Thursday, June 24, 2010

Simple Granola


Many homemade granola recipes have extras in them, like coconut or nuts or fruit. My kids, however, just want the straight granola. I combined a few recipes and came up with this:

4 cups old fashioned oatmeal (not the 1 minute)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 Tbl honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Put oatmeal into a large glass bowl. Microwave for two minutes, stirring halfway. (Not sure why, maybe helps to dry out the oats?)

Combine the other ingredients in a small bowl. Pour onto oatmeal. Stir until well blended.

Microwave for 4 minutes, stirring at each minute. Pour onto wax paper to cool. Spread thinly if you want little pieces, or thickly to break into big chunks. (And have less little crumbies all over the floor.)

Or alternately, in the oven, bake at 350 for 20 minutes, stirring every 5.

I have only done the microwave method, because it is so fast and turns out well.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Homemade Yogurt

I tried making my own yogurt last night, and it was so simple! Even better, ridiculously cheap. I made 2 quarts for about $1.

I found the recipe on a blog I follow, The Frugal Girl. She has such wonderful directions and pictures, if you want to give it a try, head on over there. (I made the vanilla variation, which has an extra step near the bottom.)