'Granola' - Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Grain Free

Becca here with a quick & easy 'granola' recipe that is a great one for getting your kids involved in helping you cook in the kitchen.  And I'm sure they'll love eating the end result of their labor too!  This recipe was my inspiration although, as you can see, I adapted quite a bit to use what we already had in our pantry.  I put the word 'granola' in parenthesis because it doesn't have any of the oatmeal that I typically associate with a granola, making it dairy, gluten, and grain free.  I would say that it's more akin to a Larabar (although there are no dates in these) than a true granola.  Whatever you want to call it, the end result is tasty!  I can think of so many other yummy combinations to come up with different types of dried fruits that we can't wait to try.  My children enjoyed preparing the dry portion of the granola with minimal supervision.  Enjoy!

'Granola' {dairy free, gluten free, grain free}

2 1/2 cups assorted types of nuts and/or seeds, divided (I used a canister of mixed nuts)

1 cup dried fruit, diced (I used apricots I cut into pieces with my kitchen shears)

2 cups shredded coconut (I used sweetened, dried because that's what I had on hand)

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup honey

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (I used my homemade vanilla extract)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1) Use a food processor or blender to coarsely chop 1 cup of the nuts & seeds.  Pour them into a large mixing bowl.

2) Repeat with the remaining 1 1/2 cups of nuts & seeds, except this time continue to chop them until they are chopped quite finely.  (We use a $2 Black Friday Walmart special mini food chopper for this & it works perfectly, it doesn't have to be anything fancy :)

3) Stir in the diced dried fruit & coconut and set it aside for a minute.

4) Over medium-high heat, add the coconut oil, honey, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon to a pan and cook until it starts to bubble (just a few minutes). 

5) Carefully pour the hot liquid mixture over the prepared fruit & nut mixture in the large bowl.  Continue to stir until well combined.

6) Pour mixture onto a large cookie sheet covered with wax paper.  Cover with another sheet of wax paper and press hard to help the mixture combine (another great job for the kiddos to help with!)  Let cool a few hours, and then cut into bars.  The edges of ours didn't quite harden enough (I don't think they got pressed hard enough) into bars, but it still makes a great tasty granola mix!