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Granola is a staple in my house and I make it often. Healthy granola is a great snack to have around and this recipe is super cinchy! And for more meals you can make with inexpensive pantry staples, check these out.
I’ve been making granolafor years, but a few years ago, I got a recipe I really loved from my friend Fairlight. She’s married to a friend from high school and I met her on Facebook. She’s a homeschooling, stay at home mom who is amazing!
A week or so ago someone called me a granola-eating tree hugger, and I was so touched. I told them that was the nicest thing I had been called in a while.
So what do I and my Little Sprouts do with granola? We use it in our yogurt parfaits, click here to read about how we make them. We eat it for cereal (Mr. Kent especially loves that), top fruit crisps with it, make it into granola bars, and just eat a handful for a snack.
Healthy granola
I have some issues with milk, so I use rice milk as a substitute. I make sure my diet has a lot of calcium from dark leafy greens and seeds. Nuts are a great source of calcium too, but I am also allergic to nuts, so I stick with seeds.
Sesame seeds are very high in calcium and I add them to our food whenever appropriate. They also contain magnesium which you need to absorb calcium. And a host of other nutrients. They are great for you. Granola is a great place for them! Click here to see other high calcium foods you can supplement your diet with if you can’t consume milk.
I am also allergic to cinnamon. It’s hard to find granola without cinnamon, so that’s just one more reason I enjoy making my own.
Granola is a filling, high-protein snack that can also be taken on the go. Mr. Kent keeps granola at work for when the hungries hit. Each recipe makes a lot of granola and it’s fairly simple to make.
You can either bake it in the oven at 225, stirring every 15 minutes for a couple of hours or if you are going to be home all day, you can even make it in the crockpot. It takes about 7 hours to dry it out, but you use the same recipe listed below for the oven, you just dump all the ingredients in the crockpot and put the lid ONLY HALF WAY on to let the steam escape. Stir it thoroughly every 30 minutes, and voila, granola.
Mix all ingredients together (Fairlight uses her hands to incorporate it)
Spread mixture on shallow baking pans, the thinner the better
Place the pans in the oven and reduce heat to 225
Bake 1-2 hours, stirring well every 15 minutes.
Notes
Granola can be made in the crock pot. See post for how to do that.
Adapted from Granola Recipe by Fairlight Kloxin
A great tip for recipes that you use over and over again like granola is to print them out and place them in page protectors and tape to the inside of your cabinets where your baking ingredients are.
This saves a ton of time getting the recipe out each time, it’s always right there. I have my granola recipe posted there along with my wheat bread recipe and other staples in our household.
Granola bar recipe
For some yummy granola bars packed with energy, check out this post about how to make nut free granola bars.
You can make this granola organic by buying organic oats and other ingredients to make it. It’s much less expensive than store-bought organic granola and again, you can control the ingredients that go in it.
Homemade granola bars are a great alternative to store-bought ones. Because they typically use minimally processed ingredients and very little added sugar or salt, they're often more nutritious than packaged versions.
They save well (wrap and freeze them for up to two months), are more affordable than store-bought bars, and don't contain the long list of unpronounceable ingredients. Plus, your kitchen will smell like a bakery while these granola bars bake. Ahhhh.
Honey – Along with the nut butter, it helps all these ingredients stick together! I love its warm amber flavor in this recipe. Vanilla extract – It amps up the bars' warm flavor.
Granola is healthy in small amounts, especially because oats, nuts, seeds and dried fruit in granola provide some fiber that's good for heart and gut health. However, granola can also be a rich source of calories, saturated fat and sugar, depending on the brand you buy.
Yes, it is possible to eat too much granola. While granola can be a healthy and nutritious food, it is often high in calories and sugar, especially if it contains added sweeteners or dried fruit. Eating too much granola on a regular basis can contribute to weight gain and other health problems.
If you're looking for a certified organic granola bar, Cascadian Farms Oats and Honey bars offer a classic granola bar that is made from organic ingredients. This is a basic granola bar recipe using mostly oats and sweetener to stick the oats together. The oats help provide 3 grams of fiber per bar.
Using the right binding agent in your granola bar recipe is a crucial part of keeping your bars from falling apart. While there are several different sticky ingredients that you can use, we've found that the binding agent that works the best is honey!
Often touted for their whole grain goodness, most granola bars are sticky-sweet junk food in disguise. Don't let a few oats fool you — especially when you also see marshmallows and chocolate chips. Instead: If granola bars are a must-have, choose one with 6 grams of sugar or less per bar, and hopefully some fibre.
Baking time: Increase the baking time for your granola. The longer you bake it, the drier and crunchier it will become. Keep a close eye on it to avoid burning, and stir it occasionally during baking to ensure even toasting.
When dampened, chia seeds gel and swell to several times their original size, plus they get very sticky. Since they're already used as egg alternatives in baking, it's not surprising that chia seeds act as the ideal granola binder, but it is strange that they do it better than eggs.
Ground Flaxseed. Adds protein and, when combined with the wet ingredients, becomes a glue-like binding agent that helps hold the bars together. Wheat Germ. A superfood boost that adds folate, fiber, vitamin E, and other key nutrients to these no bake granola bars (as well as this Healthy Granola).
Nut butter is a super flavorful fat that serves multiple purposes in granola. It acts as a binding agent—along with additional coconut oil and whatever natural sweetener I've chosen—helping to pull the dry ingredients together into a wet, sticky mass for baking.
High-fiber foods, like the oats and whole grains found in granola, fill you up and keep you feeling fuller longer. Dietary studies have found eating a high-fiber diet can help you lose weight.
Yogurt and granola are excellent sources of fiber. It contains a high fiber content that provides numerous benefits to the digestive system. Therefore, it is the ideal way to maintain fast digestion to avoid fat formation in the body.
Granola is calorie-dense, as well as rich in protein, fiber, and micronutrients. In particular, it may provide iron, magnesium, zinc, copper, selenium, B vitamins, and vitamin E. However, its nutritional profile varies widely depending on the specific ingredients used.
Is granola processed? Technically, all granola is processed to some degree because it's a food made out of ingredients which you have combined and cooked. However, there are huge variations in the amount of processing used across different brands.
Is Homemade Granola Cheaper? Initially, you'll have to spend more money on homemade granola than store-bought. However, over the long run (depending on your recipe) you'll most likely spend less on making your own granola.
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Introduction: My name is Virgilio Hermann JD, I am a fine, gifted, beautiful, encouraging, kind, talented, zealous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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