Granola

I am always on the lookout for good granola recipes. This would be one of many I've come to really like. This recipe was part of the June 2010 Aussie/NZ recipe swap and my teammate is gailanng from the Deep South.

Granola
3 cups regular oats, uncooked
1 (2 1/8 oz) sesame seeds
1 (3 3/4 oz) salted sunflower seeds (I believe I only had unsalted.)
1 (2 1/4 oz) sliced almonds
1/2 cup coconut (I left this out.)
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped dates (I omitted these and used 1 cup craisins instead.)

Preheat oven to 325. Combine first 5 ingredients in large bowl. Combine maple syrup with next 5 ingredients. Pour over oat mixture and mix very well. Spread evenly on a 15x10 baking sheet. Bake 3o minutes or until golden stirring every 10 minutes.
Turn oven off and leave for an additional 5 minutes. Remove. Stir in fruit. Let cool and store in airtight container.

Chocolate Oatmeal Walnut Muffins

I made these yummy muffins over General Conference weekend. It was perfect snacking on these while we watched the speakers share their messages on the computer!
This recipe comes from Mom2Rose from recipezaar. She is from Michigan, USA and found the recipe on the Hershey's website.

Chocolate Oatmeal Walnut Muffins
1 cup quick cooking or regular oats
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all ingredients gently in a mixing bowl. Pour into muffin tins lined with paper baking cups.
Bake 16-18 minutes. I was able to get 12 muffins from this recipe.

Crunchy Oat Cereal

What a great idea to use up all that oatmeal in my food storage! Jen T from New Zealand shares this recipe on recipezaar - I chose it as part of my recipe selections for the swap in September 2009. Use this recipe in the recipe below as well.

Crunchy Oat Cereal
1 1/4 cups large rolled oats
1 1/4 cups roughly chopped nuts (I used sliced almonds and walnuts)
6 TBSP maple syrup - the good stuff
6 TBSP butter or margarine, melted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and spread onto a large shallow baking pan sprayed with vegetable spray.
Bake for 30-35 minutes - or until golden and crunchy.
Let mixture cool before storing in an airtight container. May be stored up to 2 weeks in a cool dry place.

Use this cereal in the recipe below.