Happy Pumpkin Wednesday, the Helpful Pumpkin

Happy Pumpkin Wednesday Friends!  I hope you have had a wonderful week and are getting excited for the upcoming fall weekend.

It's been a busy week and Pumpkin is always looking for ways to help me out.

She has been helping me get the groceries

Taking out the garbage

And has even helped me tackle cleaning the bathroom

But Pumpkin was most helpful this week in the kitchen.  She has given me some great ideas for quick lunches and breakfasts, and below is a recipe she stumbled across for easy homemade granola.

The great thing is that this recipe makes a ton of granola and it will keep in an airtight container for roughly a week.  You can also add a variety of dried fruits/different nuts to the recipe to keep it interesting.

Courtesy of  Alton Brown's recipe for Granola

Ingredients

3 cups oatmeal (rolled oats)

1 cup slivered almonds

1 cup cashews or pecans

1 cup shredded coconut

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

raisins

craisins

other dried fruits

sunflower seeds

Preheat Oven to 250 degrees

Line a large sheet pan with tin foil.  If you are using regular sheet pans you will need two

Combine oatmeal, almonds, cashews and/or pecans, coconut and brown sugar into a large bowl

Combine the vegetable oil, maple syrup and salt in a separate bowl

Combine all the ingredients mixing the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to coat

Spread well-stirred mixture onto sheet pan in a thin layer

Cook the granola for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stopping to stir the granola every 15 minutes

Once the granola is removed from the oven and then cooled, combine in raisins or any other dried fruit



Have you found a new simple recipe to spice up your breakfast or lunch routine?

Looking forward to a lovely Thursday!