Meatless Monday Menu: Week 5

As promised, this week we have a meatless breakfast option, homemade honey peanut granola, which we found on Allrecipes.com.  This by far, is one of the favorite breakfast choices for my family.  When I make it, I double or triple the recipe so that we better utilize the oven.  Plus, I have a fear that the granola will be completely devoured in one sitting so having extra alleviates that concern.

This recipe is best made the day before you plan to eat it since it bakes for an hour and needs to cool as well.  Like many recipes, I treat them as suggestions and often tinker with the ingredients or directions.  I have never peanuts but added sunflower seeds this time.  In the past, I've also added flax seeds and pecans, which are my favorites.

Ingredients:
3 cups quick oatmeal
1/2 cup nuts or seeds
1/4 wheat germ
1/3 cup honey: We like to purchase honey from our farmers' market.  You can buy local and select the type of honey.
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoon warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
We prefer to omit the salt from the recipe.

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.  Lightly grease a large casserole dish. Tip: I save the wax paper wrappers for butter when I have used up a stick of butter.  Then when I need to grease a pan, I rub the inside of the wrapper onto the pan.  Because of this, I really don't use the vegetable spray cans, cutting down on waste.

2. In a large bowl, combine the liquids and brown sugar.  Then add the oats, nuts, and wheat germ, stirring with each addition.

3. When the dry ingredients are thoroughly coated, spread the mixture out on the greeased casserole dish.

4. Bake for one hour, stirring every fifteen minutes.  I use a metal spatula to scrape the bottom of the casserole dish when stirring.  You want to avoid having the granola stick to the pan.

5.  After the granola is finished baking, set it out to cool.  Stir it occassionally as it cools.  Store in an air tight container.

What do you like to serve with granola?  We add dried fruit or fresh, seasonal berries.