Eating clean – have you heard of it? It seems to be all the rage these days, which is a great thing. Eating clean is a very easy concept: you make all your food from scratch instead of buying food that is stuffed full of preservatives.

Seems easy enough, right? Well, for some people this may already be a way of life, but for most people it isn’t. My partner and I challenged ourselves to eat clean for a whole month – and it was a great experience. It has actually got us back into making home-cooked recipes instead of always grabbing food on the go. Now that we got back into the groove of making stuff from scratch, it’s really easy to keep going with it.

One of the things that we really enjoyed making was homemade granola. These recipes are packed full of awesome ingredients and are my personal favourites. However, the best thing about this recipe is you can be creative with it. I have included the recipe for plain unsweetened granola, which is what I use as a base for the final product. You can ‘cheat’ by picking up some plain granola if you’re pressed for time as this can be a lengthy process. Once you have your base made up, you can start adding some of your favorite things to it.

Plain Granola

• 8 cups oatmeal
• 4 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 tbsp vanilla

Mix everything together. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes, then 225 degrees for 30 minutes twice. Stir in between.

Leah’s Granola

• 4 cups unsweetened plain granola
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup unsalted pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 cup unsalted cashew pieces
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1/4 cup unsalted pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 cup flax seeds
• 3/4 cup hemp seeds
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)

Preheat oven to 300F (150C). Evenly spread granola in a 9 x 13 inch (3L) glass baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes;

Place coconut oil in small saucepan and heat for 1 to 2 minutes on high until melted, remove from heat and add honey and maple syrup vanilla until mixed;

Add remaining ingredients to granola and mix well;

Drizzle honey mixture over the granola, mixing well until evenly coated. Spread evenly and bake mixture for another 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally;

Cool to room temperature before storing in an air-tight container. Makes 8 cups (2L).