Granola

10 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup wheat germ
2 cups shredded coconut
2 cups raw sunflower seeds
1 cup sesame seeds
3 cups chopped almonds, pecans, walnuts or combination
1 ½ cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1 ½ cups water
1 ½ cups vegetable oil (I use ¾ canola oil )
½ cup honey
½ cup molasses (I don’t add the molasses and I increase the honey to 1 cup)
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbs. vanilla
Raisins or other dried fruit, if desired

Preheat oven to 300 F. In a large bowl combine oats, wheat germ, coconut, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and nuts. Blend well. In a large saucepan, combine brown sugar, water, oil, honey, molasses, salt, cinnamon and vanilla. Heat until sugar is dissolved, but do not boil. Pour syrup over dry ingredients and stir until well-coated. Spread into 2 11x17 jelly roll cookie sheets. Bake approx 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool. Add raisins or other dried fruit, if desired. Put in airtight containers or zip loc bags. I put the extra bags in the freezer until we are ready to eat and that way they'll stay nice and fresh

A family favorite, a special treat to send to kids living away from home . When I make this recipe, I omit the sesame seeds, just because that's one more things to pick up. Because 1cup of the ingredients are missing, I'll add 1 or 2 extra cups of oats.