Our Routine Granola

(I am a part of a few other recipe blogs and I wrote this post about a year ago on another one.. I decided to recycle my recipe onto this one since I don't have the time currently to write one out but I feel bad for not posting lately.. so here you go...)

This is such a healthy (as opposed to the other high calorie/high sugar granolas and cereals) breakfast slash snack. I have it every single morning and my son loves it like no other. A big plus on making granola routinely is that you have a perfect food storage item (as you will need oats, molasses, oil, brown sugar, etc.) and once you've made it a couple times it takes only a few minutes to prepare before putting it in the oven.

So here's my mom's infamous healthy/yummy granola:

Mix together in large dripper pan:

14 C. Oats
1 1/2 C. 100% Bran (optional- but adds the yummy crunch)
1/2 C. nuts or seeds (the de-shelled sunflower seeds- also optional)

Mix together while heating in saucepan:

1/2 C. Brown Sugar
1/2 C. Oil
2 1/2 C. Water
1/2 C. Molasses
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Cinnamon
3 tsp. Vanilla

Pour mixed liquid over the pan of oats. Mix til there's no dry oats. (Sometimes I even add extra oats if the liquid seems to be spreading well..)
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, stirring 1/2 way through and at the end of cooking time. Once pan is done and out of the oven, leave it on your stovetop to let it cool. (Here's when I like to add a couple handfuls of raisins, cran-raisins, or dried berry bits- also optional.) Once it cools, store in an old ice cream bucket, a couple of gallon ziplock bags, or an air-tight container.

If you haven't noticed by the quantity of the ingredients, this will last us a good 2 weeks. I usually eat this cold with milk... my mom warms hers... but sometimes I mix 1/2 granola, 1/2 sugar cereal. Doesn't get better than this. (Unless it does and I just don't know about it yet. But my doubts are high.)

If you're wondering how old I am because I consistently make and eat granola, you can rest assured that I am 80 and I like to finish off my granola with a Werther's Original whilst watching The Lawrence Welk show. If I'm still feeling spunky I soak my feet in a nice warm foot bath before putting on my orthopedic shoes and taking a long walk in my Jazzy. (And don't even think I leave the house without Life Alert. I wouldn't dream of it.)