Dave's Granola

I am fortunate to have someone special in my life who brings me lots of joy...my boyfriend Dave.  We have a lot in common, and he happens to be a runner and a vegetarian as well, so I often share food with him that I enjoy.  This includes the granola that I make every few weeks, and I can't live without.  He has gone through bags of it faster than anyone I know ever could!  He also happens to be training for a marathon which requires him to run many miles and need lots of good food to fuel his runs, and this is why I decided to dedicate the batch of granola that I was going to make this weekend to Dave!  Well that and the fact that I like cooking for him, and I appriciate him tremendously and it is the least I can do for him.  But I wanted him to have a say in what went into this granola, so I gave him a list of every sweetener, oil, nut, seed, fruit, and flavoring possible and he chose what he would like in it.  It was an interesting mix of ingredients he chose, and I was anxious to try making it!   For nuts and seeds there would be walnuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds and coconut, and for fruits dried blueberries and golden raisins.  It would be sweetened with honey, coated with coconut oil for crunch, and contain ground cinnamon, maple and vanilla extracts for flavor.  It was all very beautiful the mixture of nuts and seeds that he chose when it was finished!  Rather delicious if I do say so since I kept going back and "sampling" it many times while it was cooling on the pans...far too delicious to leave alone!  It was downright addictive!  At least I don't need to feel guilty about eating too much of it since as an added bonus, there are lots of health benefits to this granola with all the different nuts and seeds.  Since Dave often labels things as "epic" I decided that it was appropritate to label this granola as "Dave's Epic Granola" because it is epic just like he is to me!  Here is the recipe if you would like to try some:

Dave's Epic Granola

Makes about 14 cups of delicious granola

6 cups old fashioned rolled oats

2 cups walnuts

2 cups sunflower seeds

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup golden flax seeds

2 cups large flake coconut

3/4 cup coconut oil

3/4 cup honey

3 Tbsp maple sugar

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp maple extract
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups dried blueberries, halved
2 cups golden raisins

Line a large baking sheet with non-stick foil, and spray with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 and set rack at the medium position. In a large bowl, combine oats, walnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pine nuts, flax seeds, and coconut, and set aside. In another bowl, whisk together oil, honey, maple sugar, cinnamon, sea salt, maple and vanilla extracts until well combined, then pour over oat mixture and toss to coat until completely blended. Pour out onto prepared baking sheet, and spread out evenly. Bake for 35 minutes, stirring about every 10 minutes or so until the granola is evenly browned. Remove from oven and let cool. Stir in blueberries and raisins and enjoy!