Ahhhhhh.... Summer......

So I've decided to disappear from the face of the internet world for the past 3 months.

Why?

Because I can. Because I've needed time to think, and to play, and to figure out what makes me happy. ( Because that's the goal--- Be Happy)

So I've decided to emerge from my cave and began again to share with you some of the things that make me happy.

So right now granola makes me happy.


I've been cooking a lot... for a lot of reasons.

1. I'm a vegetarian and a nutrition minor, but I still really like good tasting food. This necessitates learning to cook.
2. I work at a grocery store. I look at food 8 hours a day.
   
3. I see lots of fat people buying lots of greasy gross things all the time, and I like to think of solutions.

So I choose a dish and research it until I understand the basics behind it (food chemistry... how the ingredients affect one another... ) then I start experimenting. Recently I have chosen granola.

So my goal was to create a granola somewhere between store bought, which is practically candy with all the sugar and oil, and my fathers granola, which is close to horse feed.

Here is the fruits of my labors:

Bethany's Basic Granola Recipe:

Dry Ingredients:
4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1-2 cups nuts and seeds of your choice
1/2 tsp salt
seasonings (optional)

Glaze:
1/2 cup flavorless vegetable oil
1/8 cup water
1/2- 3/4 cup sweeteners (a mixture of dry and wet sweeteners works best: honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, agave nectar, brown sugar, white sugar, etc...)
seasonings (optional)

1/2- 1 cup of dried fruit (optional)

Preheat oven to 275. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl until combined. Put all of glaze ingredients in a sauce pan, cook over medium heat until they come to a boil. Pour glaze over dry ingredients and stir until evenly coated. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Take the granola mixture by handfuls and squeeze it tightly before placing it on the baking tray. It will soon look like you've created a small mountain range of uncooked granola. This is good; the mountains will turn into clusters, and we like clusters.

Carefully put the cookie sheet in the oven without demolishing your mountain range and set the timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes carefully turn the granola, bringing the edge granola to the middle (you may have to demolish some of your mountains, but try to keep the clusters in tact). Bake the granola for another 20 minutes. Take it out and add any dried fruit you desire and stir it again. You may now break up the mountains into your preferred cluster size (Shoe size? dress size? preferred cluster size?), And bake it for another 20 minutes. Take it out and let it cool. It may not seem done but with dry out as it cools, so don't worry if it's still a little soft when it comes out of the oven. Eat with milk, yogurt, plain. or however else you fancy.

Here is my favorite variation (Beware: This is for adventurous taste buds!):
Spicy Cranberry-Ginger Granola
To dry mix add:
nuts and seeds- pecans, sunflour seeds, seseme seads
1/8 cup turbinado sugar
2-3 tbsp candied ginger (minced finely)
2 tsp allspice

To syrup add:
sweeteners: 1/2 cup corn syrup, 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Add: 1 cup dried cranberries during baking.

Enjoy.