Granola is Lasagne's Soul Sister

Granola is a lot like lasagne.  It is delicious when homemade but the store bought stuff usually sucks.  Store bought granola typically has too many oats, too few everything else, and is too sweet.  Similarly, store bought lasagne has too much pasta, too few vegetables, and too much salt.

So, in our quest to find healthy snack options for our ravenous boys, we roasted up some homemade granola.  Also, a sprinkling of delicious granola on top makes my persisting runny yogurt problem seem less dire.

We followed Grandma's base recipe but altered the ingredients to make two varieties:
(1) Apricot, Cranberry and Cashew with Clover Honey, and
(2) Almond and Wild Blueberry with Buckwheat Honey.

We started with everything raw and unsweetened or unsalted.  We roasted a combination of oat, spelt, barley and rye flakes to use for the base.

We roasted and then added combinations of nuts and seeds including: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, and cashews.

Our dried fruit selections included: raisins, cranberries, apricots, wild blueberries, bing cherries and flaked coconut.  We sweetened with different varieties of honey gifted to us by our lovely neighbourhood beekeeper, Mr. Jim.

It was a success!  Yum!

What was not a success, was keeping our chicks in the garage.  I opened the door this afternoon to check on them only to find the red squirrel sitting boldly directly on top of the screen covering their crate.  He was grooving to the loud radio (so much for a squirrel deterrent) and licking his chops (I exaggerate but you get the idea).  Much to Charlotte's dismay and Emily, Liam and Seamus' delight, the chicks are now living (safely albeit temporarily) in the powder room.

Ian is out buying a squirrel trap as I type this; Jack the Ripper Red Squirrel's days are numbered.

P.S. Houdini Hen escaped AGAIN!