Recipe #3 Granola

Did you know cold cereal can be one of the most expensive parts of your grocery budget?  I have friends who calculated the cost of cold cereal consumed by their family and promptly changed course.  Pancakes are cheap, oatmeal is cheap, eggs are "cheap" at my house because we have 7 laying hens, but it's all relative since we pay for feed.  I crave granola, but think the low fat versions are too sweet and in general it's pretty expensive.  I buy oats wholesale from my Church's dry pack canning program (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) you don't have to be a member of our church to buy in bulk. HERE is a list of the Home Storage Centers where you can buy in bulk, you just have to call and ask about coming if you are not a member. HERE is the list of items you can buy.  I had a 25# bag of oats open and thought "I need to make granola".  This is the recipe I grew up eating.  If you can buy all your ingredients in bulk (WinCo is great) than this cereal can be cheaper than regular cold cereal.  It's definitely less sweet than commercial granola and best part is- you can make it whatever flavors you want.  If you make sure your oats come from a certified gluten free source- you can make this gluten free (leave out wheat germ).
Granola
8 cups oatmeal
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup canola oil
2/3 cup honey
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
2 tsp vanilla
(any raw nuts you want like sliced or slivered almonds, etc)
Mix together and bake on large cookie sheets or jelly roll pans at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  Add coconut, raisins, dried fruit, etc.  Store in airtight container.

Ok, here is what I learned:  the wheat germ (probably because of it's high fat content) burns more quickly than the oats toast.  I think you could add it halfway through the cooking time which is what I am going to try next time.  I made one and one half times the recipe (12 cups oats) and divided it between 2 sheets, rotating sheets and stirring every 10 minutes. I added a tsp of almond extract with the vanilla and sliced almonds to my batch.  I added dried cherries and some other mixed dried berries that were on sale.  It is not sweet, which I like.  Next time I would like to try other seeds like flax or sesame even.

~Here's to Healthy Eating