"I made granola" is a very Earth-mother, hippy-dippy, peace-and-love thing to say, and I relate to none of those things. I suck at separating my compost, I get road rage, and I don't want to share the land.

But I do love a little granola sprinkled on my yogurt, and I don't necessarily like it to be laden with fat, sugars and crazy chemicals.

Mixing it up.

Granola is so easy to make yourself, and so simple to modify to however you like it, there's not really any need to buy pre-packaged stuff from the cereal aisle. I was able to whip up some applesauce granola on Saturday using ingredients I already had on hand at home, with a few little adjustments to a recipe I found online, and it turned out great.

Here's a link to the recipe I used, and here it is with the modifications I made, just because I didn't have some of the stuff in the cupboard but I really, REALLY had a hankering for granola:

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups oats
• 1 cup nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds) (I used almonds because that's what I had on hand) 
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds (I used pumpkin seeds instead. Work with what you got, kids!) 
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds (I skipped this because I didn't have any) 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 TBSP honey
• 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup raisins (I didn't have raisins so I used craisins instead - any dried fruit/berries would work well)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 300F.
• Mix together your dry ingredients, minus the raisins, in a large bowl. 
• In a small saucepan, warm the applesauce, honey, and oil over low heat. 
• Mix the applesauce mixture into the oat mixture and stir to coat everything. Spread the mixture onto a 9x13 baking pan. 
• Bake for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until granola is a deep brown. Remove from oven and stir in raisins. Let cool before eating! (I didn't)

Crunchy yums!