Starting the year off right, with a winner recipe

This Year's first adventure, homemade granola

On a recent piece on NPR I heard about a book called "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter". The general premise of the book is that a woman decided to home make all of the stuff she buys to see if she could make it better or cheaper, but relatively easily. (She being the author Jennifer Reese) I immediately purchased the book myself since I'm always looking for a kitchen adventure, although I admit, I won't be hanging any prosciutto in my kitchen to cure any time soon.

I've been looking for a good solution to my breakfast dilemma, that dilemma being, I don't like to eat breakfast. I love to run, but jetting out the door on an empty stomach only to run eight miles is a bad idea to say the least. I'm also really freaking hungry by the time lunch rolls around at work. As I flipped through the pages, Granola struck me right away. I figured I had two things I could do here. First, granola, as is, I find pretty yummy and I recall hearing it has plenty of caloric punch for it's size. Second, I could combine the granola with some of the leftover dried fruit I have from this season's fruitcake and make a sort of trail mix.

I did quite a bit of regular cooking yesterday, chicken Parmesan and corned beef (for two different reasons, not for the same meal!) so I was really hoping that granola wasn't too difficult. Honestly, your kids could make this. Of course only my mother reads my blog, so her kid DID make this, but you get the point. You just mix all the ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon, spread on a cookie sheet and bake. No rotating the tray or stirring during the baking, just plain old waiting.

Warning: one unfortunate side effect is that I can't stop eating the stuff and you're house will smell like the breathe of a gingerbread man, it's quite divine. IF any is left for me to make trail mix with I'll probably write about that in my running blog, in the mean while, this stuff is great just like this. Recipe to follow:

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup almonds (I used blanched and slivered)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup wheat germ (sold in the cereal isle if you can't find it)

1/3 cup maple syrup (REAL, not maple flavored sugar water)

3/4 cup sweetened coconut shreds

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup (half a stick) of melted butter

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (I forgot to add this and don't miss it)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F

Mix everything by hand, I think a mixer would wig out

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes

let cool and then break it up and enjoy