Grain-ola

I love cereal.
That sentence doesn't even begin to describe my passion for a cold crunchy bowl of wholesome goodness first thing in the morning.

I am NOT a morning person. I love the convenience of cereal. Virtually no thinking involved. If I had it my way I would serve my children cereal every morning. Or, better yet, have my 5 yr old serve himself AND his siblings. I'm not talking about the giant sugary bags of corn puffs ladies. Lord knows the last thing my kids need in the morning is a sugar high.

That's where I run into a dilemma. When the boys were younger I bought the healthy- organic- whole grain- kid- attractive cereals with an animal or character on the cover. They loved it. And so did my hubby and I. A $5-6 box would last maybe two days. So there I was, spending $25 a week on boxed cereal. Ridiculous.

After taking a Dave Ramsey class and really buckling down on our finances this was an area that we could improve on. I was forced to wake up and actually turn on the stove in the morning. Instead of high priced cereal we would eat oatmeal, eggs and toast, homemade muffins, fruit and yogurt. oh poor me. ;)

I have tried my hand at granola several times in the past 2 years. It always turned out just OK. But never lived up to my high expectations.

Well ladies, I have found a fill for the cereal void in my life.

It's from the book Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

Grain-ola

4 cups of old fashioned or quick cooking rolled oats

3/4 cup unsalted raw sunflower seeds

1 cup walnuts or macadamia nuts, chopped in quarters

1 1/2 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut

1 1/2 cups of assorted "unsulfured" dried fruit (not sure exactly what that means, but I used dried cranberries from the bulk section of Whole foods...hopefully unsulfured? Next time I think I'm going to try dried papaya)

Grated zest of 2 oranges (I didn't have this on hand and left it out. Still tasted great! But I will add this in my next batch.)

3/4 cup of raw mild- flavored honey

1/4 cup of coconut oil

Preheat oven to 300. Set aside 2 rimmed baking sheets.

Combine oats, seeds, nuts, coconut, dried fruit, and zest in large bowl. Heat the honey and coconut oil in small saucepan over low heat. Whisk to thoroughly combine, then pour over oat mixture and stir until everything is well coated.

Divide the mixture between the 2 baking sheets and spread into a thin layer. Bake, stirring every 10 minutes, for about 40 minutes, until toasty brown. Cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temp.

You have GOT to try this recipe. Amazing. I'm not a big coconut fan and passed over this recipe several times thinking I would not like it. But I have LOVED everything I've tried in the book so far and decided to give it a go....a new fav indeed. Just wanted to spread the love. Hope you enjoy! And if you don't get to making it....well, you can be sure this will be my Christmas gifts this year....you may get lucky!

P.S. Yes, I know the pics have nothing to do with granola...but they were the most recent food related pics I could find.  Camille and Maya eating another obsession of mine.  Uncle Vinny's Pizza.  Mmmmmm...