Granola is great for breakfast either as a cereal on its own. or stirred into your favorite vegan yogurt. However, a small bag can be very expensive for the amount it contains. Also, store bought granola often contains honey as a sweetener, and not the bee free variety, so it’s not vegan. Making your own granola is so inexpensive and easy that you might never buy it again. The best thing about homemade granola is that you can adjust the flavors to your taste rather than having to buy what is available. Once you have the basic granola made, you can add in whatever dried fruits and nuts you want. You can go exotic with things like goji berries and dried mulberries. Or you can keep it simple with dried blueberries, cranberries, or strawberries. You can use all one kind of fruit or a mixture. The same goes for nuts. You can even leave the fruit and nuts out of you want to. For a decadent treat you can add chocolate chips the finished product. This really is a, “tailor it to you taste,” recipe.

Homemade granola is a great gift idea too. You can put it into mason jars or cellophane bags and add a personalized label to it. List the ingredients on the label too, so the recipient knows what’s in it. You can even make one large batch of the base granola and then personalize each individual gift based on the recipient’s tastes. We did this one year and my dad loved it. He asked if we could make him more but only with certain berries rather than the mixture we used. Of course we can. Now you can too!

Ingredients:

6 cups rolled oats, not instant
3 TBL packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup agave
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried fruit, we used strawberried and blueberries if this batch (dried berries and currants work best)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (almonds or pecans work best)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300F. Line a baking sheet with foil. Set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, , sugar, cinnamon and salt. Mix well to fully combine. Your hands are the best tool for the job.

3. In a small bowl combine the agave, oil and vanilla. Mix well. Pour over the oat mixture and mix until the oats are throughly coated. Again, your hands will do the best job on this.

4. Spread onto the prepared baking sheet.

5. Bake for 50 minutes, or until the golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. When completely cool, add the fruits and nuts. Toss to combine.

7. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

I used dried strawberries and dried blueberries for this batch.