Macadamia-Poppy Granola-EPIC SUCCESS ON MANY LEVELS!

I did it!  I made my own granola!! Yay!!!!!

Oh I feel so victorious!!! This was an amazing success on so many levels (like winning the lottery on an elevator).  First, I made my own nut butter [insert inappropriate joke here].  Can I say easy?  Freakin' E.Z.

Behold:

Toss in some macadamia nuts into the processor and just keep going until you get the right gooey texture.  My mind is going into overdrive with other possibilities!  Oh sure, cashew... almond.... peanut... but what about brazil nut? Or pecan??  Oh man... Next time I'm roasting first.  I think this will probably dry them out some so I'll have to add some oil, but not too much since a little goes a looooooooong way.  With this batch of butter I didn't have to add anything.  Just keep going.  The natural oils just made it perfect! I'll keep you posted [ha, blog pun] on how the future attempts go!

So, after my happy dance wound down from the success of the macadamia butter, I proceeded to make the rest.  I based it off of this recipe: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/07/18/lightened-up-summer-granola-2/ .  It's DELICIOUS.  Followed that one exactly and it's just awesome.  So, of course, I wanted to explore!  Here's what I did... ready... set.... bake!

MACADAMIA-POPPY GRANOLA
Servings really hard to determine.... the Oh She Glows one that I made ended up being less than the 5 cups she said... so I'll just put the total calories and you can divvy it out however you want.  I usually go with 1/3 cup granola, milk and some sort of fruit.  If I don't have fruit then I'm sad, but I manage to survive.  Just an extra dose of mate (mah-tay) tea and bring it on!  Total calories 2337 so approximately 235 calories per 1/3-1/2 cup serving (I went with a guess of 10 servings... we'll see what happens!!)

CONTENTS:
2 cups oats
1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped roughly in processor
1/2 uncooked millet
2 TBS unsweetened, shredded coconut
1 TBS toasted wheat germ
1 TBS ground flax seed/flaxseed meal
1 TBS poppy seeds
2 TBS brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBS applesauce
1/4 cup agave or maple, or other liquid sweetener
3 TBS macadamia nut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

The cast, partway through Act 1

FASCIST DIRECTIONS:
1. Roughly chop the macadamia nuts in a processor.  It's difficult not to over-process, and next time I'll probably use smaller batches and just give it a second or two to hack them up.




2. In a large bowl, mix from oats through salt (the dry ingredients)

It looks like bird food ;)

3. Mix in the wet ingredients... Mix really well til everything is moistened... TWSS

Including the awesome macadamia nut butter.  I'm still gloating over this, sorry!

4. Heat your oven to 325F and lay some parchment paper on a large cookie sheet.  Spread a thin layer of granola, as even-leveled as possible if that's an adjective?  If it's not, then just do it and don't question my grammar.


5. Bake for about 15 minutes, remove and stir, then try to flatten again as much as you can.  Return to the oven and bake another 10 minutes.


Now, Angela over at Oh She Glows says it will keep for 2 months in an airtight container but I say nay, it lasts about 3 weeks when consumed every day.  We'll see how long this batch lasts.  It was born 8-8-11... 

Stitch moved, but for the longest time we had the Southern Oracle thing going on... Remember them, from The Neverending Story?
 
Hehehe... Complete with laser eyes...