My wicked (Yup, I said it! Wicked!) favorite breakfast granola is this recipe. It is quick and easy to make. It keeps great in the fridge, and it is yummilicious! One of the things that I love about it is the texture. It is nice and crunchy! And, oats help to slow digestion, increase satiety, and suppress appetite. They are chock full of vitamins and minerals and mix them with the ingredients below and they taste more like dessert than breakfast. And, extra bonus… on my quest to eliminate packaging from my house – making these is a great replacement for all those cereal boxes!
You can use this recipe and instructions as a base and add to it all kinds of goodies. My husband prefers his without the cacao powder and he likes a variety of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. So, keeping everything else the same, I add 1/2 cup of pumpkin or sunflower seeds, and a 1/2 cup of dried fruit of some kind – cranberries or raisins are usually the ones that I have on hand, but anything could work.
My daughter definitely prefers the chocolate flavor and without all the extras. She’ll have it on top of yogurt. We like Kite Hill Greek Yogurt Plant Based but you can eat it with your favorite plant based milk and even alone. My daughter does like to snack on granola and as a mom I feel good about her reaching for something like this versus all the processed foods that are available to kids today.
If I am making the chocolate version, my daughter and I share, I make a half batch. It keeps nicely in the fridge for the whole week and it ends up being the perfect amount for her and I. My husband eats granola daily so I do a whole batch of his version and similarly it lasts nicely for one week.
Dry Ingredients:
3 cups organic gluten free old-fashioned rolled oats. I use Bob’s Red Mill
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 cup almond slivers, you can use two different kinds of nuts just do a 1/2 cup of each. I have
used chopped pistachio, walnuts, and cashews – whatever you have on hand will work.
½ cup coconut sugar, you can use just 1/4 cup, especially if you add the extra ingredients that I
mention above
½ cup cacao powder
½ tsp salt
Wet Ingredients:
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup melted coconut oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients in one large bowl. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Make sure that all the oats are covered with your wet ingredients. Spread all ingredients out onto a large baking tray with a reusable baking mat.
I would love to recommend one, but still can’t find one made in the USA. Please comment below if you have a recommendation for a reusable baking mat that you love that is USA made.
Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the baking tray, stir granola making sure you pull all the ingredients from the sides of the baking sheet where it might tend to get the darkest. Spread the ingredients back out and continue to bake for an additional 12 minutes. Let it cool so that it can get really crunchy. Serve once it cools and keep it in the fridge for a week.
This keeps awesome in the fridge. I make my granola on Sunday and have plenty to make it through the week. This is the container that I use Sterilite Ultra-Seal 16 Cup Rectangle, Airtight Food Storage Container. If you are trying to go plastic free, it isn’t a good option. I just happen to have it, and it works great for the size of this recipe and how it fits on the fridge shelf. Check it out, but maybe you have something of similar size that will work for you.
Enjoy, and take a minute to let me know how you make your granola! And, if you have a baking mat recommendation for me! 🙂
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