Nut Free Granola

Granola is one of my daughter Lila's favorite snacks. However, she has a peanut and tree nut allergy, which makes us nervous giving her any store bought granola for fear that a "nut free" variety could have been cross contaminated during processing. She's been asking for granola a lot lately and since I've been looking for new lunch ideas I decided to take a stab at making homemade granola.

This is one of those recipes that when I was finished making it I wondered why I didn't tackle it sooner.  It was extremely simple to make and took no time at all.  Lila totally loves the granola and has packed it in her lunch to eat with fruit and yogurt. She also eats it plain and will nibble on it while doing her homework. The big kids like it too, so I definitely would label this recipe a success!

Ingredients
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups old fashioned oats
4 cups quick oats
1 cup sweetened coconut
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a small saucepan combine the brown sugar, canola oil, honey and vanilla to make a light syrup. Bring to a boil, stir and remove from heat.
• In a large bowl mix together the oats, coconut, cinnamon and the warm syrup mixture.
• Stir until oats are well coated and everything is combined.
• Spread onto two 9×13 non-stick pans -- or you can cover them with parchment paper.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, lightly stir the granola with a spatula, turn off your oven -- don't break it up too much because you want to have those nice chunks when it's finished.
• Put the granola back into the oven for 3-4 hrs. The remaining heat in the oven will finish slow cooking the granola to a golden crunchy consistency.
• Remove from oven after 3-4 hours. Let cool and store in an air tight container.

Servings
6 - 8 Cups

A Broken Oven Tip
The recipe is very basic, but you could easily add your favorite dried fruit, seeds, and even nuts if you're not allergic. When mentioned the recipe to my neighbor she suggested adding dried cherries and dark chocolate shavings to the mixture while it's still warm to add a little extra yum to the batch.