Granola Trail Mix

Christmas gifts. It's so hard to come up with thoughtful gifts sometimes! I really prefer to either shop locally or create homemade gifts. I think gifts for co-workers can be especially challenging. How much do you spend? Do you really know your co-worker well enough to give them something they will use and appreciate? Where do you draw the line, if you work in a large office? Do you even start that -- because you know once you do it one year, you're kinda on the hook for the following years. This week, I threw together some granola on a wing and a prayer and then I mixed it in with a few other additions for homemade granola trail mix. It was my Christmas gift for the guys in my office this year.

The crunchy, granola, hippie chick in the office made homemade granola and wrapped it up in a glass jar tied off with scraps of yarn.

So cliche. I love it.

For the granola, I combined 3 cups of oats, 1 cup of sliced almonds, 1 cup of sunflower seeds, 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt. Next, I added 4 tablespoons avocado oil and 2/3 cup raw, local honey. pro-tip: rub just a touch of avocado oil in your measuring cup before measuring the honey. the honey will just slide right out of the cup and you won't waste a bit of that precious golden honey. I mixed this well and then carefully poured it out onto my large stone bar pan. I baked the granola for 50 minutes at 300 degrees; stirring once at about 30 minutes into the baking. When it comes out of the oven, scoop it carefully out onto either parchment paper or wax paper and allow it to harden and cool. Then store in an airtight container.

As perfect as this granola is just as it is... let's turn this delicious granola into trail mix!

Now, the possibilities are really endless here... And honestly, they were up above, as well. There are some great charts on Pinterest for build your own granola ideas. Mine is a super basic recipe, but it's tasty, quick, and very versatile for doing something like this trail mix.

So, back to said trail mix. I really kind of wish I had added some mixed nuts or at least peanuts to my trail mix. If you're a coconut fan, I think that would be a great addition as well. I guess there's always next year... 'cause, yeah, I'm on the hook for this yearly, now.

Here's what I did:

I melted 2 tablespoons of butter with 4 tablespoons of raw honey over low heat on the stove. okay, okay, confession... I always use just a bit more - maybe 1 tablespoon more of each. I think it coats better and hey, it's honey and real butter. I don't feel badly about this. While keeping a close eye on the stove and stirring now and then, I tossed 3 cups of my homemade granola and 1 cup of pretzels into a large bowl. Once the honey and butter was combined nicely, I poured this over my granola mix and combined well. The granola went back onto my large bar pan and back into the oven for 10 minutes at 300 degrees. I did a quick stir about halfway into the baking. By the way, don't wash that bowl just yet. Once out of the oven, I let the trail mix cool and harden on parchment paper. Then, I tossed it back into the bowl and added 1.5 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a little over 1 cup of dried cranberries. Mix well and store in an airtight container.

#realfood #organicversion #recipes