It is so awesome.

Occasionally an effort at good health will be made at our house.   Recently we've started eating yogurt for breakfast, which is awesome I suppose.  At a friends suggestion I added granola to my yogurt.  It wasn't great, but ok.

It was in the back of my mind that I could easily make my own granola, so I did a little research with my pal Google.  There were interesting recipes, but nothing that propelled me out of my chair.  Then I picked up the Aprill 2011 issue of Everyday Food and struck granola gold, a recipe that looked easy AND I had the ingredients for it.

Have I ever mentioned that I often don't have good luck with Ms. Stewart's recipes?  It's true, I often have messy, expensive failures when following Martha Stewart's lead.  This time however, I scored.

There were liberties taken with this recipe. To the credit of the staff of Everyday Food, the recipe was designed to be tinkered with and that's just awesome.

Here's what I came up with:

Ducks Granola

3 C. rolled oats, not quick cooking
1 C. raw almonds coarsely chopped

1/4 C. butter
1/3 C. honey
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees and line a rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper.

Combine the oats and nuts in a bowl.

Put remaining ingredients in a microwave safe container and heat on high for 1.5 minutes, stir, heat for an additional 30 seconds or until butter is melted.  Pour mixture over oats and nuts, stir to thoroughly combine.

Spread the granola in the rimmed sheet and bake for a total of 35 minutes.  Stir the granola with a spatula and respread every 10 minutes.  Let it cool in the pan on a cooling rack.  Store in a tightly covered container. 

As to how long it lasts?  I don't know, we eat it pretty fast.  It's a great snack if you throw in some dark chocolate chips, or coconut, or chopped dried fruit.  Or all of that.

That jar is looking pretty empty.  Time to make the granola.