Recipe: Gluten Free Granola

Saturday was a busy day. DH and I got up early and went for a bike ride. It had been awhile since we'd been riding and I wanted to test out my new bike. Friday night we went shopping for a new bike for me. The one I had been riding weighed a ton and I didn't like riding it all that much. Fortunately it wasn't hard to find a lighter one. After the ride I did some standard weekend chores. I wanted to get things done so that we could enjoy the rest of the weekend.

In addition to all the goings on Saturday morning DH, Kiddo, and I went to the drive-in to watch Men in Black 3 and Dark Shadows. There is exactly one drive-in movie theatre left in my area. It's in Stephens City, VA. It's called The Family Drive In Theatre. If you get the chance to go, do it. Seriously. Their snack bar isn't totally gluten free but they do have some pretty awesome gluten free choices. They have french fries, corn dogs, candy, and popcorn. Not the healthiest of fare but still pretty good.
Planning ahead, I wanted to bring at least one snack with us that was guaranteed to be Gluten Free. I knew they'd have popcorn, after all you can't watch a movie without it, so I decided to make granola. Granola is another one of those things that DH hasn't had in awhile and misses. The recipe is really simple and like most other things that I make, it doesn't take a whole lot of time to do. I adapted the recipe from my favorite Iron Chef, Michael Symon. I'd post a link to it but I grabbed it off of  his Facebook page when he posted it. If you want to try to find it he called it Lizzie's Granola.

Gluten Free Granola
Ingredients: 
4 cups Gluten Free rolled oats. I used Bob's Red Mill quick cooking rolled oats. 
2 cups sweetened coconut 
2 cups almonds 
1 cup cashews 
3/4 cup olive oil 
1/2 cup honey 
2 tsp cinnamon 
1 tsp kosher salt
2 cups Craisins
2 cups dark chocolate peanut butter m&ms

Directions: 
Toss all ingredients (except for the Craisins and M&Ms) together to coat and bake on sheet tray at 350 for 30 minutes..or until golden..let cool completely in pan..add 2 cups of Craisins and and 2 cups of your choice of m&m's and serve or store in airtight container. 

I should have only baked mine for about 20-23 minutes as my oven runs hot. The edge pieces of my granola were a bit burnt but that's ok. It was still very yummy. Feel free to toss in any type of nut or dried fruit that you like.

Rule of thumb: If you can smell what you're baking then pull it out of the oven because it's about to burn. I've learned over the years that if there is a strong scent in the air of whatever it is that I'm baking that I need to hop-to and pull that treat out of the oven because it's almost ruined.

Remember: most baked goods will continue to cook a little bit even after they're taken out of the oven.


I'm looking forward to making this one again but with different nuts and fruits. 


Enjoy!