Hello everyone! If you don’t already know how to make homemade granola then now is the time to learn. Homemade granola is not only delicious but makes a great snack, trail mix, cereal, topping for your yogurt… the list goes on. I started making this recipe a few years ago. It’s what makes me even more ‘granola’ than I already am. I’m not fully ‘granola’… other than striving for natural childbirth, making organic food from scratch and canning… I still have a long way to go. Not that I’m striving for the ‘granola’ stereotype… it’s just that I’m finding myself naturally trying to become more natural and less synthetic. Speaking of synthetic. I recently had a little ‘touch’ of plastic surgery this last week. I received a slight lift of my right eyebrow. Honestly it’s true, but not for the reasons you think. I had a smidgen of cancer. It wasn’t melanoma but cancer none-the-less. We caught it very early and luckily we were able to remove all of it. I am very lucky because the doctor who performed the surgery is a plastic surgeon. By the time he was done, the large incision was barely noticeable with the exception of the stitches. This happened last Friday and I’m about due to have the stitches removed. I’ve been walking around since Friday with a bandage on my head eating homemade granola by the bagful. It has drawn quite a bit of attention, however, this is not the type of injury I want attention from. It’s not something you can quickly tell someone, “Eh… so I had cancer?”. You can guarantee that a quick passing will become a heavy discussion very quickly. It also doesn’t help that I am socially awkward!
One Tuesday, at our home school group, one of the mom’s asked me if I bumped my head. I paused trying to figure out how to tell her, which ended up looking strange. When I casually said “I have cancer.” she gasped. I immediately responded with “well… HAD…” it’s gone now. That also sounded strange in the moment. It basically became a verbal dance of me making it sound like nothing, then making it sound like something huge and nothing again. By the time the conversations was over we were both confused. It was a moment in my life where I just wished a car would drive through the wall of the women’s bathroom and take me out of my misery, right were I stood.
After learning my lesson, another mom approached me while I was watching my daughter do relay races and asked “did you bump your head?”. To prevent another travesty like the one in the bathroom I merely stated “Oh this? No, I just had something removed.” No big deal right? I even did the ‘flop my hand’ motion to really let her know it wasn’t a big deal. In any other place in this universe that would have ended just fine but not for me. Standing side by side we both opened our eyes wide and very slowly turned our heads forward to watch the kids. We didn’t speak again. Oh heaven help me! Why am I so awkward?
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. In a large bowl combine oats, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Add oil and vanilla, mix well. Add honey last mixing until ingredients are fully saturated and evenly distributed with honey.
- Bake on a cooking sheet for 20 minutes. Stir once halfway. Cool before use.
