Simply Homemade: Yummy Granola Cereal and Hot Cocoa Mix

These are a couple of staples that I have been making for a little while and now my kids get upset when we run out. So I thought I would share the recipes in case anyone would like to try them, too.

Healthy Homemade Granola Cereal
4 cups old fashioned oats
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup slivered almonds (or chopped pecans)
1/2 cup Sucanat (or brown sugar)
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
4 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups whole grain flakes
In a large bowl, combine the oats, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, almonds, sucanat and salt. Mix well and then toss in the whole grain flakes. In another bowl, mix the oil, honey, water and vanilla. Pour the liquid mixture over the dry ingredients and mix well. Spread over a jelly-roll pan sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake at 300 degrees for 50-60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. If you desire, you can add raisins for the last 15 minutes. You can also add banana chips or dried cranberries. The granola will brown as it cooks. Cool and store in an airtight container.

Hot Cocoa Mix
2 3/4 cups powdered milk
1 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cups sugar
dash of salt

Whirl in blender and store in airtight container. Use 3 Tablespoons per cup of hot water.

Pepperoni and Granola and Bread....Oh My!

It has been quite a busy day! When you make just about everything from scratch, guess what? You run out and have to make more!! You can't just run to the store and pick up some more:-). So today was a day to make batches of some essentials in our house. I baked a loaf of bread and 15 rolls, baked a batch of granola cereal, and mixed the meat for another batch of pepperoni. The bread came out beautifully! I hadn't made any loaves for quite a while (we really like to use the rolls for so many things) since I had been having trouble with my bread falling. But then I realized that my oven wasn't getting hot enough and cranked it up to 425 degrees setting in order to get it to bake at 350 degrees. That solved the problem and now my bread comes out b-e-a-utiful!!
I made up another batch of Granola Cereal for my kids - they LOVE it! And that makes me so happy - I just cringe at the thought of the eating that sugary store-bought cereal, but occasionally I just don't have time to cook a nice hot breakfast. And I mixed together the meat and spices for another batch of spicy turkey pepperoni. I added more paprika this time to see if it comes out more red. Then, for dinner, I decided to try Ham and Split Pea Soup. It turned out great! Everyone really liked it - even me (and I HATE peas!) I used turkey ham and started with dried split peas, so it took about 2 1/2 hours to cook, but it was worth it. That recipe will be a keeper.