Awesome Granola

Last night I was a baking machine. I made cookies and granola, and also prepared for a small dinner party I’m hosting tonight (my sirloin steaks are now happily bathing in a top-secret fajita marinade).

I wanted to share my favorite recipe for granola, which I found in an issue of Runners World magazine last fall. It’s easy, healthy, and delicious. And you can modify the recipe however you’d like. Oftentimes, I like to add dried cranberries, coconut flakes, chocolate chips, sunflower seeds, etc. You can really make the recipe your own. I love to eat the finished product with vanilla yogurt for breakfast or by itself as a mid-afternoon snack. Following is the recipe straight from Runner’s World. Enjoy!

Awesome Granola (Runners World, September 2006)
Makes 5 cups

2 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat-bran cereal
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup blanched whole or slivered almonds
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup buckwheat honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup seedless rasins

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine oats, bran, wheat germ, almonds, and cinnamon in a bowl. Heat the honey and oil in a saucepan until small bubles appear around the sides of the pan. Pour over dry mixture and toss until well combined. Spread evenly in a foil-lined shallow baking pan. Bake 40-50 mins. or until golden brown, stirring every 10 mins. Add rasins. Cool and store in an air tight container.