Kitchen Goodness

A few recipes I've tried out lately:

• Granola. Based on this recipe (with the following changes to the ingredient list).
  

  6 cups rolled oats
  1 cup sunflower seeds
  1 cup chopped almonds or pecans (I used - I think - a 6 oz. bag; it came out to about 1 1/2 cups. I didn't have a knife handy, so I just broke them in half, which was perfect)
  3/4 cup coconut or canola oil
  1/2 cup real or maple syrup
  1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  1 tsp cinnamon
  1/2 teaspoon salt
  1/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
  ½ cup flax seeds
  1/2 cup sesame seeds
  Up to 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (I couldn't find unsweetened, but regular worked just fine)
  1 cup dried cranberries
  3/4 banana chips, broken

  
  Thanks to the dorm oven, one pan burned a little, but once it was mixed in with the rest, it actually gave it a nice flavor.

• Oatmeal cookies. In search of a cookie recipe that only made a dozen or so, I came across this one, which uses instant oatmeal. I took advantage of the stockpile of oatmeal left over in the kitchen (unfortunately, the packaging was all in Spanish, but I managed to guess pretty accurately which flavor was in which package). I added vanilla extract and chocolate chips, and they turned out really well. Plus, it only took me about 20 minutes start-to-finish.