Gluten Free Granola Time.

Tomorrow we have a picnic to go to in Golden Gate park in San Francisco so lots of food needs to be made. First off it's GF Granola. This is my first attempt so (fingers crossed) I was happy how it came out. I played around with different concoctions and this is the winner. I have to say I really like this recipe. No more store bought granola for this girl.

Ingredients:

• 4 C of oats (please make sure they are certified gluten-free)
• 2 ½ C coarsely chopped walnuts
• 2 C of sweetened coconut
• 1 cup pistachios
• 3 Tbsp of Flaxseed meal
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 3/4 C of vegetable oil
• ½ C of honey
• 3 C (or so) mixed dried fruit (I used cranberries, sour cherries, and golden raisins here)

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Mix together the oats, walnuts, pistachios, coconut and flaxseed meal. Make sure you use a large baking sheet or roasting pan for this. (I prefer the roasting pan, because you can really swirl around those ingredients without spilling them on the floor.)

In a stove top pan mix the oil, cinnamon, salt, and honey. (If you measure out the oil in a measuring cup and reuse that same cup to measure the honey, your honey will not stick and it makes cleanup a heck of a lot better). I just heated the pan until my honey was dissolved into the oil.

Drizzle the mixture evenly over the surface of the oats mixture.. Stir it all up until everything is well coated — not too sticky, but not dry either. Done? Great. Throw it in the oven.

Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so just to make sure that the coconut doesn’t burn.. Repeat this process three more times (it could twice or four times for you, depending on your oven). You’re looking for the granola to be not-at-all wet, golden brown. crunch.

Remove the granola from the oven and allow to cool (this is when it will crisp up), stirring occasionally. Add the dried fruit mixture.

Store the cooled granola in an airtight container

***this granola recipe is not the type of granola that is hard in chunks. For that you probably want to add more sugar (maple syrup & or brown sugar) if that is the type of granola you want. I wanted a little more healthy type of granola*****.