I made tropical granola today, because it rained all day today, and I’ve been having dreams of traveling to the tropics.  Instead, I have two full weeks of travel on my schedule – with one trip to the Midwest and one to the South and both because I’m presenting at conferences in my field.  I’ve been absent from the blog because of this (follow me on Instagram to see photos of my travels and, more importantly, my food on my travels).  I’ll be posting a foodie travel update in a couple of weeks to share and review some of the restaurants I’ve been to and the food I’ve eaten.

In the meantime, I have a few days between trips and decided to make some granola, which makes a great travel snack.  I used a combination of almonds, coconut, dried apricots, and chocolate covered ginger to spice things up.  It’s also a quick recipe to make – thirty-five minutes from start to finish.

Tropical Granola
Serves 10

4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup whole almonds
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup chopped candied ginger (chocolate covered ginger is optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the oats, almonds, coconut flakes, olive oil, honey, and maple syrup in a medium sized bowl.  Make sure the oats are fully covered with the oil, honey, and syrup.  Pour the oat mixture onto a parchment covered baking sheet and spread so that it covers the sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes and stir.  Bake another 10 minutes and stir again.  Bake for a final 10 minutes and then set the granola aside to cool.  Add the apricots and ginger when the granola is cool to the touch.  Store in an airtight container.