Homemade Granola

Now i'm seriously a hippy! or maybe just 'granola'. anyway, at first i thought this was going to be much more expensive than just buying a bag of granola b/c the individual ingredients seems to be costing a lot. but after i realized i could make several batches out of just buying the ingredients one time i felt better about the cost. and nothing tastes as good as home made, fresh granola with yogurt and fruit! (and a latte of course)

dry ingredients:
5 c rolled oats
2-3 c raw almonds or pecan halves, or a mixture
1 c hulled raw sunflower seeds
3/4 c flax seeds
3/4 c light brown sugar4
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt
1 c coconut (if you like it. i do)

wet ingredients:
3/4 c apple sauce, unsweetened
1/3 brown karo corn syrup
1/4 c honey
2 tbpsn vegetable oil

preheat oven to 300

in large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients. stir to mix well, in small bowl combine all of the wet ingredients, stir to mix well. pour the wet over the dry ingredients, and stir well.

spread the mixture evenly over 2 rimmed baking sheets. bake for 35-40 minutes or until evenly golden brown. set a timer to go off every 10-15 minutes while the granola bakes, so you can rotate the pans and give them a good stir. this helps it to cook evenly. when it's ready remove the pans from the oven, stir well- this will keep it from cooking in a hard solid sheet and set aside to cool. the finished granola may still feel slightly soft when it comes out of the oven. but it will crisp as it cools.

store in airtight container or zip top bag.

**after the baking process i also added about 1 cup of dried blueberries to half the mixture and put that in one bag. the other bag i left plain so i can add fresh fruit to that.