As breakfast is important to keep powering us through until lunch time I thought I’d share a cheap and easy recipe for making your own granola to get you started.
We need to set ourselves up for the day with energy fuelled food to stop us craving those sweet snacks and crashing before we even get to lunch! This granola is slightly sweet and hugely nutty. It will leave you full and satisfied without the sugar crash mid-morning. This recipe is gluten-free, processed-sugar free and provides you with a good dose of dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals.
The fibre beta-glucan in oats are known to be blood sugar balancing, meaning choosing oats for the first meal of the day is setting you up for a day with a stable blood sugar balance
and minimal dips. Oats are also gluten free so this recipe can also be enjoyed by celiacs or gluten sensitive individuals (make sure you choose ones that say gluten free on the packaging as some are packaged in the same area as gluten containing products and might be contaminated).
The recipe can be changed to suit your choice of nuts and seeds. I tend to just throw in whatever I have in the kitchen at the time of making my weekly batch.
Ingredients
500g gluten free oats
200g puffed rice
2 tbsp maple syrup or date syrup
4tbsp coconut oil
2tbsp cacao or cocoa powder
50g almonds or walnuts (roughy chopped)
50g cashews (roughly chopped)
2 tbsp sesame seeds
pinch of Himalayan salt
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees. Add 4 tbsp of coconut oil to a pan and heat on a low temperature until melted. Add the maple syrup, cacao powder and salt. Stir to mix then add the oats and rice puffs. Place granola mixture on a baking tray and evenly spread mixture. Leave mixture in for 10mins then give it a stir and add your nuts. Cook for a further 10-15mins then remove from oven and leave to cool. Before storing in an air tight container add your seeds. Serve for breakfast with your favourite nut milk.
