Michael’s Granola

The thing I appreciate the most about cooking is its ability to bring people together to fuel your body and your spirit.

Maybe a lot of you don’t know this, but after Pilates, my second favorite thing in the world is cooking. For as long as I can remember, I have loved to cook.

I love the process, I love the finished product, but more than anything, I love the stories that come from cooking and sharing together. I believe very strongly in the power that food has in creating community. There is nothing more ubiquitous across cultures and generations than gathering around a table and sharing a meal together. 

I grew up in a foodie family. Both of my parents came from large New Orleans families where food was central to almost every event or activity. 

One of my first memories as a child is of me sitting on the counter helping my dad make his famous granola on the weekends. He’d let me break up the nuts, and measure out the oats, and if I was lucky, he’d let me pour the melted butter over the dry oat mix while he stirred. His granola was the first thing I ever learned to make, and it is the first time I ever remember being really intrigued with the creative process of cooking. 

To this day, everything about the process of making my dad’s granola recipe is cathartic. From melting the butter in a sauce pan (even though using a microwave is faster) to hearing the sizzle of the cold vanilla extract hitting the hot butter, to the aroma of brown sugar, toasted nuts, and oats, wafting through the house, it all reminds me of precious time spent with my dad and the simple and pure happiness that it brought to our family. 

I have a lifetime of sharing food memories with my family. 

The thing that I appreciate the most about cooking is its ability to bring people together to fuel your body and your spirit. My hope is that by sharing recopies and stories that are meaningful to me, is that you are inspired to start creating and sharing these experiences with your family and loved ones; that we start to view cooking as this really cool opportunity to create stories and memories that last generations, and that cooking becomes a medium of nourishment for your mind, your body, and your spirit. 

 My dad never totally made his granola the same way and it changed from year to year as his tastes changed, but this recipe that he scribbled on the back of a cookbook he purchased in the 1970s is how I remember it best. 

Michael’s Granola

-       Rolled Oats 4 cups 

-       Chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, macadamia or combo) 1 cup 

-       Sunflower Seeds ½ cup 

-       Sesame seeds 1/3 cup 

-       Brown sugar 1/3 cup 

-       Melted butter (can use coconut oil) ½ cup

-       Vanilla extract ¼ teaspoon (I use 1 full teaspoon) 

-       Wheat germ ½ cup 

-       Bran ½-1 cup 

-       Honey or maple syrup 1/3- ¼ 

-       Raisins or dried fruit 1 cup 

Preheat oven to 370 degrees F. 

1.     Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Turn heat off and add vanilla extract and set aside. 

2.     Mix all dry ingredients in except wheat germ and bran in a large bowl. 

3.     Slowly pour melted butter+vanilla over dry ingredients while stirring. Mix well

4.     Spread mixture onto a large sheet pan until about 1” thick. 

Place pan in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and stir. Place in oven for another 10 minutes. 

5.     Drizzle maple syrup and sprinkle wheat germ and bran over nut and oat mixture. Stir again. 

6.     Lower oven temp to 350 degrees F

7.     Bake for another 10 minutes

8.     Remove from oven and stir in dried fruit. 

Keeps a week in an airtight container at room temp or 1 month in freezer.