Granola: the end of store cereal, Part 1

I had been conspiring to end store-cereal at our house.  It is the easy breakfast that costs $4 a box.  It's not that yummy or that healthy, not $4 worth.  So I figured I could get by making eggs (from our chickens), toast and pancakes and waffles (from the ground wheat and oats), or hot and fruity oatmeal (and other yummy grains my Mom delivers from Costco).  And then I discovered granola and our lives were forever changed!  We love granola.  Anna mixes it with her hands (and me, too) and eats it by the handful at every stage.  Ruby prefers it raw.  Peter loves it with fresh yogurt (coming soon in "the end of store cereal, part 2").  We like it hot and cold and stale and in ice cream.  It's awesome.

6 C old fashioned rolled oats
1 C brown sugar
2 C sliced almonds, unsweetened coconut flakes, chia seeds, sunflower seeds
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon (or nutmeg, allspice, whatever)
Combine these dry ingredients with spoon or hands.
2/3 C Oil (coconut or other)
2/3 C Honey (or agave or maple syrup)
Pour these wet ingredients over top, stir well with spoon.
Spread in a large casserole dish or 2 cookie sheets.  Bake at 300 for 10 minutes, stir, 10 minutes, stir, another 10 minutes - be careful not to brown too much or burn outside edges.  Have to watch carefully.

Notes:
I've already cut the sugar in this recipe.  These measurements give a nicely glazed granola with plenty sweetness to eat with plain yogurt.  Less sugar may make it more crumbly, but still YUM.  I prefer un-toasted nuts, so you can mix any nuts into the granola at the end or before the last bake.  This keeps more than a month in air-tight container (good luck hiding it that long from your eaters).  I always double the recipe and bake it in 2 large casseroles, on parchment paper makes clean-up easier.  I bake on 2 oven racks, bc crowding onto one rack makes the outsides burn.  I switch their location (top to bottom) at each stir.  My favorite add-in is fresh fruit and raw pecans.  Dried fruit is best added at end so it doesn't burn.

I'm not a food blogger, so no pictures :)