Coconut Granola

I've been on a major granola kick lately. My first trimester, I had about a ten minute window once my eyes were open to eat before the nausea set in for the day. Now, in my third trimester, the baby practically kicks me out of bed to go find something to eat in the mornings. Luckily, once I have a huge jar of this stuff made, all it takes is a splash of milk to "make" breakfast.

These have been my favorite add-ins recently:

I stir them in with my standard granola base (recipe below) and toast them for about 10 minutes on low heat. (My hyper-sensitive pregnancy senses started noticing that over-toasted granola tastes like burned popcorn. Yuck. I use to bake granola all day to get is as crunchy as possible, but now I take it out as soon as the oats clump together and it's still plenty crunchy and the flavor is great!)

Granola Base
(makes about 2 cups)

2 cups old fashioned oats
2-3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil (or oil of choice)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large pinch of fine sea salt

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Warm your honey & coconut oil together until liquidy (skip this step if using regular oil; coconut oil is solid at room temperature).
3. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl until well-coated. Stir in any add-ins that you want (except dried fruit or chocolate chips, add those in after granola has cooled).
4. Spread mixture on an ungreased baking sheet and pinch together into clumps.
5. Bake for 10 minutes, stirring once, or until fragrant (it'll smell like delicious, warm cookies). Sometimes this is about 15 minutes for me, depending on what oven I'm using.
6. Allow to cool and store in a mason jar or air-tight container. Keeps for about 2 weeks (if it lasts that long!)

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