Easy, Cheap, Delicious: Homemade Granola with Nuts & Seeds

The best storebought granola brands have gotten SO pricey over the years that I can't bring myself to buy the stuff. Especially not with the looming specter of paying for two kids to go to college starting next year. GULP.

Fortunately, it's ridiculously easy to make my own granola just the way I like it -- lightly sweetened, made with hearty-healthy olive oil, and filled with nuts and seeds without any dried fruit. I do it roughly every two weeks and eat a bowl of this nutty crunchy goodness with fruit and yogurt every morning.

Saving money is great but don't underestimate how nice it is to have granola custom tailored to suit your tastebuds. As long as you have rolled oats, an oil (I like olive oil because I have to focus on heart healthy fats these days but you can use coconut, grapeseed, avocado, sunflower, canola, walnut or almond oil), and a sweetener (I prefer maple syrup because we make our own and usually have it on hand but you can also use honey, agave, or brown sugar), you can play around with all the add-ins (almonds, pecans, walnuts, pepitas, sunflower seeds, dried coconut, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, raisins, currants, orange or lemon zest, cacao nibs, cocoa powder, and more) to make your ideal granola.

The recipe below is a little different from the one I first posted way back in October 2007 right after I started writing this blog - how time flies! Although my current recipe cuts the sweetener in half, I think it still tastes plenty sweet. 

I've included all the variations you can use to make this basic recipe into your own favorite granola - go forth and customize!

-- print recipe --

Homemade Nut and Seed Granola
Makes about 5 cups

Ingredients

• 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (NOT instant or steel cut)
• 1/2 olive oil or other neutral oil of your choice
• 1/2 cup maple syrup or sweetener of choice
• 1 cup sliced almonds, walnuts, or pecans (omit if you don't like nuts or have a nut allergy)
• 1/4 cup raw sesame seeds (omit if you don't like sesame or have an allergy to seeds)
• 1/4 cup raw pepitas
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Optional: 1 cup raisins, currants, dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried apricots, dried blueberries, coconut flakes, etc.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a medium to large mixing bowl, combine the oats, nuts, seeds, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.
3. Pour in the oil, sweetener, and vanilla and mix well until everything is well-coated
4. Spread the mixture on a heavy baking sheet in a single layer.
5. Bake for about 22-25 minutes, stirring once at 10-12 minutes into the baking. If you want to add coconut flakes, add them at the halfway point so they get a little browned. The goal is to get everything browned but not burnt.
6. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
7. If you're adding dried fruit, stir it into the granola once it's fully cool.
8. Store in an airtight glass container. It should keep for 1-2 weeks, if it does not all get eaten before then.

* GLUTEN-FREE FOLKS: Although oats are naturally gluten-free, they are often contaminated with wheat, barley, or rye during farming, transport, or processing. To make your granola gluten-free, seek out and use certified gluten-free oats. 

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Basil Pesto

What does summer taste like? 

PESTO! Bright, nutty, herbaceous, and full of flavor. 

Fortunately, pesto is delicious both when you first make it and also freezes beautifully for months when well-sealed, so you can enjoy it long after summer is over. You'll thank yourself on some cold dark December day when you're feeling uninspired about making dinner.

Follow these simple instructions and feel free adapt it to suit your tastes and dietary needs. The only musts are oil, basil, and salt although I'd make a strong case for garlic. You can make it without nuts and/or without cheese with excellent results. 

Things you can play around with:

• Type of nuts - pine nuts, roasted cashews, walnuts, roasted almonds are all options.
• Herbs - carrot tops make a delicious pesto, ditto cilantro, and you can add parsley, too. Adding some wild ramp leaves or garlic mustard greens also gives pesto a different flavor and zip when those are in season.

I like to make a batch without nuts and a batch without cheese to freeze so I can accomodate those who can't eat nuts or dairy. To keep them straight in my freezer, I label the dairy-free batch Pesto Daniel in honor of a family member who can't eat dairy and the nut-free batch Pesto Luca in honor of our son's friend who has a nut allergy. 

Here is a quick video showing my process (speeded up a bit!)

If you're feeling fancy, feel free to grind this all by hand in a mortar and pestle but as I am usually short on time and also dealing with a huge amount of basil to process, the food processor is my tool of choice.

-- print recipe --

Basil Pesto
Makes 2/3 cup

Ingredients

• 2 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves, washed and dried thoroughly
• 1 clove of garlic , peeled and chopped
• 1/4 cup pinenuts
• 1/4 cup parmesan or romano cheese, grated (optional)
• 1/3 cup 4xtra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt to taste

Directions

1. Place the basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic and cheese in the bowl of a cuisinart or other food processor and add the salt.
2. Turn the food processor on and add the olive oil in a steady stream. Blend/process until smooth or to desired consistency.
3. Taste the pesto and adjust the salt as needed. Transfer to an air tight jar or container with a tight lid and top with olive oil to slow oxidation, preserving that bright green color.
4. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two weeks or in the freezer for several months. The top of the pesto will turn brown as it oxidizes but it is still good and if you dig down below the top, the rest should still be that lovely brilliant green.

You might also like:

Grilled Eggplant Stacks with Tomato, Feta & Basil

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Make Marigold Chains to Bring Summer Indoors All Year Long

For anyone with a vegetable garden, planting marigolds is a win-win. Not only can you enjoy brilliantly yellow and/or orange blooms for months, the pungent oil in their leaves act as a natural pest deterrent, repelling insects like aphids and whiteflies, and their root systems suppress harmful root-knot nematodes. Plus they attract pollinators. They're an ideal companion plant to tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, basil, and peppers.

One year, I had such a riot of these sunny blooms that I decided to try preserving them in a marigold flower chain like the ones used to decorate Day of the Dead ofrendas in Mexico and to bedeck brides and grooms in South Asian wedding ceremonies. 

I got my boys to help me and we sat out on the picnic table with our needles, gently spearing flower after flower on two long lengths of thread.

When we'd strung all the flowers, we hung the garlands up to dry inside. They brought a little much-needed light into our home during the dark months of winter for a full two years before I finally took them down and laid them to rest in the compost. It was fun for the whole family and well worth the effort.

Materials: You will need shears or sharp scissors to snip the flowers off their plants, a strong needle, and some sturdy thread. 

1. Pick the flowers. Cut only good-sized flowers that are in the prime of health.
2. Prep the flowers. Use your scissors or shears to snip off the stems right at the base of the flower.
3. String the flowers. Tie a large knot at the bottom of your thread (you can also use a bead to anchor it all if you like) and thread the other end through your needle. Pierce the needle through the middle of the green bottom of the flower head (the base) and bring it out through the top.
4. Slide and repeat. Slide the flower down to the knot and continue adding blooms until the chain is your desired length
5. Finish. Tie a loop on both ends so you can easily hang your finished garland over doorways or on walls.
6. Hang up & enjoy! Hang the garland up somewhere dry that does not get a lot of direct sunlight where people can ooh and aah over it.

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How To Clean & Season Your Cast Iron Skillet

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