Ingredients
8 cups rolled oats (Not the quick oats; they're too small)
1/2 box brown sugar
1.5 cups water
2 cups chopped almonds (or any nut of your choice)
4 teaspoons of vanilla
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats and chopped almonds.

2. In a second microwave-safe bowl, combine the brown sugar and water and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

3. Add the vanilla and salt to the heated sugar mixture.

4. Pour the sugar mixture over the oats and almonds and stir until fully coated.

5. Spread granola mix on some cookie sheets and place in a preheated 275 degree oven for 45 minutes.

6. After 45 minutes, stir the granola to make sure it isn't moist. If it is, just leave it in for a few minutes longer.

Try not to put the entire batch on a single cookie sheet - it tends to stay moist and doesn't ever get that crunchy-ness.

Karen's note: It's actually a very simple recipe; especially when you use the microwave to heat the sugar. But, I'm sure you could use the stove too.

Ingredients
rolled oats (lots of these - around 8 cups)

Then, at least a cup or more of each of the following that you like:
Almonds (chopped if you prefer)
Walnuts (chopped if you prefer)
Soy nuts
pumpkin seeds
sunflower seeds
sesame seeds
flax seeds
Then shake some cinnamon over it. Or dump in a couple spoonfuls.
You can also add dried fruit if you want.

The binder is made of:
Evaporated cane juice
Honey
Soy oil

"Binder" means the stuff that binds the ingredients together. We used a whole plastic jar of evaporated cane juice, which is basically unrefined sugar, I think - we found it at Fresh Fields. It's in the form of dry crystals, like big sugar grains.

Directions

Dissolve the evaporated cane juice into water (heated in the microwave to aid dissolving), then add some honey and then some soy oil.

Pour the binder over the dry mixed ingredients, not all at once, but so that you can mix it and see if you need more, so that all the pieces are wet but not swimming in liquid. Make no puddle in the bottom of the bowl.

Spread on a cookie sheet one inch or less thick. Bake in the oven at around 275 for an hour. Check and determine if it should stay in longer. It won't dry out in the oven - it dries out after it has cooled. But you don't want to take it out if it's still sopping wet, so make sure it's close enough to being dry. But don't burn it! This is the hard part.