Ingredients:
- 2 cups oats
- 3/4 cup wheat germ
- 3/4 cup ground flax seeds
- 3/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup peanuts, crushed
- 2/3 cup turbinado sugar
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup agave nectar
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. To crush your peanuts, put them in a plastic bag and smash them with a heavy mallet, measuring cup, or sauce pan.
Then, mix the peanuts, oats, wheat germ, ground flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg and sunflower seeds in a baking dish with sides. Toast them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes so that they don’t get burned.
Meanwhile, prepare a glass baking dish (about 11 x 13 inches) for your granola by lining it with waxed paper lightly sprayed with a nonstick spray.
Put the turbinado sugar, agave nectar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.
By now, your grains and nuts should be toasted, so mix everything together in a large bowl. The grains and the liquid “glue”. Oh, and turn off your oven, because you’re finished with it now.
Mix everything REALLY WELL because you want to make sure the “glue” gets all over everything. Now, dump your granola mixture into your prepared baking dish. Spread out the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Now fold over the sides of the waxed paper or add a sheet on top, and PRESS HARD all over the granola. You want to compact it together so that your bars won’t fall apart when you cut them.
Wait 2-3 hours or until the granola has totally cooled. Then, open the waxed paper…carefully turn the granola onto a large cutting board, peeling away the rest of the paper. Now, firmly pressing down with a big knife (not sawing), cut your granola into whatever size bars you’d like. I wrapped ours individually in plastic wrap, so that we could just throw one into our bag or lunch box in the morning. If you’d like to save on packaging though, you can store yours in an airtight container, between sheets of waxed paper (so they don’t stick together).
Enjoy!
