Ingredients:

3/4 – 1 cup Oil (any neutral oil: Sunflower, Safflower, Canola, etc…)

1/2 – 1 cup Honey or Agave Nectar
1-2 tbsp. Vanilla Extract
1 tsp. Salt
1 cup Flaxseed Meal
1 cup Shredded Coconut (optional)

2 cups Oats
1/2 – 1 Cup Sunflower Seeds

Preheat oven to 350

Mix the oil, honey/agave, vanilla and salt in a large bowl. (Honey is stickier than agave, so the granola will clump more).
Add the flaxseed meal and shredded coconut, and mix well.
Now add the oats and sunflower seeds. If you like, you can add nuts at this point, too. Don’t overmix, but make sure that everything is well coated and distributed. (If you add more stuff, add more oil.)

Transfer to a cookie sheet or baking dish.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. After the first 15 minutes, take it out and stir it well, then return it to the over for the last 10 minutes of the bake.

Let cool. Store, covered.

When it is cool you can add dried fruit or whatever else you like. Enjoy!!!

©2012 The Boabom Journal. All Rights Reserved.

basic recipe:

for the sake of measurement, a “bag” is the larger size trader joes bag of nuts, and a “container” is the round plastice containers in the harvest coop bulk isle:

two bags of sliced almonds
two bags of pecans, broken up
a bag of brazile nuts chopped up
a bag of macademia nuts chopped up
one more bag of your favorite nuts
a container of thick-shredded coconut

mix in a bowl. pour in about one cup of honey and one cup of coconut oil (www.nutiva.com). if you used unsalted nuts, add some seasalt to the mix, and stir until everything is coated (not soaking, just coated.) adjust as needed.

turn the mixture into pyrex baking dishes and bake at 350 for 20-40 minutes, depending on your oven. you have to watch it closely when you’re first learning to make it! stir every five minutes or so. when it looks “toasted”, it’s done. some people like “toasted” to be toastier than others – just take it out when it looks good to you.

while it’s baking, add dried fruit to the mixing bowl. raisins and cranberries are a good start. i also like dates, naked ginger, dried blueberries and cherries, apricots, or a mix of dried papaya, pineapple and cranberries. when it comes out of the oven and is still good and hot, dump it back into the mixing bowl with the fruit and stir well. (you might need to divide it between two bowls now to accomodate the addition of fruit and the stirring.)

leave it to cool, i usually cover it loosely with a towel. scoop it out of the bowl into a reasonably airtight container, which might be a bit of a challenge because of course now it’s all clumped up with the honey. that’s ok though – be patient, it’s totally worth it!

additionally, i often add:
roasted buckwheat (http://www.bobsredmill.com/product.php?productid=3530&cat=105&page=1)
puffed millet (http://www.arrowheadmills.com/products/product.php?prod_id=273&cat_id=)
erewhon brand aztec crunch cereal (crunchy aramanth and corn. http://www.usmillsllc.com/usmills/productview_description.php?id=28)
sunflower seeds
pepitas

-katja (boabom north)

©2012 The Boabom Journal. All Rights Reserved.