Healthy Recipes: Homemade Granola

Since I am trying to feed my children a variety of healthy foods, I thought I would occasionally share some recipes they enjoy. My mom would make this for us as kids. I love it hot right after it's been cooked with cold milk. Here goes for the first one which uses a lot of food storage items as well:

Favorite Granola

(From my favorite recipe book- Set for Life by Merrill She also has a great section in the back about healthy eating for pregnancy and nursing and great ideas for family eating as well)

4 cups old-fashioned oats (I also use a combination of other flakes like barley)

2 cups rolled wheat

1 cup unprocessed oat or wheat bran

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 1 cup raw sunflower seeds

1-2 cups slivered almonds

Mix these dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Heat the following until the sugar is dissolved:

1/2 cup oil

1 cup water

3/4 cup brown sugar (you can substitute honey)

Add after heated:

1 teas vanilla

Simply add to the dry ingredients until mixed well and bake in a 200 oven for 1 1/2 hours. For chunky granola do not stir during baking. Break into bite-size pieces and add 2 cups of dried fruit (our favorites raisins, dried apples, pineapple, craisins, coconut and dates). Store in an airtight container. Serve as a cold cereal. Excellent as a topper on Yogurt Parfaits.

All the main ingredients in this recipe you can get at a health food store or most grocery stores. Let me know if you try it out.