A Healthy Granola Recipe

If anyone I'm not acquainted with were to look into my kitchen they would probably decipher that I'm sort of a health fanatic. And because I have the taste buds of a 3-year-old, even when I make something sweet, I like what I cook to have as much nutritional value I can stuff in there while still feeling like I'm eating The Real Thing.

It seems that granola started out as a kind of health food, and is still marketed as one, yet has become this overly processed, overly sugared candy-like snack. If you read the nutrition labels, you'll quickly figure out that no "health" food should boast corn syrup as one of the first ingredients. Ladies and gentlemen, this has become the fate of granola! Except in my house.

My granola recipe is just sweet enough (and not sweetened with any refined sugars, mind you), because I use a naturally sweet sweetener called agave. Since it's so naturally sweet, you need to use much less, which means fewer calories. It also has just enough fat to make you feel full and satisfied, and even has some secret fiber hidden in there in the form of flax (and flax has the bonus of giving you some omega fatty acids too).

Makes about 12 cups

4 cups of rolled oats

1 cup of flax seed meal

1 cup of unsweetened natural coconut

1 cup of sliced almonds

½ cup of canola/vegetable oil (I've even used olive oil and you can't even taste it once it's cooked!)

½ cup of agave nectar (light colored)

1 tsp. of vanilla extract

½ tsp salt

Dried fruit of your choice (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

2. You'll need a pretty big bowl to stir in all the dry ingredients. So put the oats, flax seed, coconut, salt, and almonds (not the dried fruit just yet!) in a bowl and mix 'em together.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the oil, agave, and vanilla extract with a whisk. Once they're incorporated, pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and stir together until everything is evenly moistened.

4. Spread the mixture out evenly on 2 baking sheets lined with wax paper and bake for 10 minutes, then remove and stir. Bake another 10 minutes, remove and stir. From here it should take another 10 minutes or so until it's baked and crispy.

5. Once it's cooked to your taste, take out the pans, stir in your dried fruit, and enjoy!