So breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I try to make it great. Sometimes it's eggs and sometimes it's toast with cream cheese and jam. And I always have jars and jars of rolled oats in my cabinet but today I was going to mix it up a bit.

I reached for Heidi Swanson's book Super Natural Cooking (also the SF blogger of 101 Cookbooks with a fairly large following that includes me) and flipped to her "Grain-ola" recipe to use as a guideline.  Now my thoughts may have started with my large amount of Rainbow Grocery's bulk oats I already had, but homemade granola was going to require another trip down the bulk food aisles with my own jars and recycled bags in hand.

My list included coconut oil (which I have been meaning to try as skin lotion as well as a cooking ingredient per a co-worker’s suggestion), assorted dried fruits, walnuts, and a refill on my raw honey. Side-note for those interested: many places often have bulk dry goods, but Rainbow grocery rocks because you can bring bottles and get bulk liquids like honey and oils. Back to my baking adventure. Since homemade granola can include absolutely anything, I cruised down the bins and bins of prepared granola flavors to get some sort of combination ideas. There was nutty and crunchy with cashews and almonds, soft and chewy with dried apples and raisins, and more exotic versions with hints of pomegranate or ginger. For mine, I stuck with little date pieces, dried cranberries, chopped walnuts, raw sunflower seeds, and shredded coconut.When I got home, all of these ingredients went into a large glass mixing bowl along with four cups of rolled oats and what I found in the end to be key to my granola's light and fluffy flavor -- the zest of one orange (yay for my Microplane grater!).  A little more than half of a cup of honey went into a small saucepan, heating it on low with a quarter of a cup of coconut oil. The two were whisked together until combined and then poured over the dry goods. With the honey-oil mixture still warm, I stirred and tossed my soon-to-be crisp granola and tried my best to get everything evenly coated. 

At this point my oven had been preheated to 300 degrees and I had readied two baking sheets with rims (the only two I have). The coated oats and more were divvied up and spread out into a thin layer in an attempt to have it brown nice and evenly.  Into the oven went my raw breakfast goodness and every ten minutes for forty minutes, I pulled out the trays, shook up the mixture with a handy dandy spatula, and then spread it out again.  Every time I tried to go and do something, I was drawn back to the oven with five incessant beeps from the microwave timer. And it was a good thing.

After the second toss, the oats on the thinner tray started to get quite brown on one side so I was able to flip the pan before it burnt, but I also found myself taking that half out a ten minutes early. The second tray actually stayed in about five minutes longer. Honey citrus sweetness filled the air as I left the two trays out to cool on the counter. Not long after, I found myself shoveling the granola into a large French style canning jar as well as a small mason jar for a gift. Clean up was a cinch and before I knew it, I was dreaming about how I was going to enjoy my homemade bulk breakfast grub.    

This morning I went with some simple Strauss plain yogurt and a cut up apricot from the my neighborhood farmer's market. I am looking forward to grabbing some strawberries Tuesday afternoon at the Noe Valley Tuesday Market because that will just be scrumptious.  I highly suggest making your own version of this great for anytime granola, with good for you coconut and high fiber grains and dried fruit, you really can only go right!

Grain-ola
From Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

Ingredients
4 cups old-fashioned or quick-cooking rolled oats
3/4 cup unsalted raw sunflower seeds
1 cup walnuts or macadamia nuts, chopped into halves or quarters (I used walnuts)
1-1/2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
1-1/2 cups assorted unsulfured dried fruits (I used date pieces and dried cranberries), chopped
Grated zest of 2 oranges  (I just used 1 orange)
3/4 cup raw mild-flavored honey (I used just over half cup of honey)
1/4 cup coconut oil

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Combine all the dry ingredients (everything except the honey and coconut oil) in a large bowl and mix to combine. In a small saucepan, heat the honey and coconut oil on low, whisking them together until combined. Pour the still-warm honey-oil mixture over the dry ingredients and stir to coat evenly (as best you can).

Divide the granola mixture into two rimmed baking sheets and spread the mixture into a thin layer. Bake the granola 30-45 minutes (until toasty brown), stirring and shaking up the mixture every ten minutes to ensure even browning. Let granola cool in the baking sheets, and then store in an airtight container (a glass canning jar works great and lets you gaze upon your handiwork).

Eat the granola plain, or with yogurt and fruit from your local farmer’s market.