It's not Bragging if you Made It: Darn I'm out of granola

I made some granola before my family left for vacation, about a month ago.

I made FOUR RECIPES. That consumes an entire container of oats.

I made so much granola, I had to mix it in a POT.

I made so much granola I had to strategically organize it in my oven.

IT'S ALL GONE. AGAIN.

It's not really that the granola is addicting...it's just sustenance. I eat granola for breakfast almost every day. It's like my version of coffee. It's about as high-maintenance as Cheerios, but way less depressing. And it actually keeps you kind of full until lunchtime at 1:00 (yes, my school's schedule is messed up). And it tastes good, and you need something to look forward to at 6:30 in the morning. In short, perfect for a zombified student who just can't eat Cheerios every day.

--Seriously, one of the things that scares me most about the idea of going to college and living in a dorm is the idea that I will not be able to make my own granola any more. Just thinking about it makes me feel helpless :[

To comprehend the above sentiment, you have to understand how easy it is to make granola. There are basically four ingredients: oats, nuts, peanut butter, and honey. You use whatever kind of nuts you want, and you can substitute whatever sort of nut-derived butter you like. The most involved part is mixing everything together, which is an arm workout when you're making four recipes in a pot. And then you live on it for the next month. It's way cheaper than store-bought granola, it's a lot more diverse, and you get the perfect crunchy texture.

So thanks for checking out the instructions, hope I've provided you with your new breakfast staple and haven't cursed you to new dependencies and inter-family civil war--

JK here's the actual recipe :D

My Daily Granola
Filling, protein-rich, delicious. Perfect if you're in a hurry and just need to put something in your belly, or if you're looking forward to enjoying a tasty breakfast before rushing off to work or school. I promise you will never buy granola (and maybe even cereal!) ever again!
I'd say one recipe makes about enough for one person for a week, which is completely insufficient, so I have taken the liberty of supplementing the basic recipe with MY quantities (essentially multiplying the recipe by 4). Enjoy!

Ingredients

The Actual Recipe
2 cups oats (uncooked oatmeal)
1 1/2 cups nuts (WHATEVER KIND YOU LIKE! Almonds, walnuts, pecans, even dried coconut or pine nuts, you name it!)
1/2 cup honey
1/3-1/2 cup peanut butter (sunflower butter, almond butter...you get the idea!)

MY Ingredients (x4) :D
1 large cylindrical container of oats (like the picture at the top of this post)
6-8 cups of nuts
2 cups honey
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (which comes out to an average-sized jar of peanut butter)

Directions

0. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
1. Chop, slice, sliver your nuts in whatever manageable bites you like.
2. Mix your nuts and oats in a large bowl, leaving enough room to stir vigorously.
3. Dump your honey and peanut butter into a microwave-proof bowl. Microwave in spurts of 30 seconds, about 2 minutes total, until the mixture is easily combined and runny.
4. Gradually mix your honey-peanut butter mixture into your oats/nuts. The mixture should start to moisten and clump together. Make sure the liquid is easily distributed.
5. Line some rimmed baking sheets with foil. (You'll need about one baking sheet per recipe, so that'll be 4-5 sheets for the large one I listed.) Spread the raw granola onto the sheet in a shallow layer.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes, until the granola begins to brown, but take care that it does not start burning on the bottom! It will continue to be pretty soft while it is baking.
7. Turn off the oven and leave it cracked open with the granola pans still inside. This lets the granola dry out without putting it at risk of burning.
8. After the granola has cooled and dried, collect it into your receptacle of choice. Enjoy over yogurt or splashed with cool milk!

There is a mathematical fallacy in the way I measure out nuts. I feel like there should be a lot of everything. There should definitely be a lot of almonds, but then walnuts are a good staple nut too, and then I really like pecans, and I also want a significant coconut taste, and by the time I've added all of those I no longer have a preponderance of almonds, and then I fix that and I have too many nuts. Which is why it's so nice that this recipe is so flexible!