Homemade Granola

Make your own healthy homemade granola and add-in whatever extras your family loves leaving behind extra sugar, unhealthy oils and fillers

Why Homemade Granola is the Best

We love oats.  I’m pretty sure that we could eat oatmeal for breakfast everyday for the rest of forever and no one would complain.  As much as we like oatmeal, we may possibly love granola just as much.  The kind you buy in the store is not only pricey, but is usually high in sugar, contains unhealthy fats and oils, and is also full of fillers and preservatives.  Our homemade granola is both inexpensive and only contains 5 simple ingredients.  This recipe is so easy that you will be surprised you haven’t made it before.   This homemade granola recipe makes a TON so you can make it once and then eat it up for a couple of weeks.  Or give some to a friend or neighbor and they will love you forever.  (I usually double the recipe and give some away and eat it myself for a couple of weeks)

The Best Add-ins for Homemade Granola

There are so many delicious foods to add-in to homemade granola making it different every time you make it.  Some of our favorites are:

• Dried cranberries
• Coconut flakes
• Sliced almonds
• Chopped Pecans
• Chia Seeds
• Flax Seeds
• Dried Cherries
• Chocolate chips (add after it is cooled)
• Pumpkin Seeds

How to Make 5 Ingredient Homemade Granola

First begin with your rolled oats.  Don’t use the quick cooking kind – they aren’t hearty enough for this recipe.  Just good old fashioned rolled oats.   Get out a very large bowl for this.  Then you will add some coconut oil, honey and vanilla and a bit of brown sugar.  You can add more or less honey depending on how sweet you like it.  I like it a little less sweet, especially if I am eating it with milk for breakfast.

You can use any type of nut in this recipe, or no nuts at all if your kids have allergies.  We love almonds or pecans.  I chop them up into smaller pieces before I put them in.

Mix everything into your extra large bowl (if you are doubling) and just large bowl if not.  It will feel like it is still kind of dry, but keep stirring for a while to get everything coated nice and good.

Take your mixture and spread it onto a baking sheet.  If it isn’t the non-stick kind, spray it with cooking spray before.  If you double the recipe you will need 2 baking sheets.

Then pop it into a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.  You need to watch it carefully and stir every 5 minutes to make sure it bakes evenly.  If you don’t stir it then the top layer will get really done, and the bottom layer won’t get baked at all.  I set a timer for 5 minutes to make sure I remember to stir.

While it is baking, you can get your other mix-ins ready.  I am kind of a granola purist and so I don’t like a lot of ‘stuff’ in my granola.  Here are some ideas that would be yummy though if you like the extras.  Nuts (we already talked about those), dried fruit, coconut, sesame seeds.  You will add these in after it is baked, or in the last 5 minutes – except the nuts. I bake mine with the granola because they get all toasty and crunchy.  Yum.

Once it is done it should look golden brown.  I love wide cut coconut in my granola.  Let it cool a bit and then stir it to break up any big pieces.  I store mine in mason jars (I have the big 1/2 gallon size, but any size would work)  Tie a bow on it and it makes a perfect neighbor gift!

What Do You Put Homemade Granola On?

Of course our go-to is to sprinkle it on top of yogurt with fresh fruit.  The crunchy granola with the creamy and smooth yogurt and the freshness of the fruit is the perfect combination in our opinion.  But if you want more than just yogurt, we actually wrote an entire post on 14 Ways to Use Granola

Is Granola Healthy?

This is definitely a subjective question.  Most granola recipes are made of oats, a sweetener, oil and then a variety of add-ins.  A lot of store-bought granola has a high amount of added sugar which means if you pour a bowl of granola for breakfast, you could be eating more than 600 calories! We like to eat granola in smaller amounts anyway – more as a topping than as the main dish.  When you make your own, you definitely control how much sweetener is added.  We like our granola on the less sweet side and so can cut a lot of sugar out of the recipe.  Play around and see what your family likes!

 

MORE GRANOLA RECIPES:

• Healthy Sugar Free Granola
• Cranberry Almond granola
• 5 Minute pumpkin chia granola