Grand Granola

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Grab your ingredients. I use Bob's Red Mill gluten free Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (not the quick cooking kind) and unsweetened coconut in this recipe. I think it results in a lightly sweet, crunchy delicious granola. If you don't need the granola to be gluten free - substitute good quality old fashioned rolled oats

Mix the 4 cups of oats and 1 cup each of the almonds, cashews (or your nuts of choice) and coconut in a large bowl. Sprinkle with the 1 tsp of salt and stir to combine. I often make this granola with pecans instead of cashews - both delicious

Combine the 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1/4 cup maple syrup (or honey) and 1 tsp vanilla in a cup and mix well with a fork

Pour the liquid over the oats mixture and stir with a spoon until all the dry ingredients are moist

Spread the granola mixture evenly on a baking sheet

Bake for between 30 and 40 minutes taking the pan out and stirring it every 10 minutes.

Bake the granola until it reaches a golden brown and smells toasty

Let the granola cool to room temperature and add the dried cranberries (or fruit of choice) Store in an airtight for up to 2 weeks.

Serve with milk, your favorite yogurt and fruit or on top of ice cream and enjoy! (Talk about where good food meets real life - I mistakenly took this picture before I added the dried cranberries - when I went back a couple of days later to re-take the picture, the granola was gone!)