The hunt for the perfect granola recipe

If you saw my post a couple weeks ago about breakfast, you already know we eat a lot of yogurt in our house. Not only do the girls eat it daily, but it's also the "go-to" breakfast choice of Trey and me. And what is better with yogurt than some granola and fresh fruit?

I have spent the better part of the last year searching for the perfect granola recipe. And I'm really not exaggerating - it's hard to find a great one! Some are too salty, some are too sweet, some include really odd ingredients or things I don't have on hand (if it isn't easy for me to replicate on a regular basis, I don't even need to try it once). But thanks to Pinterest, I recently stumbled across My Kitchen Addiction's yummy take on granola incorporating dried blueberries and flax seed. Of course, because I can't leave well enough alone I had to tweak the recipe for my own liking...and thus was born what I now affectionately refer to as my Go-To Granola recipe.

Go-To Granola (original recipe found here)
Makes about 10 cups

6 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup chopped almonds
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the oats, almonds, pecans, walnuts, flax seeds, salt, cinnamon and ginger.

In a large measuring cup (makes it easier for pouring, although a bowl would work fine), whisk together the honey and olive oil until well combined. Pour the honey/oil mixture over the oats mixture and stir to evenly coat everything.

Transfer to two large jelly roll pans (read: baking sheets with sides) and spread the granola into an even layer.

Bake for about 45 minutes total, stirring every 10-15 minutes with a spatula. Make sure to watch it the last 10-15 minutes because it can burn easily (thanks to the addition of honey).

Allow the granola to cool completely on the pans, then transfer to an airtight container. I make this batch at the beginning of each month and it easily lasts me close to four weeks. My favorite way to dish it up is with some plain Greek yogurt and frozen blueberries (they thaw quickly). Healthy and delicious!

And here are a few tips on the granola preparation process:

• I totally cheat on the chopped nuts, because buying them chopped is so much more expensive than buying the massive bags of whole nuts at Costco! So here's my super fancy way of chopping nuts...it involves a kitchen mallet and a ziplock bag. :)

Add whole nuts directly into the ziplock bag and seal tightly...

And start pounding out your frustrations with a kitchen mallet! Works perfectly :)

• I also buy my flax seed in bulk at Costco - it's organic and lasts forever. My sweet E has had a hard time with the whole milk transition, so I tend to add flax seed to a lot of stuff (smoothies, oatmeal, baked goods, etc.). It's a great food to have on hand!

• The original recipe called for maple syrup instead of honey, but I modified it to use what I usually have on hand. You could also substitute for a smaller portion of agave if you typically keep that in your pantry - play around with it!

Hope you try it out and enjoy it as much as we have! We'll be taking a brief sugar hiatus hiatus this week as we celebrate C's 4th birthday, but we'll check back in after we resurface from the sugar comas to talk again about real food some more. :) I'm experimenting with ways to make her birthday treats a little less processed this year, so fingers crossed that works...but I'm sure I'll have some disasters to share in a week or so! 

Thanks for reading!