4 cups oatmeal
1 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup all-bran cereal
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup corn oil
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
2. Mix the oatmeal, coconut, walnuts, pecans, almonds, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, all-bran cereal, and sesame seeds together. (The first 10 ingredients).
3. Mix the corn oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and salt together.
4. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir.
5. Grease a 13x9 casserole dish
6. Spread the granola mix evenly in the casserole dish
7. Bake for a total of 35 minutes. After the first 20 minutes, gently stir, and then bake for the remaining 15 minutes.
Mark's Notes:
1. I did not use sesame seeds.
2. I used olive oil rather than corn oil
3. I used regular raisin bran cereal for the "all bran cereal"
4. I couldn't find dried cranberries, but I did find a bag of mix of dried cranberries and other dried fruits and so I used that.
Mark's Story:
We spent the 4th of July weekend camping at Wilderness State Park near Mackinaw. While there, I bought a baking book where all the recipes used blueberries. I wanted to make blueberry granola bars. At first I thought this recipe was the blueberry granola bar recipe. I made it and it didn't look like it would cut into granola bars very easily. So, I re-read the recipe, and this is essentially a blueberry-granola mix/cereal.
Everyone loved this. The kids loved it. It can be used as a snack. It can be used for breakfast. It is super healthy.
In the near future, I plan on making the actual blueberry granola bars.
