Monday, December 29, 2008

Clean-out-the-pantry granola

Does anyone else have children that don't finish things?  Well, projects, yeah, but food?  My children love to snack on dried fruit but for some reason, they almost never eat the last little bit.  As a result, I have lots of packages of little bits of dried fruits and nuts.  I finally got fed up with all the little bits and decided to find a use for them.  Since I'm also trying to clear some of the oatmeal out of the freezer, I decided to make granola.  I haven't made any for a long time and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
I only roughly follow the recipe (I doubled it based on quantities of ingredients I had)
Here it is- feel free to improvise:
Hippy chick granola (not my name for it but I kind of like it)
2 c rolled oats (NOT quick oats)
1 c peanuts or almonds (I don't like peanuts in my granola- I used a combination of slivered almonds and walnuts- they were what I had on hand that needed used)
1/4 c sesame seeds (I actually had some of these in the freezer!)
1/2 c sunflower seeds (I didn't have any so mine is sunflowerless)
1/2 c coconut (sweetened or unsweetened- I use unsweetened- some big flakes and some shredded)
1/4 c toasted wheat germ (I actually had some of this as well- I'm as surprised as you are!)
1/2 c raisins (I had just enough golden raisins left)
1/2 c mixed dried fruit (I used the last bits of craisins, dried tart cherries, and chopped dates- I like it with chopped dried apricots, too, but those they finished!)
scant 1/4 c cooking oil (NOT olive oil)
1/2 c honey (I used part honey part maple syrup)

Mix oats, nuts and grains in large bowl.  Measure oil into cup and swirl it around to coat the cup before you add it in to the bowl.  Measure honey into the oily cup- it helps it slide out- add to the mix.  Toss these together until well coated.  Spread on a baking sheet with sides or a roasting pan.  Toast at 300 F for about 30 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes or so until light golden brown. 
Mmm, toasty!
Return to mixing bowl, add dried fruits and raisins and stir.  It will stick together as it cools so you can stir it to break up the chunks as big as you would like, either chunky for snacking or small for topping.

Yum!
This is one of those recipes that I like- you can't really go wrong and it's great for using up those little bits of things that are languishing in the pantry (or in the fridge).

5 comments:

  1. As you saw in my Indy post, I made granola too, this week. Our recipes do look similar. I also agree about not putting in peanuts. I like the part-maple idea.

    I bought a lot of dried fruit as part of our food storage, and we eat a surprising amount of it, now that it is around. DH likes the apricots. I like the prunes and the dried pineapple. I put raisins in oatmeal and all sorts of baking.

    What are we going to cook next? :-)

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  2. Oh, yum, that looks really good! My kids are the same way. I am constantly chopping up half-bitten apples for the dehydrator. I am going to have to make a batch of this granola (I like the name too!)

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  3. I'm definitely going to have to try this - we love granola and I know I have tons of 1/2 bags of this, quarter bags of that. Great idea!
    Kris

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  4. I will have to make some granola before much longer. My recipe is a bit different but not too much so.

    The problem around here is that the kids pick the dried fruit out of the granola and still leave the granola.

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  5. This sounds great - and yep, I have all those bits of bites and don't even have children, hee hee ;-) Like Matriarchy, I've got lots of dried fruit as part of storage, and this sounds like a neat way to mix up how I eat it... and I just got a shipment of oats too, so the timing is perfect.

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