Recipe: Basic Granola!

I wanted to make my own Granola Bars so I started working on them yesterday. I am happy with the results, but I wanted them to be a tad 'chewier' than they turned out. So, I am still tweaking the recipe.

However, the 'Granola' part of the 'Granola Bar' recipe was so simple and so good! Yes - I even did the granola from scratch. It is so easy, why would I not. Why pay for granola when you can make it fresh -- and BONUS -- it smells so good in the kitchen while it bakes. And if hubby was eating it right off the baking sheet as is, then I KNOW it was good :)

So, here is the Granola recipe I did. Another bonus, you can really change it up to put whatever you want in it.

Baked Basic Granola
3 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup peanuts, smashed
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Water (or a tad less than 1/4 cup)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
Cinnamon

Put your oats and peanuts in a bowl. You can leave the peanuts whole, or, like I did, smash them up a tad but putting them in a ziplock baggie, cover the bag with a towel, and then take your kitchen mallet to them ;)

Put the brown sugar, water, vanilla and salt in a bowl and mircowave for 3 minutes or so until the sugar is dissolved and it is more of a syrup consistency. Then, pour into your oat mix and stir until everything is well coated.

Spread your oat/nut mix onto a non-stick baking sheet. (I spayed mine lightly with cooking spray too) Then, sprinkle cinnamon over the top.

Bake at 250*F degrees for 45 minutes. I tossed up the granola once or twice during the 45 miutes.

Allow to cool and then enjoy! You can use this to make homemade granola bars (which I will share my recipe for that soon!) or save to put in your yougurt, trail mix, on ice cream or whatever suits your fancy. Eat it just as it is, like my husband did!