The Well-Sourced Life

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Hey, friends! Today I want to share with you one of the breakfast recipes that I rotate into my breakfast monthly meal plan pretty frequently. This granola recipe is quick, healthy and something that I can make a bigger batch of and use for easy breakfasts for the next few weeks. If you haven’t seen how I prepare my monthly meal plan, I have 2 posts where I share about that here, and here. 

A few things I dislike about store-bought granola is that 1) it’s pretty expensive – like $8 for a small bag. Why!? I can make my own large bag of homemade granola at home for about $2, and it’s something that we can and do eat a lot of in the following weeks! 

Secondly, most of the time, there is more sugar than I like. It’s like eating chocolate covered granola bars – I always think to myself, “is this a snack or a sugar rush at 3pm”? I try not to make breakfast into either one of those things, unless it’s a weekend or Christmas or something.  

The benefit of making your own homemade granola (and any homemade food) is that you can control all of the ingredients that go into it! You know exactly what you’re eating, and I just love that. 

Now – to clear the air – do we (**ahem Daniel) still buy Lucky Charms and eat those as a midnight snack? Yes. Yes he does. And sometimes my kids DO eat sweet things for a snack. We are not a sugar free, totally healthy family all the time. But we strive to eat well, to eat nutritiously, and to eat a variety of foods that will bring natural and holistic nutrition to our bodies. 

So! Let’s get to that recipe. 

A quick note about cinnamon. A LOT of granola recipes have cinnamon in them and I do normally love cinnamon, but it tends to dominate the flavor of the granola when added in my opinion. When I want a specifically cinnamon-flavored vanilla granola, I add it! But if I’m feeling a little tired or cinnamon like now (maybe it’s me or it’s just the holidays?) then I’ll just make it without. That’s the beautiful thing about granola – you can change it so easily by adding or removing spices and then after baking adding different kinds of baking chips, dried fruits, and more to give it character. Some ideas for optional add-in variations are included below – feel free to use this recipe by itself, or use these fun variations to make it your own! 

HOMEMADE VANILLA ALMOND GRANOLA 

Prep Time	5 MIN
Cook Time	30 MIN
Total Time	1 HR 5 MIN

INGREDIENTS: 

• 3 cups oats 
• 1/3 cup melted coconut oil 
• 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey 
• 1 cup mixed raw nuts 
• 2 Tsp vanilla 
• 1/2 Tsp almond extract

Optional add-ins: 

• Cinnamon (add before baking)
• Seeds: flax seeds, chia seeds (add before baking)
• Coconut flakes
• Dried fruits – craisins, mangoes, dried apple slices, peaches, apricots, etc. 
• Chocolate chips, yogurt chips, or any other baking chips 

INSTRUCTIONS: 

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray parchment paper with cooking spray, and place on a sheet pan. Set aside. 

Mix together all of the ingredients until the oats and nuts/seeds are evenly coated with the melted coconut oil and sweetener. Spread onto the parchment paper so that the granola is evenly spread, and not thicker than ½ inch in any spot. 

Bake for 30 minutes, then turn the oven off and leave the granola inside the oven for another 30 minutes while the oven is cooling. 

Remove the granola and allow it to cool completely. Break the granola up with a spatula into bite-size chunks, and store in an airtight container. 

Enjoy plain, with yogurt, or as a cereal with any kind of milk.