Did you know the Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon? Mark's dad always took him when he was a kid, and when he and Amanda moved to the Boston area, he made it an annual outing for the Johnson family.
A few years ago, Amanda made granola for the first time, hoping to feed her little girls a healthy snack to hold them off until after the race. The snack was a hit, except Mark–the grown up kid–wasn't crazy about the dried cranberries. So last year, when Amanda took a phone call, Mark hijacked the recipe and added his own special twist. This year, Amanda's allowing each member of her family to make their own special variation.
Ingredients:
3 cups old fashioned oats
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup dried fruit (or something else)*
1/4 cup chopped nuts or seeds*
Mix the oats, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix honey, oil, vanilla until blended. Then with clean hands, combine the dry and wet ingredients, then spread them on a cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes. Take out, stir, and bake another 5 to 10 minutes until granola is lightly browned. After you take the granola out, stir often to keep the granola from sticking to the pan.
When mixture cools, add dried fruit and nuts/seeds.*
Experiment with your own variations of the recipe, and enjoy Patriot's Day!
Sophie and Amanda shared the granola with chopped, salted almonds.
Madi loves the cranberries and walnuts.
Mark, the grown up little kids, threw M&Ms in his.
Amanda Johnson, her husband Mark, and their two daughters, Sophie and Madi, are the main characters in Finding Amanda. As a chef, Amanda loves to share her favorite recipes. For more information about Finding Amanda, check out my Latest Releases. To download a copy of Amanda's Favorite Recipes, subscribe to my newsletter.