out of the oven. Simply stir in the dry fruit and add the nuts after they have been toasted. Make sure you are adding them while the oats are still warm.
Let cool and store in any air tight container. It may be a little time consuming but its still very easy to do! Granola does, eventually, get stale. But that takes a long time and we usually eat it all before that happens, so no worries.
Enjoy!
More posts from
