Eating honey-sweetened granola makes for a delicious, filling breakfast—and it’s so easy to make yourself. I’ve been baking my own granola for many years. I have a great recipe, which was given to my mother, and she passed it on to me. My mom worked in a preschool back in the 1970s when granola was first becoming popular in the US. One day, the cook handed out an orange sheet of requested recipes--one was granola. Orange made the page easy to find. 

I have tried several granola recipes, but this is my absolute favorite! So, about once/month, I mix oats, honey, wheat germ, sliced almonds, and other wholesome ingredients in my largest mixing bowl. Then I spread the mixture in my largest cookie sheet and bake for an hour. 

Making your own granola isn’t hard. You just measure and mix. And it’s not time-consuming—mix it up in just a few minutes. However, you need a large quantity of a number of ingredients. That’s why I buy oatmeal, honey, and almonds at a discount warehouse where food is sold in bulk. That way, I save money, too. 

With school starting soon, this nutritious cereal is a great way to start the day. Sometimes I eat it alone. Sometimes I mix it with other breakfast cereal. Combining granola, cereal flakes, and cereal in circle or square shapes is a great combination. I add fresh fruit or dried cranberries for added sweetness and chewiness. 

Best Homemade Granola

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats 
1 cup honey
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water
1 cup soy flour (or whole-wheat flour)
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup sunflower seed kernels
1 cup sliced almonds (or chopped walnuts or pecans)
1 cup flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease a large cookie sheet, 15x10x1-inch, or large pan, 9x13x2-inches. Measure and mix oats, honey, oil, and water in a large bowl. Add flour, wheat germ, sunflower seed kernels, almonds, and coconut. Mix well. Spread in prepared pan and bake for 1 hour.

Cool, crumble, and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Serve in a bowl. Add fruit and milk. Yield: about 16 cups; 32 servings. From my cookbook for children: “Cooking Around the Calendar with Kids: Seasonal and Holiday Food and Fun.” 

My daughter, Emily, and her husband, Nick, made breadsticks--the heavenly, homemade, cheesy breadsticks you order at a pizza place. I can just imagine the aroma and the gooey melted cheese. Makes my mouth water! 

I smile when I think of Emily baking and cooking because when she was growing up, it was something we did together. Now she has her own home. She and Nick are carrying on our baking-from-scratch tradition. 

“The texture was fluffy with a crisp, buttery bottom,” Emily said after tasting the breadsticks. “A delicious, homemade taste that you only get from making it yourself.” 
Here are Emily tips for success:

• After kneading with a dough hook in my stand mixer, we decided it was too sticky. We added more flour on a pastry mat and Nick kneaded it by hand.
• It didn't seem like the dough rose at all after 15 minutes, so we gave it a few extra minutes while I grated the cheese. It still didn't look like it rose, so I thought we just had terrible luck with yeast, but when it baked it really rose! 
• I used the seasonings on top pretty sparingly and would probably do a little more next time (Italian seasoning and garlic salt).

Homemade Cheesy Breadsticks

¼ cup water
1 packet (2 ¼ teaspoons) active-dry yeast
1 ¼ cup milk
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoons salt
3 - 3 ½ cups bread or all-purpose flour (plus additional flour for kneading)
1 stick butter or margarine, melted, divided
8-oz. package mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
Italian seasoning
Garlic salt
Marinara sauce

Warm the water in a small saucepan or in the microwave. Test a drop of water on your wrist to see if the water is warm, not hot. Pour the water into a large bowl (or if using a bread machine, add to bread machine container). Add the yeast; stir. Let sit 5 minutes. Then add milk, sugar, and salt.  

Add 1 cup flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add the remaining flour gradually to make a soft dough. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Then knead the dough with dough hook (or in bread machine on setting where dough is mixed only, not baked) or on a floured board or pastry mat, by folding a third of the dough away from you, pushing with the heel of your hand, turning a quarter turn, and repeating. Add flour to keep the dough from getting sticky. Continue kneading for 5 - 8 minutes.  

Roll dough to fit into a 9x13x2-inch pan. Pour half the melted butter or margarine into the pan. Place dough in pan. Cover with dish towel. Let rise 15 - 30 minutes. Drizzle or spread remaining melted butter on top of dough. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sprinkle dough with mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, and garlic salt. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown. Heat marinara sauce. Serve with breadsticks with warmed marinara (for dipping). Yield:  10 - 12 breadsticks 

Visiting my sister, Nancy Browning, for the July 4th holiday proved a challenge. With her son, Jeff, a vegetarian, my milk allergy, and my sister’s gluten intolerance, what could we make for supper? We didn’t want to cook all day preparing three totally different meals. 

After discussing a few options, we decided on a pasta salad. For Jeff, we left the pepperoni separate. For my milk allergy, we left the cubed mozzarella and grated Parmesan cheeses separate. For Nancy, we used gluten-free pasta made from quinoa and cornmeal. (I couldn’t tell the difference.) Problem solved. The salad proved refreshing and delicious, pleasing every palate and satisfying each food preference. This recipe is good made early in the day or the day before so the flavors can blend. See the heartier chicken variation in my cookbook "Mealtime Magic: Delicious Dinners in Half the Time." Such a great blend of flavors and textures!

Everybody’s Favorite Main-Dish Pasta Salad

1 (8-oz) package quinoa/cornmeal shell pasta
1 stalk fresh broccoli 
3 carrots
1 green pepper
1 small red onion
1 (5-oz.) jar olives
1 (5-oz.) package sliced pepperoni 
1 cup diced mozzarella cheese
½ cup Parmesan cheese 
1 (8-oz.) bottle Italian dressing (My favorite is Newman’s Own Olive Oil & Vinegar) 

Cook shell pasta according to package directions. Drain in colander and rinse with cold running water. Pour into big mixing bowl. Rinse and trim broccoli. Cut tops (florets) into bite-sized pieces on a cutting board. Pare, rinse, trim ends off carrot. Cut in half crosswise. Trim an edge, lengthwise, to keep carrot from rolling. Cut into ¼-inch rounds. Fill a small saucepan with about an inch of water; bring to a boil over high heat. Add broccoli, carrots, and peas. Return to boil, cover, turn down heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and cool. 

Rinse and cut green pepper in half. Pull out and discard seeds. Cut into strips; then cut across strips to dice. Cut onion in half lengthwise. Peel off outer skin; cut out the root end. Place onion flat side down. Score onion. Cut across the onion to dice. 

Drain olives; slice. Cut pepperoni slices in half. Add to pasta: broccoli, carrots, peas, green pepper, onion, olives, and dressing. For vegetarian guests and those with a milk allergy, keep pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese in separate containers. (Nancy doesn't do well with nightshade vegetables, so we kept the green peppers separate, too. Refrigerate all until ready to serve. Serve family style so guests can take what they want to mix in with their salad. Yield: 4 - 6 servings as a main dish