Vanilla Almond Granola

Let me start off by saying, mine did not turn out like the original. At all. Still, this vanilla almond granola is delicious and would make a great treat for cereal, trail mix, etc. I found the original post from MyGlutenFreeKitchen (they used gluten-free oats but I used old-fashioned). Along with 4 cups of oats, you'll need:


* 1 cup of sliced or slivered almonds (you can buy them pre-sliced)
* 1/3 cup of packed brown sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon of salt
* 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
* 1/3 cup of butter or vegetable oil
* 1/4 cup of honey
* 2 Tablespoons of sugar
* 4 teaspoons of vanilla extract (not imitation extract)

Start by preheating your oven to 300 degrees and laying parchment paper down on 2 cookie sheets.

Combine the oats, almonds, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, honey, and sugar. Whisk together until the sugar has completely dissolved. After about 30 seconds, remove the pan from the heat and add your vanilla.

Pour the butter/honey/sugar/vanilla mixture into the bowl of oats and stir thoroughly. Pour the oats onto your cookie sheets and bake. Now the original post says to bake for 25-30 minutes but after 20 minutes, my almonds were burning so I took them out. Be sure to stir them a couple times on the pans while they're in the oven so they're all baked evenly.

Now this is where my granola didn't follow orders... while it's cooling, it's supposed to clump up. If you stir often while it's cooling, it'll supposedly form smaller clumps. Mine didn't clump at all so I decided to add pretzel sticks, peanuts, and chocolate chips to make it trail mix. Perhaps you'll have better luck with the clumping but either way, it's still delicious!

TOTAL COSTS: About $25

$1.99 for oats

$3.99 for almonds

$.99 for salt

$4.79 for cinnamon

$.99 for butter

$4.29 for honey

$2.69 for sugar

$4.99 for vanilla

I made my own brown sugar - see my instructions here

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 hour

20 minutes to prep

20 minutes to bake

20 minutes to cool

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5

When I think of granola, I think of clumps of oats. I managed to get maybe 3 or 4 clumps in the entire batch. Perhaps it requires more of the butter/honey/sugar/vanilla mixture, maybe less time stirring while in the oven or while it's cooling, maybe less time in the oven, it's hard to say. There are a lot of different variables here so be prepared to do a little trial and error!

Halloween Mason Jar Treats

While looking online for some fun Halloween gifts to make with mason jars (since they're all the rage), I came across this fun and easy post (which originally came from Alicia at A Beautiful Mess).

Note "Trick Or" is crossed out on purpose. Only treats here!

Seemed simple enough - buy the ingredients, eat some ingredients, put in jars, wrap with ribbon, eat more ingredients, write witty label and give to friends before jar is empty. Here are a few tips to make it easier on yourself that they don't mention:

#1. Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl - that way you don't have to worry about the treats not being thoroughly mixed.

#2. Pour the ingredients from the bowl to the jars with a slotted spoon. Why slotted? Because inevitably when you poured out the bag of pretzels into your bowl, a lot of crumbs and salt probably fell out as well. The slotted spoon can ensure those crumbs aren't included in the jars.

#3. Put the labels on the ribbons before wrapping around the jars. And use a hole punch. Otherwise, you're just making things harder on yourself. I had to use a sewing needle and poke 8 times until I got a hole big enough for the ribbon!

#4. Leave some breathing room at the top of the jar. That way your goodies aren't smooshed and it makes a fun noise when you shake it! Yes, I'm as easily amused as a 3 year old.

#5. The labels (originally found posted by Elizabeth at Oh!Nuts) probably took the most time, as they are an intricate design to cut out. However, if you pop in a podcast, you'll have 8 cut out in 30 minutes or less without realizing it.

SUPPLIES:
Scissors
Hole punch
Ribbons
Mason jars
Goodies (I included Cheeze-Its, pretzel squares, salted peanuts, Honey Nut Cheerios, Reece's Pieces, candy corn, and candy pumpkins). If you wanted to make it a little more healthy, you could add in raisins or craisins, granola, and dried fruit but c'mon, it's Halloween time! Make your dentist work for their money!

TOTAL COSTS: About $30
Ingredients = $20.75 at Vons in Los Angeles ($2.99 Cheese-Its, $3.49 pretzel squares, $2.99 salted peanuts, $2.99 generic Honey Nut Cheerios, $4.29 Reese's Pieces, 2 for $4 candy corn and pumpkins)

Ribbons = $2.58 at Vons (they didn't have orange so I bought one spool of red and one of white)

Mason jars = $8.49 at Target (though their website says $16.99) and I only used 8 jars

Labels = Free (so long that you have printer paper, color ink, and scissors)

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 1 hour
From ripping open the bags to tying the final label, it took me 1 hour. As I said, cutting out the labels took the most time and if I had put the labels on the ribbons first, rather than after they were already on the jars, I could have saved some time as well.

EASY-PEASY SCALE: 1 out of 5
No harder than going grocery shopping. Grab the kiddos and make some fun gifts (maybe for their favorite teachers, coaches, friends, etc.). Enjoy!