I hate breakfast

I mean I like breakfast food.  But I can't eat at that designated breakfast time.  I know many people suffer from this same affliction.  Still, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  It's been beat into my brain by countless magazine articles on dieting.  Got it - eat yo breakfast, folks.  It'll get that metabolism goin'.  Most of the time I go for a banana or a grapefruit - the bare minimum.  But on a recent trip to Chicago, my husband mentioned he had some homemade granola and talked enough about how great it was, that I finally decided to make some of my own.  Having never made it, I was intimidated.  Mostly that I'd burn it.  Or it would be chewy.  Granola intimidated me.  Which seems like an oxymoron or something.

As much as I'm not all about breakfast, even more so, I really don't like sugar in the morning.  I mean fruit is fine, but sugary cereal's or baked goods tend to be too much for me.  There's a lot of granola recipes out there that are pretty sugary.  But I finally found one from Mark Bittman's website that removed all of the refined sugars and just stuck to a little bit of honey. 

This granola is so gooooooooood.  It's toasty and without all the sugar you can really taste everything.  I like it on top of a bowl of fruit.  Joe eats it with vanilla soy milk.  You can eat it with yogurt.  You can eat it anyway you want!  Just eat it.

Homemade Granola

-6 cups of rolled oats
-2 cups of dried fruit (I used blueberries, cranberries, and cherries)
-1/2 cup sunflower seeds
-1/2 cup slivered almonds
-1/2 cup chopped walnuts
-1/2 cup flax seed
-1/2 cup honey or agave nectar
-2 or 3 dashes of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and make sure the dry ingredients are well coated with the honey and cinnamon.  Pour into a cassarole dish and bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to make sure granola cooks evenly.  Let cool completely before serving.


Obviously this recipe makes a lot of granola but it keeps for about 2 weeks when sealed in a ziploc bag.  It's so good, you guys.  Cheap, easy, homemade, and a great morning starter.  It makes me hate breakfast a little less.