Homemade Granola

Hello all! Super long time no see.  I am really hoping to get back into baking and blogging starting now because I miss it oh so much. 

I can't believe it has been almost a year since my last post- so embarrassing! Over the past year I have moved schools, joined a sorority, and trained several puppies to become service dogs.  After this semester I will only have two more until the real world swallows me up which is terrifying yet exciting. 

The recipe I am walking you through today is pretty simple- homemade granola.  I honestly forget where I got inspired by the recipe from so sorry about that.  It's basically just oats, dried fruits, and nuts and of course you can eliminate anything if it's not to your liking. 

So the fall is upon us and we all know what that means: apple pie, pumpkin spice, hot tea, and changing leaves.  The other day in class we had to go around the room and say what our favorite thing was about fall and my response was "pumpkin everything."  I swear I could eat pumpkin muffins every day and not get sick of it.  So most likely a recipe involving pumpkin is coming your way! 

I did overcook mine slightly which wasn't a huge deal but I would just advise that you monitor it fairly closely while its in the oven and make sure you take it out before it becomes super dark brown in color.  

I won't bore you anymore with my life story so here you go! 

Ingredients:

This recipe makes 5-6 servings.

2 cups old fashioned oats
1.5 cups of chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc)
1/4-1/2 cup chopped dried fruit 
1/3 cup oil (I used olive oil)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of ginger 
1/3 cup honey 
1/2 tsp vanilla 

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350.  Prepare a large cookie sheet by covering it with parchment paper. 
2. Chop up any desired nuts and/or dried fruit.  For my fruit I used mango, cranberry, and golden raisins. 

3. In a large bowl combine oats and nuts.  Add in oil and honey and stir thoroughly to combine.  Add in cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and vanilla. 
4.  Spread out mixture onto the parchment paper.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes and stir occasionally adding in the dried fruit for the last 10 or so minutes of it baking in the oven. 

6.  Allow to cool and enjoy straight up or with yogurt! 

Happy baking! I'm happy to be back :)