Mmmm...granola

I've been wanting to make granola for a while now. I picked up organic rolled oats, milled here in Maine, when I picked up my order from KLFI and collected other odds and ends when I remembered, like golden raisins, dried cranberries, almonds, pecans, flax seeds, sunflower seeds and mini chocolate chips (because I like a little chocolate in my granola).

I read about 6 different recipes and eventually said to hell with it and did it my own way.

I threw the rolled oats in a bowl, added honey and melted butter (no idea how much, but kept adding until I felt that the oats were coated), mixed it all up, added pecans, almonds and flax seeds, mixed it up again and put it on a stoneware baking pan in a 350 degree oven.  I baked it for about 40 to 45 minutes, stirring it up every 10 minutes or so to get an even golden color throughout.

After I took it out of the oven, I let it rest for a bit, let it cool and put it back into the bowl so it could go into the fridge for an hour to really chill down (didn't want to be adding chocolate chips to mildly warm granola...talk about messy if I did!).  When it was finally cold, I added the raisins, cranberries, sunflower seeds and chocolate chips, and transferred it all to a giant glass container with a tight fitting lid (to keep the air out and the freshness in).

Talk about YUMMY! I've been eating this for breakfast and its really tasty.  Plus I have the added pleasure of knowing that I made it and that I have enough left over ingredients to make up another big batch...well, minus the rolled oats, but I'll pick up another pound or two of those with the next KFLI order. So the initial cost of making it gets spread out between two batches, which is better than spending nearly $5 a box for a granola cereal that will barely last me a week!