Let’s Make Granola

Reader Contribution by Annie Kelley
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People have always made their own cereals and breakfast grain dishes (oatmeal, wheat cereal, muesli). Then big companies came ’round and said, “oh, let us do that for you!” Lots of innovations and time saving convenience foods came about, to help women (mostly) in the kitchen find more time to do more things. Unfortunately, as we know, faster and easier is not always better. Not better for you, nutritionally or spiritually. (And yes, I find a lot of spirituality in the kitchen. There’s something primarily satisfying and just plain right about nurturing your children and your spouse. And your friends. Feeding the hungry is a big deal for me). I am so pleased about the slow food movement taking place in this country. Slowing down, cooking at home, breaking bread together. It’s good stuff, on such a deep level.

It’s easy to grab a fast food breakfast sandwich or a bowl of over sugared chemicalized cereal. But you don’t have to. I have a recipe here for a healthy hearty nutritious granola that makes a gallon at a time. I would roughly estimate the cost of it at around five dollars. Yep, you heard right. $5 for a gallon. I didn’t think that was so hot, until I went into the cereal aisle at the grocery store. Do you know what they charge for a small box of cereal? I nearly fainted. And that’s not for healthy, organic good-for-you food either.

I started making granola back in the early ’70s. I have an old yellowed barely legible recipe card in my box from my first attempts at making it, and it was very primitive and simple. I’ve gussied it up a lot since then. You can make it as fancy or as plain as you like. Naturally, everyone thought I was crazy making my own cereal (not much has changed). I do it today for some of the same reasons I did it back then. And for a few other reasons as well. The bottom line, as it always is with me, is that I want to know what is in the food I eat. If I make it myself, then there’s no mystery. No ingredients I can’t pronounce. No chemicals I don’t want to ingest. Nothing I can’t afford. And gosh darn it! It tastes good!

So, I make this granola all the time. Here we go:

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