Cranberry Lemon Granola

I can find something to like about every season, but winter is probably the hardest. I am a summer person, through and through. I'd prefer to feel the heavy heat of a humid day rather than the frigid wind in January. But I do appreciate snowy days working from home, running around the yard with Chip while he barrels through fresh powder, and the fact that citrus is in season. I go through bags of Halos like it's nobody's business, and I love having grapefruit for breakfast. Not to mention, the lemons are at their largest and juiciest - which led to that lovely lemon curd recipe I posted a couple days ago. And which also led to me using some leftover lemon zest in my batch of granola yesterday.

Since I varied my recipe this time, I wanted to post it somewhere so that I could refer to it later. The basic recipe doesn't have dried cranberries, lemon zest, or vanilla and almond extracts. But I really love how this batch turned out, especially with some of that lemon curd and yogurt. Ugh. To die for!

I hope you enjoy this! It takes advantage of citrus being in season, but it's really something you can make at any point in the year. And I thoroughly enjoyed it for breakfast - it was filling and tasted fresh. In order to make this gluten free, just take away the addition of wheat germ, and you should be golden.

Cranberry Lemon Granola

7 cups rolled oats

1 cup shredded coconut, sweetened

1 cup wheat germ

1 cup pecans

1 cup walnuts (fresh walnuts have an extremely potent flavor, which I'm not a fan of - I prefer the bags you can buy in the baking aisle)

1 cup almonds

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup water

1 cup brown sugar or honey

1 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest (more or less can be added to taste)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Splash of almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

2. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add wet ingredients. Combine well.

3. Spread onto one or two lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheets. Using two baking sheets will give you crunchier granola, but make sure to check more often as it can burn easily!

4. Bake for two hours, stirring two to three times (I usually do once every 30 min). Let cool completely before putting in air-tight containers. Can keep for up to two weeks!

My husband and I usually give some of this to family and friends as it makes a HUGE batch of granola. I've given it a shelf life of two weeks with the addition of the cranberries, but we have kept ours for as long as a month and it was fine. We usually store our granola in mason jars, and it tends to stay crunchy!

Enjoy!