Adventures outside my comfort zone...

Tonight I attempted making homemade granola. Isn't being "a granola eater" somewhat of a put-down as you're a hippie? What is it when you not only eat granola but make it???  We don't consume a lot of granola around this house but I am looking for new travel food ideas since we will be making a quick trip to Michigan soon. Here is the link to the recipe I used but I'll repost as well. I first got the idea and saw the link on Facebook through a high school classmate, Shelby. She seems to have great ideas on what to feed kids. Me? I'm always looking for something new to throw into the mix of oatmeal, bananas, apples, cheese sticks, pasta and carrots. That's really EV's menu right now. We go in phases.

Anyways, the recipe:

Ingredients

• 8 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups wheat germ
• 1 1/2 cups oat bran
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup finely chopped almonds
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups raisins or sweetened dried cranberries

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment or aluminum foil.
2. Combine the oats, wheat germ, oat bran, sunflower seeds, almonds, pecans, and walnuts in a large bowl. Stir together the salt, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, oil, cinnamon, and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to coat. Spread the mixture out evenly on the baking sheets.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until crispy and toasted, about 20 minutes. Stir once halfway through. Cool, then stir in the raisins or cranberries before storing in an airtight container.

I visited the local Kroger and struck out on a lot of the ingredients. Apparently they don't have wheat germ. I've used wheat germ before in smoothies so I figured they wouldn't have it but the new Kroger in town has a bigger organic section than most regular grocery stores. I think they're trying to be Whole Foods-lite but even though we are in a college town, we still exist in southern Indiana. Still didn't have the stuff.

We headed over to Bloomingfoods which is the local Co-op and organic store. There are all types of people frequenting this tiny store. EV had to stay in the cart as a consequence to refusing to wear shoes so I had to find a way to entertain here while I searched the bulk foods aisle for all these ingredients. Lately I've just started taking things off the shelf and had her start eating them even before we leave the store. Snapple? Meh, I open it, grab a cup from the fountain pop station and pour it in. Lara bars? Open it up right then and there. I pay for it of course but the kid can't wait. That's a knock on me for not checking her food status before we left and packing a snack, but oh well. Side note: I always pay for these items, I just sometimes show up at the front with a wrapper instead of the bar. Back to shopping:

The bulk aisle is full of goodness...all brown and grainy looking goodness. Everything looks the same however. Took me a while.

I didn't know how much granola this recipe would make but when I scooped out 8 cups worth of rolled oats, I figured it out quickly. This picture is of the finished product minus what I put in my yogurt and what Ed put in a bowl and ate. The bowl is 4 quarts...there is a lot of granola! I added dried cranberries when it had cooled a bit. So good.

Somethings I learned: when you boil all the ingredients and pour them onto the dry oats, etc. it seems like you don't have enough. You do though. I waited for the syrup and honey mixture to cool a bit then worked it all around with my hands. I wore gloves since I have a bad cut on my thumb so I left sticky free.

You will end up with granola on your kitchen floor, countertop, stove top, sink, etc. unless you have a really, really, unreasonably large bowl to mix all of these ingredients. I luckily own something like this (although a bigger size would have worked as well) since my former boss brought me back dishware from Italy. Another idea, I have my 6 qt crock pot bowl which may work.

Your home will smell amazing!  There were fumes of honey, maple syrup, brown sugar and vanilla wafting throughout the house. Wonderful.

I'm excited for EV to try some tomorrow. And since I mentioned her, here she is after consuming a large amount of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries...