Granola and Trail Mix

I did something I never really thought I'd do. Not because it seemed hard our time consuming but just because I never saw the point before. Granola was never my favorite thing to munch on but with all the nutritional reading I've been doing lately, all the raw food/whole food diet stuff, figuring out how best to compile a diet for my family to grow up healthy and the "how to cook everything" book by mark bittman that my hubby gave me for my birthday I decided to give it a shot.
Not onl is it super easy but its pretty tasty if do say so myself. And its 100% natural. I started out doing a small batch but the hubs has been eating it with milk in the morning so I'm going to make a biggerbatch this morning so he can have it for breakfast and I can eat my trail mix. Maybe ill even turn it into granola bars sometime. I'll let you know.

Granola

Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray then combine
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4c  flax meal (for added nutriunts and fiber but if you want to mke it without a trip to the bulk food isle it still works fantastic if you omit it)
A pinch of salt (1/8 to 1/4 tsp)

Then add
4Tbsp honey
4 Tbsp maple syrup (it must be REAL maple syrup not that icky fake stuff)
1/4 cup apple juice (i've also used orange juice cuz I didnt have apple and it was still good just a different flavor)

Stir untill it is all evenly combine and bake at 325for 15 minutes. Stir once breaking up any large clumps and bake for another 8 minutes so its all nice and dried out again.

This will store indefinently in the fridge or (im told) for a few months in the pantry. It is enough to fill a quart sized baggie.



Trail Mix

Take your granola and separate into two quart size bags (after its fully cooled). In one bag add a heaping 1/4 cup scoop on each peanuts, and dried cherries, and a handful of chocolate chips, m&m's or chocolate covered rasins.
In the other bag add 1/4 cup of crasins and almond slices (if you toast the almonds in a skillet over med-hi heat for about 45 seconds, just till they are fregrant it adds a nice flavor).
Then all you have to do is shake up each bag a bit and you're good to go.
The almond one is really good as cereal. :)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I am!