Homemade Granola

I made granola from scratch today. Grit eats granola by the bucket and the good stuff is expensive. For reals, the man's metabolism is in overdrive - he's a bottom-less pit! I found tons of recipes for granola online. I'm amazed at how many of these recipes are trying to to pass themselves off as healthy when they're more like a dessert snack food. I ended up blending a few different ones together and had to leave out cost prohibitive ingredients like dried cherries ($8 a pound? Seriously?). Grit loves raisins. And sunflower seeds. This recipe isn't too sweet and has a very warm flavor. I used a little too much nutmeg so I'm going to halve it next time. Granola is really really easy and I'm going to try different spices, nuts and fruit next time. Here's my recipe:

Preheat oven to 350

4 C rolled oats
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (I used 1 tsp originally)
3 TB brown sugar
2 tsp salt
2 TB flax meal
1/3 C vegetable oil
1/3 C apple cider
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C honey
1/3 C sunflower seeds
1/2 C raisins

Put the dry ingredients (oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and flax meal) together in a big bowl and combine. In another bowl, combine the vegetable oil, apple cider, vanilla, brown sugar, and honey and whisk until blended. It's not going to stay blended, so pour it immediately over the oats and mix together until it's coated. Pour it onto a baking sheet and spread it out. Put it in the oven for 10 minutes. Take it out, add the sunflower seeds, and stir it around. Put it back in the oven for 10-15 min or until it's browned to your liking. Take it out and let it cool completely. Add the raisins or fruit of your choice and store in an airtight container.

See? Easy.

We'll see if this holds him.