I am totally late to the granola party.

My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail. I now officially RSVP with bells on.

Why have I waited this long?

Making granola is so easy, it’s nuts. No really, there are a lot of nuts in this recipe. Literally. Wow. Granola jokes. I’ll be here all week. Tip your waitress.

All jokes aside, it really is super easy. A bunch of crunchy things meet in a bowl. You marry them together with a mixture of oil, spices and sweetness. You bake it at 350. You eat it by the handful.

I call this recipe Cinnamon Spice Granola… but honestly, I wont lie to you, there is a lot of stuff in here. I could have named it “Everything In My Pantry Except Sardines Granola” and it would probably be just as accurate. Sure, I spiced it with lots of yummy cinnamon, nutmeg and sweetened it with maple syrup. I also raided my pantry with the kind of greedy wild abandon that feels both shameful and wholly satisfying. A scoop of this, a dash of that, a whole lot of these, oooooh sunflower seeds? Coconut? Yes. Flax meal. Affirmative. There was not a lot of restraint.

It reminded me of being a kid and playing a game of “Bakery” or “Scientist.” This game would usually consist of us raiding the pantry and mixing together things like flour, water, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and mustard in haphazard measurements. Sometimes we would mold this dough into shapes and bake it into little pastries. Convinced that this new “pastry” was the best thing ever, we would give our parents the privilege of tasting the finished product. The first reaction would usually be some sort of grumble about this supposed “mess” we had made all over the kitchen. Flour and butter shoved into the grout. Peanut butter and salt all over the floor. Blah, blah, blah, right? You can’t get mad at the creative process. I am sure we would roll our eyes and say something sassy and exasperated like “Yeah *huge sigh* I KNOW, MOM. *eye roll* Gosh. *SIGH* We will totally clean it up.” Nobody gave Julia Child crap about her creative space. Rude. 😉

Sometimes they would applaud our creativity, manage a smile and a tiny nibble of our creation. Sometimes they would politely refuse with a horrified look in their eyes.  Maybe, say, the time we decided to incorporate hot dogs or a whole box of cornstarch into the mix. For the life of us, we didn’t understand their flat our refusal to partake of what seemed to be culinary genius. Their loss, I suppose.

To be super fair, my palate was sketchy at best in my early years. I once got genuinely offended that my mother would not have a bite of a mud pie that I had slaved over. Yes, that is correct. The ingredients were mud and pine needles. Sketchy. At. Best (Sorry, mom).

Lucky for all of us, granola is not something that calls for restraint. It is also not something that calls for mustard, hot dogs, a whole box of cornstarch or pine needles. We are in the clear.

Ingredients:

3 cups of gluten-free rolled oats

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup raw walnut pieces

1/2 cup sunflower seeds (shell-off)

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut shreds

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbs chia seeds

1/4 cup flax seed meal

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/8 cup coconut sugar

3/4 cups raisins

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl combine your oats, nuts, coconut, chia, flax meal, cinnamon and nutmeg and salt. Stir together.

Once combined add in your olive oil and maple syrup. Stir until the entire mixture is slightly wet.

Add in your coconut sugar and stir again.

Spread your granola out evenly on your parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, checking and stirring your mixture every 10 minutes or so.  Make sure to check it frequently so that it doesn’t burn.

It’s done when the granola is golden brown, and your nuts and seeds are toasted.

Once it is done, sprinkle in your raisins and give it a good stir. Allow to cool and enjoy!

Granola should last for a couple of months stored in an airtight container.

Ours was gone in two days.

It is bonkers delicious with vanilla almond milk or sprinkled over some greek yogurt! Also, highly recommended straight out of the jar by the handful.

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