Mixed-Berry Granola

Hello! I hope you all are well. I have settled into College Station for a while, and because my friend Katie is here for the weekend I've been eating horribly. I'm not complaining much, mind you - eating out is delightful, as is all of the stuff I've been devouring for the past few days. However, my whole plan of getting fit has taken a bit of a step backward. So, I thought I'd try and right myself with a healthy recipe - granola!

I like granola! There are 2 problems with buying it in grocery stores, though. Premade mixes tend to be less than healthful, and expensive. So, I figured I'd try to make my own. It helps that my local grocery store has a really awesome selection of grains and dried fruits and other things...it has a whole wall of different items you can buy in bulk. I saw lots of things I wanted to try later, but for now I'm sticking with the ingredients in this recipe.

I have found that I really like dried fruit! I don't like raisins, but a friend introduced me to cranberries when I was little and I loved them. I also really like dried mangoes, which is funny because I don't like fresh mango very much at all. Dried blueberries are also excellent! Dried fruits are good because they have concentrated flavor and keep for quite a while. 

This recipe comes from a rather new purchase of mine...a book called "Healthy Cooking For Two". It will be nice to not have to size every recipe down for once, and after flipping through the book I determined that there were a lot of tasty-looking treats. So, this will be my test drive. I really liked this granola. :)

The original recipe called for dried apricots, but I decided to sub in dried berries - blueberries, strawberries, and cranberries. You can include whatever you want - just be sure to cut the fruit into fairly small pieces. This granola works as a snack or as breakfast, with milk or yogurt.  

Mixed-Berry Granola

Adapted from:Healthy Cooking For Two

Makes 4 cups

Ingredients

• 1 c. dried fruit
• 3 1/2 c. rolled oats
• 6 T. sliced almonds (or 1/4 c. + 2 T.)
• 1/4 c. wheat germ
• 2 T. cinnamon sugar
• 1 T. canola oil
• 3 T. honey

Before you start:Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and cut your dried fruit into small pieces

Recipe

In a large bowl, combine oats, almonds, wheat germ, and cinnamon sugar. Mix well.
Pour the oil into a bowl and add the honey (tip: if you use the same tablespoon, the residual oil will make the honey easy to pour!). Mix well.
Pour the honey mixture over the oats and stir to coat the oats evenly.
Spread the granola into a 9x9" pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Every ten minutes, use a spatula to break up the clumps that form and stir the granola around.
Cool granola to room temperature, then add the fruit. You can store the granola in a tightly-covered container for up to a month.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!