Those Damn Colorado Hippies and Their Granola

I've been on the hunt for some "good" snacks lately to take with me to school and work but I've found I either spend way too much money or everything's way over processed. Now- don't get the wrong idea, I like my Hamburger Helper, Easy Mac, and Doritos (Salsa Verde flavor or not at all) just as much as the next person, but on occasion you just need some clean, delicious food.

So I channeled my inner stereotypical-Colorado-hippie and made some granola. It's delicious and super hard to mess it up.

Here's what I put in mine:
Regular rolled oats
Organic raw pumpkin seeds (cause it's fall, duh)
Organic brown flax seed
Toasted sunflower seeds
Organic dried cranberries
Slivered almonds
Organic honey
Vanilla
Coconut oil
pinch of salt

spread onto a sheet pan and bake at 350 until golden (about 15 min)



Yield: about 5 cups.

You'll notice I didn't include any amounts, that's because it's 100% up to you, depending how much you like one ingredient over another. You'll find I'm pretty big on that, I avoid rigid recipes whenever possible. However, for the honey, vanilla, and coconut oil, I'd use about a teaspoon of vanilla per 1/4 cup of honey. How much honey you use depends on how clustery (okay I worked at 5 am today, that's the best I can do) you want the granola to turn out. The more honey you add, the more it will stick together. And I wouldn't go over an ounce of coconut oil, you want the benefits but no one likes greasy granola.

These are all ingredients that I just personally like- the possibilities for your granola are completely up to you- put cookie pieces in it for all I care. If you want to stay along the same lines as mine, pick some of your favorite nuts, seeds, and dried fruit or just whatever's on special. But you can add just about anything. Just think about it first- if you want to add something that has a tendency to melt, like chocolate, add it after you bake it and it's cool.

As far as the flavorings, I like honey because it adds the sweetness I'm looking for and I like the distinct honey flavor but you can use maple syrup or anything else of that consistency. I used vanilla extract because, once again, it's what I prefer. You can use anything you want, if it's an extract and you like its flavor, you can't go wrong.

Voila!