Roasted Almonds

I am always a sucker for a good deal.  This recently led to my purchase of a 3 POUND bag of almonds from Costco.  The price was too good to pass up and almonds are a great source of protein.  Below is a recipe for toasted almonds.  This is a very loose recipe that you should feel free to improvise.  Also, I use my nose more than anything to decide if the almonds are roasted enough.  When your kitchen is filled with a very fragrant scent, the nuts are done.

Ingredients:
Almonds
Honey or Maple Syrup
Salt
Seasoning of your choice: cinnamon, cocoa, sugar, brown sugar, chili powder

Directions:
Heat oven at 350
On a cookie sheet, spread almonds out so that they are not overlapping
Drizzle honey or maple syrup over the almonds.  You need less of this than you think because it will melt in the oven.
Stir almonds until evenly coated
Sprinkle with salt
Sprinkle with seasoning
Stir again if needed
Bake for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
When almonds are done baking, use a spatula to spread them out onto a greased piece of parchment paper and allow to cool.  At this point I will taste one and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Enjoy!

Granola

Ingredients
2  cups  quick-cooking oatmeal
1  heaped cup mixed nuts or whatever kind you like 
1/4  cup  mixed seeds (sunflower, poppy, pumpkin, sesame)
3/4  cup  unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup fiber one cereal
1  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
5  tablespoons  maple syrup or honey or use a little of both
About 3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2  cups  dried fruit (mixture of raisins, cranberries, apricots is my favorite)


Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°. Put oatmeal, mixed nuts, mixed seeds, coconut,  fiber one and cinnamon on a baking sheet. Stir well; smooth out. Drizzle with maple syrup/honey and olive oil; stir. Bake 25-30 minutes. Every 5 minutes or so take out and stir, then smooth down with a wooden spoon and put back in oven.  If it does not appear to be the stickiness that you would like just add more honey/maple syrup.  You can really improvise a lot with this recipe.  When granola is golden, remove from oven, mix in dried fruit (roughly chop any large pieces); let cool.  


You can eat plain, with milk or with yogurt.  It will keep for up to 2 weeks but mine never lasts that long.  I like to keep a little at the office for snacking.