Homemade Granola

When I was pregnant, I finally started eating breakfast regularly, and now I can't imagine missing it.

And because I'm now breastfeeding and oats are a galactagogue, I started eating a lot of oatmeal. I love oatmeal. I cook basic Publix-brand old fashioned oats with a big pinch of salt, a drizzle of honey and some ground cinnamon, and eat it with milk or soy milk and some kind of fruit, depending on the season. Sometimes it's blueberries, sometimes sliced bananas, sometimes dried prunes cut up with scissors.

But I don't want oatmeal every day. And something I gained a taste for while pregnant was granola. But storebought granola is horribly expensive, especially when you compare it to the cost of basic Publix-brand old fashioned oats. Which, seriously, is almost all it is.

Will has done most of the cooking since Max was born, but granola is one nice, easy thing I can make that scratches my cooking itch. I can mix up a batch and throw it in the oven as soon as Max goes to bed, and it makes the house smell good. One batch lasts me about a week and a half.

Here's my basic recipe.

Mix in a big bowl:
3 cups oats
1/4 cup dark or light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (I like it relatively salty; you could use less)
1/2 cup almonds

Mix in a Pyrex measuring cup:
1/3 cup olive oil
a few tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour liquid over dry ingredients and mix with hands until thoroughly coated. Press into a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for around 30 minutes, until slightly browned. (Stir partway through if things are looking too uneven.) Let cool on sheet, then remove and toss in any dried fruit (raisins, etc.).

Of course, you can add all kinds of stuff into the granola. Here are some thing I've tried that didn't work:
ground ginger - just didn't do much
cayenne - heat without flavor, didn't work for breakfast
diced dried apricots - meh
an egg - I'd read that adding an egg white would make the granola clump up more, but it just made it tough and not crispy

And here are some that did work:
cinnamon
cardamom
raw almonds
raisins
raw quinoa

The version I've made a few times successfully has cardamom, nutmeg and cinnamon, giving it a sort of chai flavor. I use maybe half a teaspoon of each spice.

Healthy Blueberry Muffins

Brittany asked me for some healthy baking recipes. I thought I had lost track of this one, but fortunately Mom still had her copy of Simply Colorado from 1989, the source of this delicious muffin recipe. They have the added advantage of using frozen blueberries so you can make them year-round.

Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

1 cup flour

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats (raw)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine above ingredients and set aside. Mix:

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 beaten egg

Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry mixture and mix just until blended. Fold in:

1 cup frozen blueberries

Spoon into 12 paper-lined muffin cups. Sprinkle over all:

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Another Breakfast

Because I am actually hungry in the mornings since I quit smoking four months ago, I am now obsessed with breakfast. This is homemade apple cinnamon oatmeal. The apples are raw, which I much prefer to the sticky sweet mushiness of cooked apples. The cinnamon is minimal -- it's SO easy to overpower a dish with cinnamon. And the oats are toasted oats, maybe steel-cut, definitely slow-cooking, from that local mill I ramble on about all the time. (Can I mention for the eightieth time that my friend works there? My friend works there.)