Homemade Granola Cereal

Cereal is almost everyone’s go-to breakfast, and for good reason. Being able to pour breakfast into a bowl, add milk, and eat it in a matter of a minutes is something that can’t be passed up. Clean up is even a snap! I understand the convenience of cereal, but what I know about the ingredients and it’s high-sugar content deters me from them.

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So instead of buying cereal or even granola cereal (Kashi), I make my own. It’s so easy, and I honestly don’t understand why more people don’t make it themselves. It usually takes me less than half an hour to whip out a batch of granola and then it takes 10 minutes for the granola to cool and be put away. It’s a simple process: (1) Mix together all dry ingredients (2) Pour the honey and oil mixture over the granola and stir (3) Put granola on pan and bake then cool.

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This is the best homemade granola out there. It is super delicious and easy to make. Anything you could add into trail mix, you could add in here. After trying a few different granola recipes that didn’t deliver, I’ve settled on this one.

The recipe I used was from Allrecipes.com. From my standpoint, it was a very well made recipe that takes into account nutrition and amazing taste. For allergy reasons, I wasn’t able to put in sliced almonds or pecans, but that would taste absolutely fabulous. If you’re allergic to tree nuts like my brother, try yummy seeds like pumpkin, sesame, or sunflower to add neat flavors without having to waste an EpiPen.
 
This is a tutorial so let’s get started…
 
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First things first, get a bowl. I used a medium sized bowl today, an it was a little too small, so I recommend a large bowl.

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Pour old fashioned or quick oats in medium sized bowl. I prefer old fashioned because the individual oats are still intact, but I assume you could use quick oats and the results would be similar.

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And the pumpkin seeds. I used home-roasted pumpkin seeds just because I didn’t have any pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds) on hand. I would have liked to have used pepitas because when I bake the granola, it goes through it’s own roasting process where it roasts in honey and coconut goodness. But it tastes good either way.

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Add the sesame seeds. If you don’t have a whole cup of sesame seeds, you can just use what you have. I only had 1/2 cup for today’s batch and it was still insanely delicious.

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Now add some sunflower seeds. It’s okay if all you have is roasted, salted. I’ve made homemade granola about 40 times before and sometimes I have the raw kind and sometimes I don’t. But I try not to worry about it too much…

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Next up, add the flax seed. You can use ground flax seeds or the whole ones. I like ‘em either way.

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The coconut is completely optional, as are most of the other ingredients. I use unsweetened shredded coconut. I like the flavor that it gives teh granola, so I add it if I have it. Badda bing badda boom.

I like orange juice.

Moving on.

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I like to add chia seeds to mine because they are a super food and I just love ‘em to death, but if ya don’t got ‘em, don’t add ‘em.

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Now stir it all together, trying not to spill it all over the table if you used a medium-sized bowl (like me 8-O ).

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Keep stirring until it’s all good and combined.

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In a small saucepan, heat together the oil, honey, and extract of choice. I used vanilla. Remember when pouring the honey mixture into the bowl, try to pour it over the whole top of the oat mixture.

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Make sure you evenly distribute the honey mixture, otherwise some parts of the granola will end up stuck together. And I mean really stuck together. Stir it all together.

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Plop half of the granola onto a large baking sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper. Wax paper and foil simply will not work. Do the same for the other half of the granola.

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Now spread it all over the pan evenly so that it cooks even and everything’s all even because I want to get even with…

I’m so glad we had this talk.

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Bake it for 20 minutes. Enjoy the delicious aroma of granola as it lingers through the air in the house. If your kitchen window is wide open, you may want to close it because in about 5 minutes the neighbors will be bustin’ down your door trying to figure out what that heavenly smell is. Yup, it’ll happen.
 
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You’ll need to stir it once it comes out so that you don’t have to break the whole durn thing into little tiny baby pieces (which takes about an hour, in case you were wondering).
 
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Here is a close-up of the homemade granola goodness. Mmmmmm.
 
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This recipe for homemade granola lasts my family about a day (and maybe a half), but for a family of four, one batch should last you all week, assuming you don’t eat it every single morning. I hope you enjoy this simple and delicious granola.
 
Here’s the recipe:
Homemade Granola Cereal
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
  • 5 cups oats
  • 1 cup sesame seeds
  • 1 cup pumpkin seeds
  • ¼ cup flax seeds
  • ¾ cup shredded coconut
  • 1 cup sunflower seeds
  • ½ cup hemp seeds
  • 1 cup oil
  • 1½ cups honey
  • 1 cup dried fruit, optional
  • 1 cup nuts, optional
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
  2. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, nuts (if using), pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, shredded coconut, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and sunflower seeds. In a small pan over medium heat, stir together the oil and honey. Cook and stir until thin, about a minute and a half. You could also do this in a large measuring cup in the microwave, heating for about 1 minute. Pour over the oat mixture, and stir to coat evenly. Spread out in an even layer on two cookie sheets.
  3. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until the oats and nuts are toasted. Immediately after it comes out of the oven, stir in the dried fruit (if using).
  4. Stir the granola and let cool 10 minutes. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks, but I'm pretty sure it won't be that long!
2052728g4g23g62g22g16mg10g12g

If you liked this recipe, check out similar ones on my breakfast board!

breakfast board

Comments

  1. Mema says

    Margaret, It looks like you really get into the cooking and recipes! I am so proud of you, and hope you are keeping up with school work too! Have you gotten to use the mixer on any of these recipes you are having fun making ? Keep on cookin’, and keep this blog going, so
    that you can get as much as you can from all information, recipes, comments, etc. I will be looking for the next recipe! love ya, Mema

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