Crunchy

Once upon a time, when I was pregnant, my OB suggested that maybe a birth class was in order. Or maybe I asked her - I can't remember. I asked her about the classes offered by the hospital; she called them crunchy in a mildly pejorative way and gave me the names of two people who gave private classes. I thought crunchy sounded good, so I signed us up for the hospital class. And I suppose it was crunchy - there was a decidedly non-interventionist drug-free slant. Of course, I missed the last class, which was the one covering c-sections, and I had a supremely interventionist birth culminating in a trainwreck of a c-section, but I kind of liked the birth class.

But crunchy? When did crunchy become a quick way to paint something/someone as a lefty-commie-pinko earth mother eating granola in Birkenstocks?

I don't wear Birkenstocks (but I do wear Danskos). And the lefty-commie-pinko earth mother part of me likes to make granola. It's not as sweet as the stuff you buy, and it's incredibly easy to make. I like to eat it sprinkled on plain yogurt mixed with fresh fruit. Miss M. likes it sprinkled on her Crispix.

Crunchy Granola

4 cups rolled oats
1 cup wheat germ
6 T. sesame seeds
3 handfuls shredded coconut
5 T. brown sugar
2 t. salt
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey

• Mix all the dry ingredients together.
• Add the oil and honey and mix well.
• Using a big roasting pan, bake at 350 for 10 minutes, and then broil, stirring frequently until toasted. Or bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.

I usually only make a half batch. Sometimes, I use a mixed grain/seed blend in place of the sesame seeds (like one that had millet, flax, poppy, sesame, oat, wheat, rye and sunflower). I use either toasted or untoasted wheat germ - whatever's in the house. Sometimes I use sweetened coconut, sometimes unsweetened (which is sort of hard to find). Sometime I throw in a handful of chopped nuts. In other words, it takes well to variation.