Easy Healthy Homemade Honey Nut Granola

Breakfast cereals have gotten a bad rap these days and for good reasons – namely GMOs, high sugar, and refined grains. Recently I have seen some major brands taking advantage of the Greek yogurt craze. I am not going to name brand names here but one such cereal has a new flavor that includes Greek yogurt. Take a look at these ingredients (note this cereal most certainly contains GMOs in the sweeteners and oils):

Whole Grain Flakes (Whole Grain Wheat, Sugar, Rice, Corn Syrup, Wheat Flour, Yellow Corn Meal, Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Malted Barley Flour, Salt, Canola And/Or Sunflower Oil, Honey, Natural Flavor), Greek Yogurt Granola [Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Brown Sugar, Whole Grain Wheat, Rice Flour, Canola And/Or Sunflower Oil, Milk Protein Concentrate, Corn Syrup, Sugar, Greek Yogurt Powder (Heat Treated After Culturing), Honey, Natural Flavor, Lactic Acid, Malic Acid, Citric Acid], Greek Yogurt Style Coated Granola [Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Brown Sugar, Whole Grain Wheat, Rice Flour, Canola And/Or Sunflower Oil, Corn Syrup, Whey, Sugar, Honey, Greek Yogurt Style Coating (Sugar, Palm Kernel And Palm Oil, Reduced Mineral Whey Powder, Nonfat Dry Milk Solids, Greek Yogurt Powder (Heat Treated After Culturing), Lactic Acid, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Natural Flavor)]. Bht Added To Packaging Material To Preserve Product Freshness.

That processed cereal has no place in my kitchen!

Note that the yogurt is heat treated after culturing to turn the yogurt into a powder. That defeats the purpose of even eating yogurt because heating it and denaturing it into a powder would kill all of the healthy probiotics!

We haven’t been eating grains recently to heal some digestion issues, however, I have been experimenting with oats to see how we tolerate them. Soaking the oats helps to break them down and make them more easily digestible.

Homemade Healthy Honey Nut Granola

This delicious recipe for a healthy honey nut granola comes from my mother-in-law who has been making this for her morning breakfast for about a year now. She eats this with kefir and dried or fresh fruit. She has streamlined the process to make it as simple as possible and she makes this about every week and a half! It has a nice honey flavor without being too sweet. This is really worth it to avoid such yucky ingredients, don’t you think?!

Ingredients

• 9 cups oats (where to buy oats)
• ½ cup ghee (how to make ghee)(where to buy ghee)
• ½ cup coconut oil, melted (where to buy coconut oil)
• 2 cups yogurt (where to find starter cultures)
• 2 cups filtered water
• ½ cup raw honey (where to find natural sweeteners)
• 1 tsp sea salt (where to buy salt)
• 2 tsp cinnamon (where to buy spices)
• 1 ½ cups shredded coconut (where to buy coconut)
• 1 cup crispy nuts, crushed into small pieces (Optional) – I used pecans (where to buy nuts)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix oats, ghee, coconut oil, yogurt, and water. Pat down, cover with a plate, and leave on the kitchen counter for 24 hours.
2. The next day, when the oats are soaked, Preheat oven to 225 degrees.
3. Add honey, salt and cinnamon to a small saucepan or butter warmer and warm until incorporated.
4. Add the melted honey, shredded coconut and crispy nuts to the oat mixture.
5. Spread as thin layer on two parchment or silicon lined cookie sheets or roasting pans and bake at 225 degrees for one hour to get it started. Then turn the oven down to 200 degrees and bake for several hours (or as long as overnight), until completely dry and crisp. If needed, you can leave them overnight in a warm oven that has been turned off. You can break apart big chunks throughout the baking process or leave some pieces in larger chunks as granola type bars!
6. Store in airtight container for up to a month.
7. Serve with kefir or yogurt or even raw milk!