Homemade Granola

I admit, I was one of THOSE people who thought granola was a treat that came only from the grocery store. ***shudder*** It never even crossed my mind that I could actually make it here at home using ONLY the stuff I like and not having to pick around those little bits and pieces from the store bought ones that I didn't like. What are those bits and pieces anyway???? I have only made 2 recipes of granola and, boy, are they simple! This particular recipe comes from....well, I can't remember where exactly I saw this, but, honestly, granola is basically oats and stuff held together with goo and then baked. The beauty of it is that you can make it ANY WAY YOU WANT! I changed this recipe around to use up those annoying little bags of miscellaneous goodies that have migrated to the back of the pantry. You know those things I am talking about. The half empty bag of dried canberries that you meant to use in cookies. The 3 opened 1/4 full bags of grated coconut. Why are 3 of them opened???? The 2 half empty bags of sliced or diced nuts. The list can go on and on so today I thought I would use them ALL up.


Ingredients

3/4 C. Honey
1 C. Coconut Oil
4 C. Old Fashioned Oats
1 C. Shredded Coconut (I had only sweetened but you can certainly use unsweetened)
1 C. Sunflower Nuts (I didn't have any so I subbed in the nuts below)
1 C. Chopped Nuts (I used sliced almonds and diced walnuts to get rid of the opened bags!)
1/2 C. Dried Fruit (I tossed in the cranberries that I forgot to make cookies with)
1/2 C. Chocolate Chips ( Use any chip you find. I used chocolate and white chips)
Feel free to add anything else that might tickle you. There are no hard and fast rules. I actually tossed in some sesame seeds that I didn't even know I had.

In a saucepan, stir together the honey and coconut oil until melted. While that is melting, mix the other ingredients in a large bowl. Once the honey and oil are melted, pour them over the other ingredients. Mix very well and dump bowl out onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Spread evenly over the cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. Stir and continue baking for another 15 minutes. Let cool and store in an airtight container. This is so yummy mixed in with yogurt or topped with milk or just by the handful.