This yummy homemade granola, which the whole family will enjoy helping to make — and eat!
As a working mom who cook at home with limited time, I’m all about functional food. Food that tastes great, feels good and serves a purpose. I love developing healthy alternatives to not-so-healthy staples as well as nutrient-dense meals and snacks that nourish my body. Enter delicious homemade granola! This granola is perfect year-round, but we make a super big batch during spring and summer months. I really prefer this to any boxed cereals, which are supposedly filled with sugar and ordinarily so very bad for you.
It starts with wholesome organic oats and buckwheat groats, rich in manganese. We mix in some chia seeds rich with an omega-3. They are then tossed with lauric-acid rich coconut oil (a powerful immune booster), sea salt, and ginger.
To sweeten things up, we use soaked goji mulberries, packed with Vitamins A and C and a small bit of coconut, maple syrup, and almond extract. In the end, we toss in some slivered almonds, high in Vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant that helps reduce the risk of infection and anemia, and bake to crispy, golden perfection.
Ingredients:
- ½ cup goji berries, cold-soaked in ¼ cup water overnight*
- ½ cup mulberries, cold-soaked in ¼ cup water overnight*
- 2 cups oats, whole rolled
- 1 ½ cups buckwheat groats
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- ¾ cup coconut flakes, unsweetened
- 1 ½ teaspoons ginger, ground
- ½ teaspoon of sea salt
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- ¾ teaspoon almond extract
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 cup almonds, slivered or whole
* Short on time? Just give your berries a quick boil in water to plump them up and drain – this keeps them from burning in the cooking process.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300° (275° if using a convection oven). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
- Drain berries
- Mix oats, groats, chia seeds, coconut flakes, ginger sea salt together
- Toss with coconut oil, almond extract maple
- Mix in almonds
- Spread evenly onto the cookie sheet. Granola must be thinly spread with space (no clumps) or it will steam and not get crispy
- Bake for 20 minutes. Stir granola and rotate the sheet
- Bake another 20 minutes until golden brown and crispy, checking every 10 so as not to burn
- Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 2 months.
Serve with your choice of toppings: yogurt and fruit, milk, or anything else that you fancy. Or just eat as a trail mix by itself.
Enjoy!
