Coconut Granola

Tasty Kitchen

Serves very well with Homemade Yogurt

• 3 cups Old Fashion Oats
• ¾ cups Raw Cashews, Roughly Chopped
• ¾ cups Almond, Roughly Chopped
• 1/4 c sunflower seeds
• 1/4c ground flax and chia seeds
• pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup Unsweetened or sweetened Shredded Coconut
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ½-1c butter or coconut oil
• ¼ cups Agave Nectar (or Honey)
• ⅔ cups Brown Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• ½ cups Dark Chocolate Chips ( I have left them out)
• ½ cups Dried Cranberries or raisins ( I have left them out)

Preparation Instructions

      This is a really easy one for the kids to measure out the dry ingredients, pour it into a bowl and stir it. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. 
      In a large bowl, combine the oats, cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, shredded coconut, flax/chia, salt and cinnamon and set aside.
      In a medium saucepan, melt the oil or butter, agave and brown sugar until the sugar has completely dissolved. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Pour the butter mixture over the oat mixture and stir to combine until everything is well coated.
Spread the granola mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving a few large clumps.
Bake the granola for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and break up the pieces to ensure even baking. Place the baking sheet back into the oven for another 15 minutes. Bake till brown

Remove the sheet pan from the oven and give it one more toss to break up some of the pieces and place back into the oven for the last 10 minutes.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let it cool completely. Once cooled, add the chocolate chips and the dried cranberries/raisins. Give it a quick toss with a spoon and then package into mason jars or brown paper bags to store.  

 This can be made days or weeks before you need it and freeze it until you want to use it.