Low Fat Granola

As I said before I am going to work on making my own granola. Well here goes my first try. (How many do you think it will take?)

1 1/2 pounds Regular Rolled Oats
1 pound Quick Oats
1/2 Cup Flax Meal
1/2 Cup Spelt Flour (YES, I have this on hand)
3 Cup Crisp Rice Cereal
1 Cup Sunflower Seeds
1 Cup Brown Sugar

Combine all that stuff in a very large bowl. Oats are very light weight.

Next, in a small sauce pan on the stove top, not in the microwave, mix together 1/4 Cup of Canola Oil and 1/4 Cup Honey. Heat it just to warm. Do not let it boil!

Off the heat stir in 1 Tbsp of Vanilla. Pour over the ingredients in the bowl. Stir with a spoon until it's mixed in and not hot to the touch, then use your hands. At this point your hands will work the best for mixing.

Divide this mixture onto 3 or 4 sheet pans. I have 3 racks in my oven and large sheet pans so I used 3. Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for about an hour. Stirring at 10 minute intervals until toasty.

In my research on "Low Fat Granola", I discovered that granola is not 'low fat' always because of the ingredients that are in it. Nuts and seeds have fats and oils. Most of those fats and oils are good for you. So 10g of fat from nuts IS better for you that 10g of fat from the french fries you had for lunch. So as long as you don't add a bunch of oil to it, I'm not going to worry about the fat content. And 300 calories of a good granola is far better than 300 calories of candy. Am I making any sense?

Well I think it's toasty enough to take out of the oven now. I will let it cool and add a couple of cups of dried fruit. And it's ready to eat. Let's see, I have some bananas. Yep, there is some strawberry yogurt. Frozen blueberries, check. I could open a can of pineapple chunks, too. I'm looking forward to breakfast!