The crunch that saved Crunchy

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

That was the sound in my kitchen tonight as my family couldn't keep their fingers off a pan of homemade granola fresh from the oven. Yum!



I'd been grumpy at dinnertime. We got home late after grocery shopping, so I didn't eat lunch on time, which always takes my blood sugar a while to recover from. Then Baby skipped his nap, and yelled at me the whole time I was getting dinner ready. So let's just say I was a little tense, and nobody would have really minded if I'd disappeared to my mom's next door after I finally got Baby to bed.

But I've been trying not to run away like that so often. Instead, I cleaned until dinner had levelled my blood sugar and I felt better. And then I decided to make granola, which I'd been planning to do all week, and hadn't gotten to.

I found this applesauce granola recipe, and thought it sounded easy and yummy. Then I found organic oats in the bulk bins for 70 cents per pound! My boys would eat granola for every meal if they could, but those tiny expensive boxes are always empty by the third day. So it's definitely worth the effort to make it and keep it stocked.

Plus, we got a little time to bond after my dinnertime cranks. As soon as I pulled out the ingredients, both boys were in the kitchen, wanting to help. Puffer patiently held the honey bottle upside down until it drizzled out the right amount, added the vanilla, and blended in the sugar. Grouper carefully measured the sunflower and flax seeds, chopped the walnuts, and mixed them in with the oats. Puffer stirred and stirred until everything was coated sticky sweet.

And then we waited together until the house smelled like oatmeal cookies.

"We should sell this!" crunched Grouper.
"It's Family-Made Granola!" crunched Puffer.

I'm not sure we could keep it around long enough to get it to any customers. But I'll happily make it with my kids every week if they want to.