Goji Berry Granola

See? I am not always trying to clog your arteries. Sometimes I'm trying to fill you full of antioxidants, from ingredients you might never have tried before.

When I was in law school, I used to stop at my favorite health food store every day after going to the gym. One day, I was given a weird sample bag of shriveled up red berries, which I looked at with a lot of skepticism. I went home, tried them, and filed them away under "strange dried fruit that are supposedly good for you."

Fast forward several years, and goji berries are now everywhere. Whole Foods has bags of them, as does my regular grocery store and every single natural foods bodega in Manhattan. I can even buy them in bulk at my (new) favorite health food store, which makes them perfect for (you guessed it) granola recipes.

What to do with extra goji berries if you have to buy a full package? Eat them as a snack, sprinkle them in salads, or just make a second batch of this granola. It doubles as a breakfast and an ice cream topping, so really, can you even have too much?

Goji Berry Granola

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups oatmeal

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/3 cup sunflower seeds

1 tbsp dark corn syrup

3 tbsp honey

1 tbsp canola oil

1/2 cup goji berries

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients except the goji berries.

3. Spread out the granola on a baking sheet lined with silipat, or on a nonstick baking sheet.

4. Bake the granola for about 35 minutes, stirring every 8 minutes or so. Remove from oven, stir in the goji berries and allow to cool.

Makes about 2 cups of granola.