Gluten Free Granola is something I always take with us when we go away with our travel trailer. In fact, it’s a great default breakfast to keep on hand at home, too.

Camping in the Mountains

On our trip to Colorado this summer, Charlie wanted to go camping in the mountains. I don’t mind camping in the mountains; I just don’t like the narrow, steep, winding roads that take us there. It had been a few years since we had really gone up into the mountains, so my fear of mountain “highways” had somewhat subsided.

Treacherous Mountain Roads

I reserved us a campsite that was seventeen miles off the Interstate on a “scenic route” with a highway number and marked on the map as a paved road. How bad could that be? Maybe it’s irrational, but I get very tense about driving on a narrow, very winding road carved out of the side of an enormously steep mountain.

Panic

I tried to stay calm, but there’s something about looking out the window and seeing a drop-off of hundreds of feet (maybe thousands – I don’t know – it’s a lot!). Add to that the constant curves on steep ascents and inclines at what I consider to be ridiculously high speeds, narrow to almost-nonexistent shoulders, and I was clutching my armrest with sweaty palms, pressing my foot on the imaginary brake pedal on the passenger side until I was sure I would put a dent in the floor, and watching the miles to our destination creep by on our GPS.

Well, we made it safely! After all, I’m here to tell the story. Our campsite was quiet and peaceful With trips in and out, we traveled that mountain road four times. With each trip, it got a little easier. Somehow, after the first trip, you know the worst it can be and deal with that. I told myself that I’m not afraid to drive on overpasses or bridges. My husband is not known for driving off the road. (He actually enjoyed this road, perhaps a little too much for my liking.) There’s just something about seeing some guardrails a little washed out looking and no guardrails where I would have liked some, combined with the great distance that the mountainside fell away from us that made it difficult for me to deal with.

No Big Deal!

Now, when we first checked in at our campground, I commented to our host that “that was quite a road into here.”

She gave me exactly the response I was hoping for, “What, the highway? Oh, that’s nothing! You should see…”

When I later showed pictures of the treacherous route I had survived to my daughter and son-in-law who live in Colorado, they laughed. “It’s paved!” they said. “There are guardrails!”

I’m sure my sister, who lives in Vancouver, would think nothing of it, either.

We didn’t actually spend a lot of time in that campground. There wasn’t a lot to do there. However, we did have a leisurely breakfast with this homemade gluten free granola and coffee before we left.

How to Make Gluten Free Granola

Gluten-Free Granola

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

CathysGlutenFree.com

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Ingredients

• 4 cups gluten-free oats
• 1 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 1 cup sesame seeds
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. If your coconut oil is hard, set it in an ovenproof container in your preheating oven for a minute or two.
3. Combine oats, seeds, coconut, and nuts. Stir in melted coconut oil to coat.
4. Bake in a large roasting pan or other large pan with sides for 30 minutes, stirring every 10.
5. Remove from oven. Stir in honey, raisins, and cranberries.