Marie's Granola

I am so glad that over the past few years that my kids have changed their desires for sweet cereals over to better healthy cereals, even without much prodding from myself. Oh sure, who doesn't love Lucky Charms once in awhile, but I love to see them make better choices. I have tried a few recipes for granola over the years, but this one seems to be the best. The secretary Marie, at my office shared this with me and we love it. I worried at first when she told me that the wheat flakes in the granola were "Total" cereal. We are not big fans of "Total", but they work just great here and the kids have no idea. The first time I made this I added dried cranberries, but one kid wouldn't eat it because of it, so this time I left out dried fruit and decided to let everyone add their own dried fruit whenever they decide to eat it.

Marie's Granola

6 cups regular oats or "old-fashion"

1 (12 oz.) box or Total cereal

3 cups each: Rice Krispies, Puffed Wheat, Puffed Rice

1 cup sliced almonds

In a very large bowl, mix cereals together.

Syrup:

1/2 cup honey

3/4 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup water

1 T. vanilla

2 t. salt

Mix syrup ingredients in medium bowl and heat in microwave 3 minutes until sugar is dissolved. Pour mixture over cereal. Stir to moisten the cereal.

Spray 2 large cookie sheets (with edges) with vegetable spray. Bake 1 1/2 hours at 225. Remove trays from oven; stir mixture and return to oven. Bake another 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and stir. Leave on cookie sheets until cool, stirring occasionally. Make sure granola is dry and cool before storing.

Eat as a snack or pour milk over for cereal. Very good!

*Marie told me that she triples the amount of cereal, mixes it and then bags it and uses her food saver machine to seal multiple bags. When she is ready to use it, she will then make the syrup and then add to it.