Homemade Granola!

Making homemade granola is so EASY and you will save a ton of money if you buy granola on a regular basis. And with today's economy, saving money is important! So how do you go about making your own granola? Use the following recipe and a little creativity and you are set!

Homemade Granola

If you are going to 'roll' your oats, go ahead and roll about 15 cups worth. If not, then make sure you have 15 cups of your favorite rolled oats.

1. Change your racks so you can do two or three trays at one time.

2. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees

3. Combine the following in a pot and warm until the oils and honey blend:

1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup Extra Light Olive Oil (EVOO) will impart too strong of a flavor for most people
1 1/4 cup honey, try and use raw if possible
2 tsp cinnomon, add extra if you really like this spice

4. Remove from heat and add 4 teaspoons vanilla, Pampered Chef Brand is best...whisk together

5. Add the following ingredients to a LARGE bowl

15 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup millet
1/2 flax seed

If you don't have millet or flax seed, no worries! Just add an extra cup of rolled oats.

6. Pour liquids over oats and blend well.

7. Divide evenly between two or three pans. I like 11 x 15, but you can use 9 x 13 if you would like, but make sure you don't use a cookie sheet as you will likely end up with a mess.

8. Bake for 15 minutes, then stir. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes and cool. Add raisins or dried blueberries or anything else you like to make your granola extra special.

I store my granola in 1/2 gallon mason jars after it is completely cooled.

Enjoy and let me know how your granola turned out!

Mac, Cheese and Beef

Here is a great recipe that is large enough to share with your congregation or to have extra in the freezer. This recipe can be cut in half or multiplied with no problems!

Sauce Ingredients
6 TBSP unsalted butter
14 TBSP whole wheat flour
4 1/2 cups milk
6 cups grated cheese...I like Cabot's Cheddar Cheese and Jalapeno Jack (4 to 2 ratio)
3/4 Tsp Real Salt
1 Tsp chili powder
2 Dashes of Red Pepper
2 TBSP dried red sweet peppers

Beef Ingredients
2 Pounds Ground Beef
1/2 onion...diced
3 TBSP dried green peppers
1/2 TBSP dried minced garlic
1/8 TSP Real Salt

5 cups spiral pasta, not cooked

1. Prehead oven to 350
2. Prepare 1 9 x 13 pan and 1 9x9 pan with butter on bottoms and sides
3. Brown ground beef and next 4 ingredients
4. Make Sauce:
A. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add most of the flour, but if it gets too thick, start to add some milk...alternating with the flour. Add remaining milk slowly, whisking continuously, until thick. Cook about 10 minutes and then remove from heat.
B. Add cheese, salt, and remaining ingredients for the sauce. Stir until cheese melts.
5. To prepare pasta according to directions; cook pasta 2 minutes less than package directions. Rinse pasta in cold water and drain well.
6. Combine pasta, beef and sauce in a large bowl.
7. Transfer most to a 9x13 and the rest to the 9x9. Sprinkle with a little more cheese and chili powder.
8. Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes or until heated through. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Feel free to add vegtables with the beef and pasta. If you are going to freeze the 9x9, don't cook it, just stick it in the freezer once it is assembled.

Enjoy this hearty meal!

What is Kamut?

Kamut is a unique grain. I consider it a 'wheat' as it looks like wheat and contains gluten. In fact, I think this is very similar to the wheat found 5000 years ago before man started to 'change' the grains for the 'better'. Kamut is not a high gluten grain, but yet it has enough gluten that you can make bread using just Kamut. From what I have found, it is always organic! So if you eat Kamut, you pretty much know you are eating an organic product.

Kamut is highly digestible. Kamut contains more B1, B2, niacin and vitamin E than your standard wheat. It is also higher in calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc and copper than wheat.

The flavor of Kamut is excellent...think nuts and butter.

Only let your bread rise once if it is the only grain in the bread.

And you need to remember that this is a heavy grain, so either cut back on the amount of flour you use or add some liquid. It is even heavier than red wheat in my opinion, so don't use this for cakes or any other bake good that you would prefer to be 'light'.

My favorite Kamut recipe: Mush! Yep, crack the grain, add milk and spices and cook over a medium low heat. A perfect breakfast on a cool morning!