My homemade granola 'craise'

So, I have a secret I've been stashing in my kitchen cupboards for about 10 months now: When I was pregnant, I bought every flavor of Ocean Spray Craisins in a single trip to the grocery store.

Here's what's left of the coolsaster
that was my Craisin spree.

Pregnant women can sometimes have interesting relationships with food. I never went nuts with overeating or having crazy cravings, but I definitely had my quirks. And that one summer evening, standing in Dahl's Foods, I went quirky in the dried fruit aisle. I was going to buy regular Craisins, and then I saw the different flavor infusions available and LITERALLY COULD NOT DECIDE which flavor sounded yummiest. I was standing there like a freak for at least five minutes with absolutely no hope of achieving clarity about this very important purchase.

So I threw them all in my cart.

Now of course I didn't go home and eat all the Craisins after that, so it's now almost a year later and I still have several Craisins at my disposal.

But! I've found a good way to use them: homemade granola.

And yes, it's worth the effort to make your own. Soooo much more flavor than store-bought. There are a lot of different recipes out there for homemade granola (and they all sound fantastic), but the basic formula is the same for most recipes: toss old fashioned oats and nuts in a sweetened oil-based mixture, bake, and add dried fruit. I've made such flavors as cinnamon/cranberry, walnut, vanilla almond, "garbage," and everything in between. Here's a basic template to follow for making your own at home.

1) Preheat your oven to 350.

2) Whisk together your "granola glue." For me, this generally consists of about 1/2 cup of oil (vegetable, walnut, hazelnut, grapeseed are all good options), 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and two egg whites, plus any flavor infusers you want to use (honey, cinnamon, vanilla extract, maple syrup, etc., etc.).

3) In another bowl, mix together the oats with any nuts you want to include (almonds, pecans, walnuts, etc. -- if you want to use cashews, wait until the end to add those). Another thing I always add to this mixture because, why not? It's good for you: flax seed meal. Just 1/4 of a cup or so. Pour the "glue" on top of the oat mixture and combine thoroughly.

4) Brush a rimmed metal baking sheet with a small amount of cooking spray or nut oil and spread the granola on it.

5) Bake the granola in three 15-minute intervals. Use a metal spatula to stir it every 15 minutes. With about 10 minutes to go, I like to add the dried fruit (chopped pitted dates, golden raisins, CRAISINS, etc.) and sometimes also drizzle some extra honey over the top to help boost the sweetness and crunchiness.

6) Cool the granola on a clean baking sheet and store in an airtight container.