Friends Don't Let Friends: Eat Boxed Cereal

I'm a big fan of cereal. I don't have a Jerry Seinfeld level collection but I could easily eat cereal 3 meals a day. The hubby does not agree with this, so we do have actual food in the house... not due to me generally.

And while I love Grape Nuts, Basic 4, Rice Krispies (with lots of sugar) and Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios (okay and Count Chocula!), I know that even the healthy stuff isn't that great, they're pricey plus they have too much packaging. And we're trying to eliminate the packaging.

So that means it's time to get back to making the delicious, fully customizable granola/cereal I love to make!

This recipe can be adapted to include whatever you want to add. I usually throw in whatever looks good from the bulk section, so please take these amounts as guidelines and feel free to add more of something, less of others etc.

Ingredients:

3 cups Rolled oats

1 cup slivered almonds

1/2 to 1 cup each: chopped pecans, chopped walnuts, macadamia nuts, pepitas, etc.

3/4 shredded coconut

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 Tbl ground cinnamon

1/3 cup maple syrup (I like to dump in some honey as well. You could use molasses too, I'll bet)

1/3 cup canola oil

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup currants (or raisins or dried cranberries or dried blueberries)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In large bowl combine the oats, nuts, coconut, currants, cinnamon and brown sugar.

In another bowl/measuring cup combine the oil, syrup, honey and salt. Pour this over the dry ingredients and stir to fully cover and combine.

Place the combined ingredients on a large baking sheet (or two depending on size) and pat down. Cook for 1 hr and 15 minutes and take out the sheet(s) every 15 minutes to stir and pat down the mixture to evenly brown. I line my baking sheet with tinfoil because as the mixture cools it will be very sticky.

When done baking, remove pan and place on a wire rack to cool. Before it is fully cool, remove the mixture into a large bowl and stir to cool. As it cools it will stick together some, but you can then easily break it up for easy eating.

Keep in an airtight container and enjoy as cereal or for snacking!