Gain control over your food! Make your own healthy granola.
Granola is one of those foods that should be healthy. After all, most of us were introduced to granola as a health food. But then granola became an everyday item, a victim of its own success. You know once something starts popping up on grocery shelves packaged in boxes that most of the healthy ingredients have been removed or delegated to a lesser role.
The reason is simple. If a product is to be shelf-stable for a year or two, you certainly can’t make it with olive oil or walnut oil, or any of the other high antioxidant (thus healthy) oils. It needs a stable oil that isn’t going to go rancid in a few weeks. Something like palm oil, or trans-fats.
I like my granola to be healthy, tasty, and not super sweet. With few exceptions, that means I make it at home. Luckily homemade granola is an easy project, quickly adapted to the ingredients you have on hand.
For this version I dried peaches received from the Washington State Fruit Commission for their Canbassador program.
What is a Canbassador?
As a Canbassador my mission is to make all kinds of wonderful preserved stone fruit items and then write about them.
You can find out lots more about our wonderful Washington stone fruits over at the SweetPreservation site. There are instructions for canning and freezing fruit, all kinds of ideas for throwing a “preservation party,” recipes, tips for choosing the best fruit at the grocery store, and professionally designed labels to download. You can even get a copy of the “Of course I canned” badge for your own blog.
How to Dry Fruit
Making your own dried fruit is one of the easiest, and most cost effective, preserving projects out there. Dried fruit can go into everything from granola to fruitcake, to cookies, to oatmeal packets. And it tastes great eaten out of hand.
Follow this simple, 5 step tutorial to make your own dried fruit.
- 3 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
- ½ cup slivered almonds
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ¾ cup shredded coconut
- ¾ cup sunflower seeds
- ¼ cup golden flaxseeds
- Salt to taste
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- 1 cup chopped, dried peaches
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
- In a large bowl combine oats, nuts, coconut, seeds, salt and brown sugar.
- Add honey and coconut oil.
- Stir well to combine.
- Spread mixture out on 2 large baking sheets.
- Bake for 60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
- Divide peaches between the baking sheets and stir. Return to oven.
- Bake for another 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven. Let cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container.
Full disclosure: This recipe was made with peaches I received from the Washington State Fruit Commission.
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