I have been trying to cut out more processed food from our diet at home. I think the cleanest meal I give my kids is breakfast.

They eat fruit, eggs, grits, homemade frozen waffles, pancakes, muffins and organic milk.

But my oldest likes cereal and milk, but it's near impossible to find any cereal that doesn't have any preservatives in it that is at a reasonable price. I don't consider $5 for two cups of organic, all-natural cereal a good deal.

So I've been trying out a few recipes to make my own granola. (So far, I've not found any good recipes to replicate Lucky Charm or Trix, the cereals my kids would most love for me to make for them.)

Some recipes were too sticky, some too dry. I've also discovered my oldest doesn't like a lot of almonds and my youngest likes a lot of dried fruit (I add some extra raisens to her bowl).

This is my merger of about three different recipes I've been going by:

Jenny's Granola

3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal ( I used Red Mill steel-cut oats)

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/2 cup shredded coconut, loosely packed

1/3 cup flaxseed meal

2 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/4 cup honey

1/3 cup of brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoons of cinnamon ( we really like cinnamon)

1 tsp of cardamon

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 1/2 cups chopped dried fruit ( we use cranberries, raisens)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I used a baking stone (large bar pan from Pampered Chef)

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer to a large bowl and add in flaxseed meal. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees.

Combine the butter, honey, vanilla, brown sugar, cinny,  cardamon and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for a minute, then pour over the toasted oatmeal mixture. Add the dried fruit and stir the mixture together.

Pour the mixture onto the pan. Wet your fingers and spread out evenly into the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Allow to cool for at least 2-3 hours.

They would rather have Lucky Charms in a heartbeat, but when that's not an option, this seems to work. Let me know if you have good granola recipe to try....