Honey Maple Granola: Greater blessings

To all the amazing VBS volunteers at C3 Church - Thank you!

I just finished 5 days of Vacation Bible School, where I was the snack coordinator and snack leader for 80 elementary school children. Compared to many of the other teachers, my work during VBS was actually quite limited.  I prepped for about an hour, taught and coordinated a snack for 15 and then for me, my evening was over.  But for many other teachers, they came earlier and had to teach the same lesson four times.  There were many many many amazing workers this year, and I spent quite a bit of time, after it was all over, individually thanking the many volunteers who helped make this event possible for our church.

I did have to think ahead about the snack and as I truly hate waste, I spent a lot of time figuring out portions.  I ran to 3 different supermarkets every single day in order to procure all the ingredients for each day's snack.  It was too hard to store all the food I needed, so I found myself doing daily grocery runs.  I changed quite a few snacks and had to reconfigure amounts and figure out how to best manage the execution of each day's snack.  In other words, this ended up being a lot of work.  In between grocery shopping, I had to teach, drive kids to their various lessons and still try and cook meals for the family.

On top of all of that, I also invited different children to join us for this VBS adventure and had to coordinate with three different sets of parents sign ups, drop offs and pick ups.   My parents had to drive up from southern California to watch Son, while I headed out every single evening to drive 5 children (2 my own, 3 guests) 20 miles away to our church during rush hour traffic.  

By Day 4 of VBS, the bottom of my feet hurt, my back ached, my car was hot, and I was pretty tired.  The back and forth, the shopping, the preparation, and the continual noise of children in the car were getting too much.  My mom watched me from the side, and although she kept her silence, I could see her thinking, "You're working too hard.  Stop.  You're working way too hard.  Stop."   But for whatever reason, I wanted to keep going, and I know it was God's strength that pushed me through and not my own.

But a great great thing happened on the 4th night, to which I was a witness.  That night, the 5 children that I drove to VBS (two being Daughters #1 and #2) raised their hands to accept their salvation.  And when I was able to go and pray for each of those precious children who accepted their Savior, my heart overflowed and I began to cry.  Certainly God did not need me to make His presence known to His children, but how blessed am I to have been able to be a part of it?  I put in my best efforts and God allowed me to partake in the joy of  seeing these children accept Him.  It was so awesome and amazing, even now leaves me a bit at a loss for words.  My own efforts pale in comparison to the sheer blessings of God.

I decided to prepare granola for the final evening's VBS and I did it with such a full heart.  10 cups of granola for 80 children came out as an outpouring of God's bounty.  And when I served the snack that night, and saw all the kids seriously just pigging out on granola, yogurt and fruit I felt great.  Had I bought the granola, I still would have felt wonderful, but watching something that I had done with my own two hands being enjoyed so fully (with kids begging for seconds and thirds) made me feel triply good.  Oh how God uses my small effort and turns it around to bless me even more.

This granola is great because you can adjust it as you see fit.  You can add nuts if you like, or other seeds (like flax seeds or sesame seeds) but I kept mine very simple and plain due to allergies of my own children as well as others.

Honey Maple Granola
Makes 5 cups

Ingredients
5 cups old-fashioned oats (not instant) - if you want nuts, add 1½ cups nuts and 4 cups oats
½ cup olive oil
½ cup honey
½ cup pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg

Method
Preheat oven to 325. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix together olive oil, honey, maple syrup, vanilla extract, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix until all ingredients are evenly distributed. Pour in oats (or oats and nuts) all at once and stir until all ingredients are combined and everything is well coated. Pour oat mixture onto pan and spread evenly. Place in oven and bake for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Granola will begin turning golden brown, but will not be crispy.. When it is golden brown, remove from oven and allow to cool on pan. As the granola cools, it becomes crispy.

Eat plain by the handful or serve as cereal or as a topping for yogurt.

Printable recipe

More blessings from God than in this bowl.