Speedy Sarah's Homemade Granola

Lately, my horrible eating habits have been on my mind. I wake up with a headache nearly every day (which is cured by coffee every morning, but still) and I have too little energy. My friends have suggested some vitamins that might help, but before I begin self-diagnosing a vitamin deficiency, I feel like I should tackle an obvious issue in my life: I eat crap.

We're talking fast food nearly every night. Grocery store junk food with lots of hydrogenated (not sure what that means) mystery ingredients. Even when I cook at home, it's pretty pitiful. I've let this part of my life slip pretty badly, and now the thought of cooking healthy, real food has started to feel overwhelming. Where do I start? Won't this be crazy expensive? Thinking about it makes me want to take a nap.

If you follow me on Instagram (and I hope you do), you may have seen me mention my friend Sarah. I often lovingly refer to her as Speedy Sarah, since she is a talented, fast runner with drive that inspires me every Saturday morning. My goal for every run is just to keep up with her. Not only does she work hard to stay fast and fit, but she also teaches full time and is a mother of two kids. And during our runs, she tells me about what's new in her life, and I can't help but think, "How are you awake right now?!"

Not only that, but Sarah feeds her family really good food. She's got me wondering if this is the root of my problem. And I figure, even if it's not, eating natural, healthy food seems like a good idea anyway. But how do you go from eating total junk to eating right? I'm not talking about just picking up an apple. My issue is, I like to eat. If this is going to work, I need some tasty food that I'll actually stick with. It needs to be easy, delicious, and not cost too much. I hope I'm not being unreasonable.

So Sarah gave me a starting point. Let's begin by learning to make just one thing, and let's make it a yummy snack, mkay? Here we go.

Speedy Sarah's Homemade Granola

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup organic coconut oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 3 cups rolled oats
• dried fruit (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Spread the 3 cups of rolled oats over a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
2. Meanwhile, melt your coconut oil in the microwave and pour 1/2 cup coconut oil and 1/2 cup honey into a mixing bowl. Smart person tip: measure out the oil first, so the honey will slide easily from your measuring cup. Mix it all up and grease a baking pan. I used coconut oil for that, too.
3. When your oats are browned, pour them into the bowl with the oil and honey. Mix well.
4. Spread the mixture into the greased baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes. 
5. Take your granola out of the oven and let it cool. When you think it's cooled enough, plop some on a plate. You can mix in some dried fruit at this point, if you like. Eat and enjoy! Put the leftovers in a sealed container.

So easy! As a very lazy cook, I give this recipe my stamp of approval. It was simple to make (even I didn't screw it up) and now I have leftovers for anytime I need a snack. Another bonus: Rand liked it. We have a winner!

One recipe down. Now I'm on a mission to learn to make another easy something. Another snack maybe?