Going Granola

So I'm having a bit of a rough day, and I decided to de-stress by making home-made granola from my Flat Belly Diet (a kind of mediterranean diet promoting eating a serving of monounsaturated fatty acids with each of 4 meals a day) cookbook. And then, I decided to share it with you Pioneer Woman style (but my pictures and food are far inferior).

The Recipe:

2 cups oatmeal

1 1/4 cups walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup unprocessed bran

1/3 cup ground flaxseed

1/3 cup apple juice

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon minced crystallized ginger

1 cup dried apples, chopped

1/3 cup dried sweetened cranberries

The Stats (one serving = 3/4 cup):

294 calories

7g protein

8 g fiber

112 mg sodium

0 mg cholesterol

1 g saturated fat

12 g fat

Step 1: Chop up walnuts (notice my home-made backstop).

Step 2: Add oats

Step 3: Add Bran

Step 4: Add Ground Flaxseed (note: apparently once flaxseed is ground it must be refrigerated, so be sure to look in the frozen section of your health food store. Alternative? Grind it yourself. That's for another day.)

Step 5: Mince some crystallized ginger (after eating my granola, the only thing I would change is really, really mincing this, or buying it minced, or including less).

Step 6: Simmer apple juice, maple syrup, and minced ginger.

Step 7: Pour the liquids onto the oat mix and stir (Note: don't take picture at the same time and burn yourself).

Step 8: Spread onto greased cookie sheet, cooking at 300 degrees for 25-35 minutes, stirring twice (Note: try not to sneak any yet).

Step 9: Meanwhile, chop up some dried apples and mix with dried, sweetened cranberries.

Step 10: Mix baked oats together with dried fruits.

Step 11: 3/4 cup of the granola is one serving. Store the rest in an air-tight container for up to 3 weeks.

Step 12: Voila! Post pictures on your blog and eat your heart out. I made a fruit parfait, alternating layers of greek yogurt, banana slices, and granola (I didn't have the fresh raspberries another recipe suggested, but bet that would be delish). The following concoction served as one of my four daily meals, coming in around 400 calories total.

Thank you all for your time and patience! And enjoy. It's seriously good.