In which I [apparently] get crunchier

Actually, I never knew that making your own granola made you crunchy. My mom has always done it, and she's not a hippie. In fact, a lot of the ladies I know make their own granola, with nary a hippie among them. Maybe it's just a Lancaster County Churchgoing Woman thing?

Granted, I do many other things* that slowly, surely are pushing me into the crunchy camp. (Don't freak out. I mean lifestyle-wise, not politically or morally. Something like this.) But I don't think granola-making counts as crunchy.

I have been playing around with granola recipes since I was fifteen and this is a great one. Full of good stuff. Easy and quick. Versatile and flexible.** Not too sweet. More crispy than chewy. Yum.

Crunchy Granola
(wildly adapted from this recipe, the accompanying text to which I thought rather sad, but interesting in a historical-snapshot sort of way)

5 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
1 1/2 cups sliced or chopped almonds or walnuts
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or more)
pinch of salt
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup to 1 cup honey (depending on how sweet you want it)
2 tablespoons fruit preserves (optional but good)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Stir together dry ingredients in large bowl. Melt butter in small saucepan and whisk in remaining ingredients. Pour over dry mixture and stir to coat.
Spread in a large, shallow pan (I used my jelly roll pan) and place in preheated oven. I usually coat the pan with nonstick spray first, just to be safe. Bake 30-40 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes so it browns evenly. Let cool in pan, stirring occasionally and store in an air-tight container.
You can freeze this granola too. Save yourself time down the road! For just the two of us, a single batch is enough to use half now and freeze half for later. If you have a big family you'll probably want to make a double.

*To wit: taking reusable bags with me to the grocery store, making yogurt, being skeptical about hormones and antibiotics, avoiding the microwave, trying to banish chemicals from our house, stocking the medicine drawer with homeopathics and herbs, disliking plastic, eating butter and whole milk, looking for alternatives to standard laundry detergent, declining Advil when I have a headache, wishing we had room (and time) for an orchard, a bee skep, and goats.

**I'm sure I will do a lot of variations on this depending on what is in the house, what we end up preferring, and further inquiries into What is Truly Healthy. As long as you have relatively the same proportions, feel free to sub out ingredients you dislike/don't have for items you prefer/have. Granola is nice like that.