Nutty Granola

Ingredients:

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup cashews (feel free to substitute nuts and seeds as desired)
• 1 c shredded coconut
• 1/3 c dark brown sugar or sucanat
• 1/3 c real maple syrup
• 1/4 c olive oil or coconut oil (if you use coconut oil, heat until it's in liquid form)
• 3/4 t salt
• 1 cup raisins (or any other dried fruit you prefer)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar (or sucanat).
3. In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and salt.  
4. Pour the liquid mixture into the oats mixture and combine well.  
5. Lay out granola onto 2 sheet pans and place in the oven.
6. Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, stirring every half an hour.
7. Remove from oven and transfer to large bowl.  Add in the raisins and mix well.

This gluten-free recipe is great because you can obviously add any kind of nut, seed, or dry fruit that you'd like or have in your pantry. It's very simple in terms of hands-on time, but you definitely have to plan for the bake time.  Granola also makes a great gift! For Christmas this year, we made some and put it in jars tied with a ribbon. Simple, thoughtful, and tasty too!  It would also be a great gift to accompany a get well meal or a meal being delivered for new parents. My whole family helped in the process, although I'm not sure Owen's participation always counts as "help" ;). Yes, those cashews tripled the value of his airplane!