DIY Cereal

One thing I always feel silly buying is cereal.  Its so expensive, and full of sugar.  But hey, I'm pressed for time in the mornings, so I buy it and eat it all the same.  But, every once and a while, I get annoyed with myself for going to spend almost 7 dollars (!?) on a box of cereal, especially when there are no brands on sale.  So I think about how lazy I have become and decide that I will make my own cereal.  It can't be that hard. 

It's actually pretty hard and involved.  I made a rice-krispies-like cereal once, and I was kinda disgusted with the process of puffing the rice.  First you have to cook then dry the rice to within an inch of its existence, then you fry the dried rice to get it to puff.  I never realized that puffed rice was really dried-then-fried rice.  Might as well have regular fried rice for breakfast, because at least there would be vegetables in it.

ANYWAYS, one kind of cereal I love to eat is granola.  But good granola is super-expensive.  My favorite locally made granola is only for sale at the shop in the next town over.  They don't even have it on the website.  But its like 7-10 dollars for a bag of it too.  Even the crappy grocery store brand are at least 5 bucks a box, and its loaded with sugar and other things I don't want for breakfast.  Besides, after finding out how puffed rice is made, I'm a little worried about any potential extra oily steps companies are taking with my granola.  Who knows what goes on in the factory.  And I'm just supposed to trust them?  Cereal is important!  Its the most important meal of the day!

ANYWAYS, I decided it was high time for me to make my own granola again.  I did for a while, then as I said I got lazy.  But not anymore.  It is super easy to make, and quick too.  And I'm going to share with you my recipe.  You can customize it by adding less sugar, or adding your favorite dried fruit to it, but this version is just the bare bones.  The sky's the limit with this stuff! 

This yields a small batch.  You could double or triple it if you wanted to, but you have to eat it within the week.  After that it goes a little stale.

Stephanie's No-Nonsense Granola

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of old fashioned oats
1/3 cup of chopped pecans
1/3 cup of chopped walnuts
1/4 cup of sliced almonds
1/4 cup of raw peptias
3 tbsp unsalted sunflower seeds
2 tbsp of flax seeds
1 tbsp ground flax seeds
3-4 tbsp of brown sugar (or more or less)
1/4 cup of canola oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup of dried fruit (raisin, dried cranberries, etc.) optional

Preheat oven to 350 F.  

Take all the oats, nuts and seeds and mix them together in a bowl.  Mix in the brown sugar, so that it is evenly distributed throughout the mix.  Add oil and vanilla, and mix; make sure that everything is coated in oil and sugar.  Pour onto a baking sheet, and put them into the oven for 8-10 minutes.  Make sure to keep an eye, and pull the sheet out of the oven when everything is starting to get nice and brown. 

Use a spatula to flip and mix the granola.  Put in the oven for an additional 3-5 mins. 

When done cooking, put back into the bowl, and mix in you coconut, and any dried fruit you want to use.  Mix to incorporate into the granola.

Return to the baking sheet and let the granola cool.  This will prevent it from clumping and getting soggy.  After it has cooled completely, put in an air-tight container for storage.  I use mason jars.

Enjoy the granola over yogurt with some fruit.  I also eat it like cereal with milk; only this is way, much better than anything I buy in the store.

Want some variation?  I have also made different flavors.  I've used dried apples and maple syrup instead of brown sugar and I've added nutmeg and cinnamon with raisins to the granola instead of vanilla.

Every time I make my own granola, I wonder why I ever bought cereal in the first place.  Then I remember it was because I was lazy, not because it was hard.  

I hope I never buy cereal again.  Until I become lazy again, that is.