granola with coconut and dried apricots

i'm always looking for nutritious snacks and with no preservatives that don't taste like stale cardboard. luckily, i found this granola recipe on smittenkitchen.com but made a few adjustments to make it less of a granola bar and more loose granola i could eat as cereal or just munch on.


2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
1/4 cup flax seed
3/4 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cup dried apricots

preheat your oven to 350°F. butter a 9×13-inch pan.

toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ and flax seed. reduce the oven temperature to 300°F.

while the mixture is still warm, stir in the honey, vanilla, coconut and almond extracts and salt until the mixture is well coated, then the dried fruit. pour the mixture into your prepared baking dish and press, press, press it in (wet fingers and/or a silicon spatula work great for this) until the mixture is packed as tightly as possible.

bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown.

store these in an airtight container at room temperature for a week or two.

(with milk and bananas - dreamy!)