January and February are not my friend. The holidays are over. The snow will. not. stop. Unless is it the lord’s year 2026. But either way it’s cold. It’s dark. It’s third quarter, if you’re not a teacher you may not know what I mean, but if you are a teacher you know EXACTLY what I mean.
But the end is near! It’s March on Saturday and it is warm this week. Well, Colorado warm, which means high fifties, but still, spring is near.
This granola is a staple in our house, usually it’s just vanilla granola, but I was inspired at King Soopers when I saw a huge bag of freeze dried strawberries. Most of us put it on top of our yogurt with some mixed berries. But if your name rhymes with Schmooklynn, you will pour it straight into a bowl and put almond milk on top.
However you eat it, it’s delicious, and it looks like spring in a jar.
Strawberry Vanilla Granola
Ingredients
- 8 cups rolled oats
- 2 cups chopped walnuts
- 2 cups chopped pecans
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 cup honey
- 1 cup butter 2 sticks
- 2 tbsp vanilla
- 2 oz freeze-dried strawberries
Instructions
- Heat oven to 300 degrees.
- Mix dry ingredients (oats, nuts and cinnamon) in a large bowl.
- Heat butter, honey and vanilla over low heat just until butter is melted.
- Pour honey-butter mixture over the dry ingredients.
- Mix well using a rubber scraper to scrape the bottom of the bowl, until dry mixture is completely coated.
- Place parchment paper over a large baking sheet and pour granola onto parchment paper.
- Bake for thirty minutes. Turn off the oven and let the granola sit in the warm oven for an hour and a half, or leave overnight.
- Sprinkle freeze-dried strawberries over the cooled granola.
- Store in a sealed container for up to three weeks.