I never ate granola pre-food allergy days. In fact, I do not think I even gave it a thought. But then, when food allergies hit and I had purchased about 5 new cookbooks, I started noticing that granola was in a lot of the books.
One that caught my eye was in The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook by Cybele Pascal. It seemed really easy. And I was intrigued by Cybele’s use of unrefined sugar. I had never given sugar a thought before reading this cookbook. I knew that honey was an alternative sweetener, but I never realized that there were other sweeteners and other “granulated” sugars that were not refined. (More on this sugar business in a future post).
So I gave her granola recipe a try and I was hooked from the first batch. Here are ten reasons you should try and make your own granola even if you do not have food allergies.
- Granola really satisfies a sweet tooth.
- Granola is a great snack. (I usually end up eating it as an evening snack).
- Granola jazzes up a boring bowl of cold cereal like corn flakes.
- Using granola on top of your cold cereal eliminates the need to add sugar to your cereal.
- Making your own granola is far more affordable than buying granola.
- When making your own granola you can control the amount of sugar you put in it.
- You can pick and choose your favorite ingredients (or not use ones you are allergic to).
- It is something different for your palate.
- You can easily increase your fiber intake with the oats and sunflower seeds you may use.
- Add in dried fruits and you can add a serving of fruit to your day.
So even though I absolutely love Cybele’s granola recipe as is in The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook, I have adapted it by changing up the sweeteners, changing the dried fruits and adding sunflower seeds. And I found out I love it even more.
So, can anyone think of another reason to make your own granola? Leave a comment below if you do and to just share your thoughts. I always appreciate hearing from you.
This post also shared at Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Totally Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays, Allergy Free Wednesday, Make Your Own Monday, Gluten Free Friday, and Gluten Free Monday. Mostly Homemade Mondays. Gluten Free Wednesday.
Simple and Delicious Homemade Granola
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup oil of your choice (I use canola)
- 1/4 cup agave nectar
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 2 cups gluten free or regular rolled oats
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup raisens
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
- In a large bowl, mix the first 4 ingredients.
- Add the rolled oats and mix until oats are covered.
- Spray a 10×15 pan with cooking spray.
- Lay out the oats onto pan and spread out.
- Bake 12 minutes.
- Remove from oven and stir and spread out granola again.
- Put back in oven and bake 12 minutes.
- Remove from oven. Add cranberries, raisens and sunflower seeds.
- Bake an additional 5 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool on counter top. If it seems a little “wet” when you take it out of oven that is okay.
- After cooled off completely, store in air tight container in refrigerator.
We’re dealing with gluten free and diary allergy at my house so this looks awesome and I need to spend some serious time exploring your blog!
Rita
Rita, I’m glad you found me, but sorry that you have to deal with food restrictions. My blog is relatively new (started in Aug), but I have a lot of great things planned, so I hope you’ll come back often. And for this granola…it’s super addicting. I think you’ll love it.
LOVE this ingredient list. Some of the granola recipes out there have SO many elements I can’t imagine that you can taste them all – just a muddle. Thanks so much for sharing a truly simple and delicious looking granola. I look forward to giving it a try.
Thank you so much for the kind words! I’m sure you will not only like it, but find it a bit addicting! 🙂
I have trying various granola recipe with minimal success, I will try this as you already use sweeteners I like to use too! Thank you! I am also featuring this on AFW next week!
Tessa, I think you will like this one. I find it super yummy…almost too much. 🙂 And thank you for featuring it on AWF and as always, thank you for hosting! Peggy
That looks so yummy! We used to LOVE making granola and eating it in our pre-allergy days. You’ve inspired me to give it another try. We have shellfish, peanut, tree nut, and oat allergies along with gluten intolerance, so I’ll be trying it with quinoa flakes instead of oats. I’ll let you know how/if it turns out!!
Thanks!!
Oh yes! I’d love to know how it works with quinoa flakes. I haven’t tried those yet and am eager to do so!
This looks delicious! I love granola and putting it atop greek yogurt….such a great little snack. Thank you for sharing!
I’m glad you like it. And once you taste it, I’m sure you’ll like it even more.
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Will check it out!
Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures’ Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
Check back tomorrow when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the top 3 featured posts! 🙂
Again this looks amazing!! I always love your goodies!! 🙂 Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party last week! have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! 🙂 I hope that you’ll join us this week! Domata will be sponsoring our party! They will be giving away a box of each of their gluten free products: Recipe Ready Flour, Seasoned Flour, and Pizza Crust Mix. Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com
Thanks Cindy. Looking foward to this Thursday and learning more about Domata…I don’t believe I’ve heard of them.
Wow, your right this is a super simple recipe.. and I can’t wait to try it out. We have all of the ingredients at home so I won’t have to buy anything else!! Thank you again for linking up with us at gluten free fridays. We LOVE having you here every week.
Let me know how you like it if you have time!