Granola Goodness

Hardly a day goes by that I don't consume granola. Usually it is found atop my yogurt and berries breakfast, and other times I just eat handfuls straight from the box. Thats right, a box. I never gave making granola much though until recently, but I'm always told how it's cheaper, tastier, etc. so I thought I'd give it a try.

Originally, I'd wanted to go with the recipe everyone was raving about, but I was um....to lazy to leave the house and buy rice syrup. Also? At the time the only applesauce in my fridge was fruit punch flavored. Luckily, the awesomeness of making granola is that you can riff and experiment off a few basic principles, so I decided to find a few recipes and tweak them a bit.

End result? It is absolutely worth it. It's easy, cheap and I bet I'll never become bored experimenting with the millions of possibilities.

Here are my edits: I really liked the cinnamon flavor, but I might hold off on adding that much again until the fall. In my mind, cinnamon is reserved for September-December. Also, instead of orange juice I used apple juice (again, too lazy to leave the house for ingredients). Lastly, I didn't want it to be too sugary so I cut back on the honey and and brown sugar ever-so-slightly.


Power Granola
(from CookingLight)


Ingredients
2 c. oats
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
1/4 c. chopped slivered almonds
2 t. ground cinnamon
1/3 c. orange juice 
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 t. canola oil
1 t. vanilla extract
Cooking spray
1/3 c. dried fruit (I used cranberries)


Preparation
Preheat over to 300°

Combine first four ingredients in a medium bowl.

Combine orange juice, honey and brown sugar in a small saucepan and head over medium until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and stir in oil and vanilla.

Pour wet mixture over oat mixture, stirring to coat. Spread into a thin layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 300 for 10 minutes; stir well. Bake and additional 10-15 minutes (note: for crunchier granola, I went for 20-25 more minutes). Spoon into a bowl, stir in dried cranberries. Cool completely. 

Store in an airtight container at room temp.