Nutty Granola

White Rose Child's Note:

With no added fat and just maple syrup to sweeten, this is a very easy, healthful granola. Not to mention tasty! Be sure to serve with lots of vanilla non-dairy milk (try Sweet Vanilla Soymilk) and sliced banana!

• Total Time: 38 mins
• Prep Time: 8 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 13

Yield: 13.5 cup ser ...

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup wheat bran or 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 1/2 cup sunflower seed (use all raw nuts, seeds and wheat germ)
• 1 cup raisins (I use a mix of thompsons' and golden)
• 1/2 cup pitted dates, chopped
• 1 -1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup maple syrup

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 225°F.
2. Mix first six ingredients together and spread evenly on a couple of cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove and stir. Bake another 15 minutes. While it bakes, assemble the other ingredients. (coat the 1/4 cup measure with oil before using it for maple syrup).
4. Immediately transfer oat mixture to a large bowl and stir in the dried fruit and cinnamon. Slowly, pour in the maple syrup and stir to mix well.
5. Let it cool and store in an airtight container where, my guess is, it'll keep up to a month. Like it'll last that long :-).

Reviews

[Sydney Mike]

Made this recipe as given & was well-rewarded with a great tasting granola! On your suggestion, I used half dark & half golden raisins, & the dates were Medjool! Very, Very nice, especially when I sprinkled it over some frozen vanilla yogurt & topped that with a bit of homemade blueberry sauce! [Made & reviewed in Healthy Choices ABC tag]

[CoffeeB]

This is a really great granola recipe WRC and I thank you. I used for the nut part - walnuts and raw almonds. I did cut back a bit on the sunflower seeds due to the fat content. I also took a little initiative and added 1/8 cup honey along with the 1/4 cup maple syrup. After mixing all the ingredients together, I stuck it back in the oven for another 10 minutes to bake some of the goodness on the oats etc. A great winning recipe~ Made for Cook-bookTag~

[A Messy Cook]

This. Is. Wonderful. I just love that it has no added fats, that it's absurdly easy, and that it's chock full of good all-natural things! I used the full 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon (delicious) and took another reviewer's suggestion to increase the maple syrup to 1/2 cup. Since I never have bran on hand, I just put in more oats...used sliced almonds in place of pecans...and a mix of organic jumbo flame raisins, chopped dried apricots, and dried cranberries. It made a fantastic breakfast with some low-fat milk and fresh blueberries. I would call it a muesli more than granola, though, since it didn't exactly "clump together" like granola usually does.