Brown Sugar Granola

Brown Sugar Granola is a staple in our kitchen. It is inexpensive and easy to make, using ingredients that I almost always have on hand. You can spruce it up a bit by adding nuts, coconut, raisins, dried cranberries, etc... but my family seems to prefer it just as it is.

Ingrdients:

1/2 cup margarine

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

4 cups oats

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Melt the margarine and sugar in a large pot. Simmer for a couple of minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Stir in the remaining ingredients until well combined. Spread the mixture onto a large baking sheet and bake at 375F for about 10 minutes, or until golden. (Stir occasionally to prevent the edges from burning.) If you let it cool in the pan without stirring, you will have more chunks in your granola. My kids seem to like it better when it is chunky.

Either rolled oats or quick cooking oats will work in this recipe. Rolled oats produce a chewier granola, and quick are slightly more crunchy. Makes 8 generous servings.

P.S. I did add some sliced almonds to this batch. Shhh!