The BEST Homemade Granola

Granola is such a tasty and easy way to incorporate more nuts and grains into your everyday meals, not to mention it goes well with just about anything- yogurt, ice cream, oatmeal, frozen yogurt... The list goes on and on. However, if you look at some of the nutrition facts for the granola at the store you might see that a lot are packed with lots of sugar, fat, and extra preservatives. This granola recipe is straight to the point without anything extra added to it- making it oh so healthy!

I've also included a great morning oatmeal recipe that you can incorporate the granola into- which is what I eat almost every morning and it leaves me full and satisfied until lunch time.

Granola Recipe:

- 4 cups of oatmeal (I use the multi grain with rye, barley, oats, and wheat from Trader Joes. It's loaded with lots of fiber, grain, and protein)

- 1 cup each of chopped walnuts, pecans and almonds (or used slivered)

- about 1/4 to 1/3 cup each of sunflower seeds and flax seed (Trader Joes has great flax seed)

- 2 tablespoons each of cinnamon, canola oil and vanilla (more cinnamon is ALWAYS okay)

- zest of one orange

- 1/2 to 3/4 cup of honey

*Optional - You could add fruit and or dark chocolate chips if you want more sweets

- Directions: Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and mix all together. Spray a baking pan, spread the granola evenly in the pan and bake at 350 for a half hour, taking the pan out and mixing every 10 minutes. After done. mix again, let cool and mix at least once or twice again every 15 minutes.

*Storage- Place in a large ziploc bag and keep in the freezer.

All the ingredients in a large mixing bowl

The plethora of nuts!

Cheers!

I incorporate granola into my breakfast every morning in either my oatmeal or yogurt. Here's how I add it to my oatmeal...

Oatmeal Recipe:

- 1/4 cup oatmeal (again, I use the multi grain with rye, barley, and wheat from Trader Joes)

- 1/4 cup of the yummy yummy granola

- 1/4 cup blueberries

- 1/4 strawberries cut into small pieces

- 1/2 a banana also cut into small pieces

- Cinnamon (as much as you want)

- Directions: combine the oatmeal and granola into a bowl and add 3/4 cup of water and heat for a minute and a half. Once done heating, place fruit on top and dash cinnamon on top as well. Mix and, ta-da! Breakfast. you could also add a scoop of plain Greek yogurt for extra flavor.

The oatmeal I rave about

1/4 cup Granola, 1/4 cup Oatmeal

Fruit

Finished product!

Cheers!