Granola

I decided to be adventurous the other day and finally try to make some homemade granola. Chris loves granola, but it gets expensive when you don't buy it in bulk from Winco. So, I figured with Costco selling big boxes of oats, It would be cheaper to just make it myself. I found a recipe off food network website, but as I have been doing a lot lately, I just kind of made up my own. I didn't add dried fruit, nuts, or coconut because simple is what Chris and I like. Next time I might try adding honey, but for my first try Chris loves it.

Here's what I did.

8 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup wheat germ
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/c cup of water
4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 275 and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper (I just used my Silpats)

In a large bowl, mix together the oats and the wheat germ.

Combine brown sugar and water in a 4-cup microwave proof glass measuring cup or bowl. Place in microwave on high for 1 minute. Repeat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from microwave, add vanilla extract and salt.

Drizzle the sugar over the oats and stir until it is completely mixed together. Then spread evenly on to both cookie sheets. Bake 45 to an hour or until golden and crunchy.

Remove from the oven and let cool. If you like your granola to have clusters I suggest not stirring the oats while they are in the oven. I stirred one sheet and didn't stir the other. The one I left alone and allowed to cool before I touched it, had clusters.

**Note. If you noticed I have cinnamon in my ingredients, but not in my directions. That is because I didn't decided until half way through the baking process that I wanted my granola to have a hint of cinnamon. So I just pulled the cookie sheets out and sprinkled it on. When I do it again, I will add it to the sugar mixture.