We are trying to cut back on bread and potatoes since Christmas, a big problem in France where bread is the staple starch and ubiquitous for breakfast.
This led us back to cereals, muesli basically but here we discovered that the French, who have only taken to Muesli recently, prefer a much sweeter mix than we do.
So, what else, but make it ourselves. I went through various peoples recipes and stopped at Rachel Allen’s version of Granola, this I tweaked a little and really liked the result.

I went for Granola because I wanted something that would go with our house breakfast which, as well as the bread and jams, offers fruit and fromage frais. This particular Granola sprinkled over the fromage frais and fruit adds a delicious fruity crunch.
I think we have just found an additional dish for the breakfast table.
The jar, an old sweet jar, I found in Emmaus,the French charity shop, and it cost one Euro last week.

Granola:
Makes about a Kilo

Heat the oven to 170 C

250g Porridge Oats (we use Flahavans which the family smuggle out to us)
100g Sliced Almonds
75g Sunflower Seeds
25g Sesame seeds
25g Linseeds
(or 225g combo of nuts and seeds of choice)
65g Unsalted Butter
75g Honey
1/2 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla
100g Dried Apricots, chopped
50g Prunes (no-stones, chopped)
50g Dates (no stones, chopped)
50g Sultanas
(or 250g of your choice)

Mix well together the oats seeds and nuts.
Heat the honey, butter and vanilla in a pot together until the butter is melted.
Mix this well into the oats and spread out on two large oven trays.
Put this into the preheated oven for 10 mins then take out and toss it about.
Put it back and then check it and toss it every five minutes until it is evenly golden brown.(about a half hour)
Take it out of the oven and leave it cool before adding the fruit.
Store it in an air tight jar.

You can of course do infinite variations on this, use rape seed oil in place of the butter and add hazelnuts or walnuts or pecans as well as dried cranberries or raisins. I just loved the Honey/Butter/Almond flavours of this version.