Healthful Homemade Granola

You can really let your imagination run wild when it comes to homemade granola. Making your own granola is easy, fast, and a lot cheaper than buying it at the grocery store.

Granola is a great way to start the morning off. Oats are so good for your digestion and nervous system, and the various nuts and seeds in the granola help keep you full for hours.

I like to make granola in big batches to save time, so the recipe below is for a large batch. Remember, for crunchy granola all the ingredients (except the oats and wet ingredients) are optional and you can vary the amounts. I usually just grab whatever I have hanging around in my pantry. You will quickly learn that once you understand the basics, you can substitute and create many different flavoured granolas – cinnamon and raisin, ‘tropical mix’, apple, even chocolate chip!

This recipe will get you those yummy granola clumps. However, you can skip the ‘wet’ portion of the recipe (no need to bake in this case). Just add your milk of choice to the dry ingredients. I admit the clump-less granola doesn’t taste as good, but if you are trying to save time and a few calories, it is still pretty yummy.

So here is one version of clump yummy granola, but again don’t feel married to the recipe.

Ingredients:

Dry

• 3 cups rolled oats (you can play with the portion or use all rolled oats or all quick oats)
• 3 cups of oat flakes or quick oats
• 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 cup whole flax seeds or sesame seeds, or a mix of both
• 1/2 cup chopped raw nuts (pecans, slivered almonds, walnuts, etc)
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 to 1 cup dried fruit (cranberries, dates, blueberries, raisins, currents, dried apple, whatever)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-2 Tbsp carob powder or cocoa
• 1-2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

Wet

• 1/3 cup oil (vegetable, sunflower, safflower oil, whatever)
• 1/2-3/4 cup maple syrup or honey, or a mixture of both
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Mix dry ingredients in a big bowl, except dried fruit and coconut.
3. Mix wet ingredients in a small bowl.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Spread mixture onto a flat cookie sheets or a lasagna casserole dish.
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes (depending on pan) until layer starts to brown.
7. Stir or flip over granola using a spatula and bake for 20-30 more minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let cool. The granola will become crunchier as it cools.
9. Add dried fruit and coconut if using in your granola mix.
10. Store in an air-tight container until ready to eat! For storage more than a month, store in the freezer.

Consider adding the following to your granola:

• chocolate chips
• brazil nuts
• hazelnuts
• macadamia nuts
• hemp seeds (add after bakeing)
• banana chips
• dried pineapple pieces
• dried pears
• dried apricot
• dried peaches
• dried cherries
• almond extract

By the way, your house will smell incredible with this ‘baking’ in the oven! Let us know your favourite granola combinations in the comments section below.