Granola

A few of our friends joke with Arthur and I that we are becoming "granolas".  (The slang term granola is used to describe people who are "environmentally aware, tree-huggers who are concerned about consuming organic products.)   I guess I could see how the tour of our home that included the composting worm farm, all of our recycling bins, and the seedlings being started under grow lights could come across as a little crunchy.  While I wouldn't consider us to be "granolas", I am pretty sure I have eaten my body weight in granola which leads to the real topic of this post.
I realized that we aren't doing a very good job at keeping our blog updates coming regularly.  We are working on a few drafts but they just haven't received the finishing touches yet.  I was trying to think of a post topic and remembered that you should write what you know.  This thought came to me while I was making my weekly batch of granola.  For the past five years I have eaten granola for breakfast almost every day.  (I'm not one for much variety.)  Even after five years one of the things that I am most excited about when I get out of bed in the morning is that granola is for breakfast.  However, how I eat my granola as evolved somewhat.  I began eating granola by itself and at that time I baked it longer so it was crispy.  I then discovered that I liked it even better when it was still slightly sweet and sticky.  Then I got crazy and started adding raisin or dried cranberries if I was feeling extravagant.  As I have progressed from a grad student with a limited grocery budget to a fully employed adult with more expendable cash for luxury items I began mixing in a little yogurt into the granola each morning.  The final upgrade has been making the step to Greek yogurt and if it is a special day I will add frozen pomegranate arils-- talk about a classy breakfast.  Outside of breakfast we use granola for fruit parfaits, ice cream toppings, mixed with fresh fruit like peaches (it tasted like peach cobbler but so much easier), and with peanut butter and a banana wrapped in a tortilla for a snack.   Another benefit to eating so much granola is that nothing smells better than a freshly baked batch of granola in the kitchen.   Here's my adapted recipe:

10 cups oatmeal
1 cup oil
2/3 cup honey
1/2 T salt
1 1/2 T cinnamon
1 1/2 T vanilla

Mix together well and bake at 275F for 30 minutes.  (Bake for 45 min, stirring a few times, if you want it crunchy).
The original recipe called for 1 cup honey but we haven't noticed a difference using 2/3c since we mix it with yogurt and I got tired of buying honey all the time.  This is a basic bare bones recipe.  With granola it can be custom-made with coconut, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, nuts, etc.
As you can tell we are ready for spring around here and suffering from cabin fever if my thesis on granola is the best thing we have to blog about.  Omnia Vincit Amor.