Homemade fruit and nut granola

Little man turned 10 this week. Yikes. I refuse to get old enough to have a teenager. I'm holding on to each and every day! His party is tomorrow...breakfast at a park instead of later in the hot parts of the day. We're having some of this granola. One of his favorite breakfast foods is granola. Oh heck. We have it on ice cream, broiled fruit, yogurt. In other words, it's not just for breakfast. Love it. One of the reasons I was and am able to be a full time mom is because of the money we save having me make a few convenience food...like cereal and graham crackers. Great way to cut back and still be creative. I recently found this awesome recipe for Extreme Granola...and changed it to fit my family's needs. One change was a lot less sugar. You can omit the butter or add less. I think in moderation, it isn't too bad. It is awesome added to a purchased cereal to stretch it out (like corn flakes...which then makes them more of a honey-bunch-o-oats type cereal without that price.) I think it tastes a lot better than any granola I've tried.

Homemade Fruit and Nut Granola
yield: Makes about 6 cups
active time: 10 minutes plus cooling
total time: 50 minutes

Ingredients
1/2 cup natural almonds (or pumpkin seeds)optional.
4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional)
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted (or EV coconut oil)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup or honey, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3/4 cup dried blueberries or raisins (optional)

Combine the butter, honey, vanilla, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. In a larger bowl place your nuts, oats and seeds. Mix all up except for the dried fruit (add that after baking). Honestly that is as hard as it gets to make! Are we scared? Gasping...passing out? What is the deal with buying the expensive box of glorified oats that may or may not taste good? I'm not sure.

Bake 300 degrees 30 minutes. Solar oven bakers, add 10 extra minutes here.

Bonus of making your own granola...kids waking up to the cinnamon and vanilla wafting through the house. It beats using curse words to get them out of bed...or worse, my rendition of "Good Morning" from Singing in the rain. That comes complete with tap dancing, flailing arms and a cheese grin. Scary. Guaranteed to cause deep emotional scars. Try it sometime.

Wow...all that to say "bake it". I need to stop rambling.

Remove from oven and allow to cool. Yes I hate waiting too. However...do we really want hot chunks of molten granola stuck to our lips? I'm not risking looking like that big of an idiot...again.
Keepin' it real folks...

Granola. It's love for-eeehvaaa Little Man. There you go.