Homemade Granola for Neighbors & Teachers
Capability:Mom and I are teaming up for the third year to update our 12 Days of Shopping series meant to help you during your holiday shopping. We put our heads together to think of everyone we need to buy or make a gift for and then researched and wracked our brains to come up with gift ideas.
We love the idea of DIY gifts if you have the time and inclination. We found that granola is a great compromise of homemade-meets-healthy. Capability:Mom has great granola bars by way of Barefoot Contessa. I gift granola from a recipe I found in Feast by Nigella Lawson. I’ve made and gifted it for a few years now, particularly as a “just because” gift to teachers and I’ve actually had teachers ask for the recipe.
One teacher also joked that she hopes she gets our youngest in a few years to stay on our granola list! (For that comment, she has a permanent place on our granola list even after my kids graduate from elementary school!). We especially love to make it for our old Kindergarten teacher who once spied a batch that our current 3rd grade teacher was snacking on in the teachers’ lounge.
“Is that granola from Pragmatic Mom? Can I have a handful?”
Now we make it, especially for her, and give her an extra large container!
I don’t always follow the recipe.
My riffs are:
- Replace raisins with dried cranberries, chopped dried apricots, or a combination.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon of Cardamon for an extra zesty, hard-to-place ginger-y flavor.
- Replace sesame seeds with desiccated coconut.
- The key to this recipe is adding in all the wet ingredients (honey, apple sauce, brown rice syrup, safflower oil) to completely coat the dry ingredients. When it bakes, it gives the granola a flavorful crunch.
We found this sweet bowl at a Korean supermarket. A bowl for cereal or granola and yogurt is a fun tie-in.
This traditional Japanese soup bowl is only $3.
You could use personalized baking labels from Felix Doolittle to stick to clear plastic bags of granola.
Clear plastic gift bags are inexpensive and can be tied up prettily with ribbon.
A pretty plastic Chinese Takeout Container also makes a nice presentation.
We love Mason jars as containers too!
All the items except for the elephant bowl can be viewed at Amazon by clicking on image.
The 12 Days of Shopping
Saturday, December 1: Make Your Own Gifts with granola two ways. Hers and Mine.
Sunday, December 2: Kids Make Gifts Craft, Clove Fruit and Crafts.
Monday, December 3: Personalized Gifts, Hers and Mine.
Tuesday, December 4: Father-in-Law/Dad and Mother-in-Law/Mom
Wednesday, December 5: Tutors/Teachers
Thursday, December 6: High Tech/Low Tech
Friday, December 7: Hostess/Doing Good
Saturday, December 8: Sanitation Engineers, Mail Carriers, Hairdresser, Delivery People, Babysitter, Cleaning People, Dog Walker/Dog Trainer
Sunday, December 9: Husband, Me (Our Own List), CapabilityMom’s List
Monday, December 10: Cats/Dogs
Tuesday, December 11: Quick Gifts from Whole Foods and Gourmet Food Store
Wednesday, December 12: ’Cause I Am So Together, Last Minute Home Made Gifts, Homemade Ornament Crafts for Kids and Capability:Mom’s Homemade Gift
To examine any of the items listed, please click on image of item.
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My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
What a great teacher gift idea! Sounds delicious.
Hi MaryAnne,
It’s pretty easy to make as well. My only downfall is not watching it closely enough in the oven.
That granola looks wonderful. Great gift idea! I have made granola and it is so much better than store bought. We use honey and chopped pecans or almonds and raisins and dried apple chips. It tastes so healthy and makes the kitchen smells heavenly. This is making me want to make some.
Hi Susan,
First of all, I wanted to say how much I love your blog. The Kids’ Stocking Stuffer Gifts That Teachers Recommend is so perfect for us to gift to teachers because technically we are not allowed to give them holiday gifts unless it’s for the classroom. I love that list!
I love your version of granola too! I hope to find it on your blog soon! It does make the house smell wonderful!
I want to eat some granola right now! Food gifts are great!
Hi Ann,
The granola does seem to be pretty popular as a gift and it’s easy to make. It’s more of a shopping expedition to get all the stuff but once you have it, it does last a long time.