Lazy Mom's Granola

Last summer I decided I really wanted to make granola bars, so I searched the web, went to my favorite foodie sites and perused my cookbooks. I settled on a recipe that looked easy, kid-friendly and was moderately healthy (I wasn't going for super healthy, just tasty and homemade instead of chemical filled and mass produced).

It was a disaster.

The "bars" refused to come out of the pan and ended up being nothing more than a mildly tasty, crumbled mess. I was discouraged and swore off making granola bars for a while.

But, that crumbled mess was pretty tasty sprinkled over ice cream or yogurt and the kids liked it just in a bowl with milk on top for breakfast. And so, my love of homemade granola was sparked.

Since then, I've tried a few different recipes and still have about 20 in my "to make someday" file, but there's one that we keep coming back to. This one is easy, delicious, customizable and aptly named - Lazy Granola.


Lazy Granola (Or, "I don't have time to cook in the morning, but want something delicious and homemade" Granola)
1/2 C brown sugar (light or dark, use what you like)
1/2 C oil (I use canola, but again, whatever you have on hand will work - but you probably don't want to use olive oil - the flavor would be off)
1/2 C honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla extract
7 C oats (I use old fashioned, but feel free to try quick oats if that's what you've got on hand)

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix brown sugar (making sure there are no lumps), oil and honey in a small saucepan and bring to a low boil. Remove from heat and add cinnamon and vanilla.

Pour over oats in a large bowl and mix until the oats are all evenly coated.

Dump the coated oats into a 9X13 pan and just gently even out the top (this doesn't need to be perfect, just close to an even layer). Bake for 10 minutes.

Turn off the oven. Stir the granola around, then pop it back into the now cooling oven.

Go to bed. Seriously, walk away.

Wake up to a delicious cinnamon scent wafting through your kitchen. I typically just upend the 9X13 over a large bowl and scrape the granola out with a fork.

We eat this as is, with raisins or other fruit, over ice cream, over yogurt, with add-ins to make it more of a trail mix, etc...

I'm not sure how long this will keep as it never lasts more than a day in our house, but I don't see why it wouldn't last longer if you kept it in an airtight container. You could probably also halve the recipe if you didn't want so much - just bake it in a 9X9 or similar size pan.