~ Recipe Tuesday ~

I love granola. I love it with yogurt and fruit, I love it sprinkled on top of vanilla ice cream, I love it with milk. But, dang if it isn't really expensive. I have trolled the internet looking and looking at recipes. It isn't really that hard to make. I mean you need oats, some nuts, maybe dried fruit, some sort of fat, some sort of moisture, some kind of sweetener, and maybe flour of some kind.
My biggest issue with making granola is I tend to over cook it. So you end up with this sorta nasty burned taste which, well, isn't nice for breakfast.
I really liked Soulemama's recipe for granola, but I don't always have all those nuts at home at once. So I came up with my own recipe:

The good granola:

~ 1 1/2 cups of old fashioned rolled oats (not quick oats)
~ 1 cup of mixed nuts (what ever you have on hand. I use Trader Joe's "Raw Trail mix" it has 4 types of nuts and some raisins)
~ 1/2 of flour (I use a multigrain mix I made up, BUT whole wheat flour works well too)
~ a wee bit of salt
~ 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
~ 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
~ 1/4 cup coconut oil (or whatever oil you have around, personally I like the coconut flavor)
~ 1/4  cup real maple syrup
~ 1 tsp vanilla
~ 1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Mix the oats, nuts, flour, salt, coconut flakes, cinnamon in a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl mix oil, syrup, vanilla and water.
Add the wet to the dry. Mix well, to coat everything.
Place in a 9 X 13 baking dish. Place in oven. Stir every 10 minutes, until slightly browned and dry. about 30 minutes or so. DO NOT OVER COOK!!
Let cool completely and store in a container with a lid.