Bird seed….Granola?

Happy Monday!

I thought I would post my recipe for homemade granola. There are so many different ways you can go with granola. I love granola, and back in the days when I was eating whatever the heck i felt like, I always assumed that granola was a ‘health food’. I mean isn’t everything you can buy in bulk at whole foods healthy? While granola is usually harmless in small doses, I have figured out a way to make it even less of a diet danger.

Behold…almost fat free Cocoa Maple Granola

Ingredients:

3 cups Oatmeal
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup uncooked millet
1/4 cup ground flax meal
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1 cup original fiber one
2 tsp coconut oil
2 tbsp honey

Directions:

• Mix all of the dry ingredients except the flax meal together in a big bowl.

• Incorporate the maple syrup, honey, and coconut oil mixing together well.
• Spread granola on a foil lined baking sheet and distribute evenly.

• If desired, spray with water right before baking to aid in ‘stick-age’
• Bake for 45 minutes at 300 degrees stiring every 15 minutes. You might also want to spray with water the first time you stir. Because there is so little fat involved in this granola, the extra moisture from the water might help all the dry ingredients mesh with the oats, cereal, and almonds.
• Let cool completely before storing.
• Last stir in the flax seed meal.
• Makes 20, 1/4 cup servings.
• Great in a bowl with milk, or sprinkled on top of yogurt and fruit!

A few notes on ingredients. Pure maple syrup is really the best. It is a great natural sweetener and it is delicious in its pure (high fructose corn syrup free) state.

Some people might be unfamiliar with millet. Millet is a great grain that cooks up similar to rice. It is also one of the main ingredients in bird seed, so putting it into granola might be different to some. The millet gives the granola a good pop, because as the granola roasts the millet takes on a great flavor.

The flax seed is optional and it does nothing to enhance the flavor except adding a slight nutty taste perhaps. It is added for its nutritional benefits. I hear that it is best kept refrigerated, but I add it to my granola that I leave in a Tupperware on the counter.

The last perhaps unusual ingredient is Fiber One cereal. While I am not the biggest fan of fiber one, I think it adds a great crunch to this granola. One of the other main reasons that I add it is because I bought three boxes of it on sale at Save-a-Lot one day when it was on sale for $1 a box, and I am desperately trying to use it all up. It goes a long way. For anyone following Weight Watchers, 1/2 cup of fiber one original cereal is 0 points.

Also, there is no actual sugar in this granola, and some people might prefer it sweeter. If this is the case up the amounts of maple syrup or honey, or sprinkle it with your favorite form of sweetener. It is really a taste thing.

Nutritional stats-

Weight Watchers point value: 1

Nutritional stats of the recipe are thanks to spark recipes (A great resource on many levels).

For fun I thought I would compare it to a Kashi granola to see where mine stood.

Weight Watchers point value: 5  (for 1/4 a cup: 2)

This recipe is double the amount of mine, so comparing is a little tricky. Even with that though mine comes in lower in calories, fat and sugar. Not to mention it cost a lot less to make!

Be creative and try new things with granola. I don’t think I have every tried the same recipe twice!

Another recipe and product reviews coming soon!

Rebekah