Easy Healthy Homemade Granola

When we started weeding out processed foods, cereal was the first to go. My kids would eat a whole box and still be ravenous. Then, the'd go through a bunch of toast or whatever else they could scrounge up and most often still be hungry. Why's that? Because most cereal is just high calorie temporary filler. There isn't a whole lot of nutrition, but there is a lot of sugar, processed ingredients and usually some HFCS. That being said, my husband still enjoys cereal .

This granola uses whole foods, simple ingredients, spices, raw honey and butter. Whole, real foods! Yeah! This cereal keeps you full and satisfied long after breakfast is gone. And it's simple to make, so that's a plus. The recipe can also be easily doubled or tripled and stores well in a sealed container.

 
Healthy Granola Recipe

• 4 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix together the oats, cinnamon and ginger. In a saucepan, heat the butter and honey until just melted. Mix in the salt (so it'll dissolve) and the vanilla. Pour over the oats and spices, stir well to completely coat each piece of oatmeal. Pour onto a cookie sheet and spread out very gently. Bake for about 45 minutes-1 hour, or until it's golden brown. It may take more or less time depending on your oven. Let cool completely and pack into a air tight container. 

Now, that's the Plain Jane version, just to get you going, or for those weeks where there isn't a lot of room in the budget for "extras". The thing about granola is this: you can add nuts, seeds, dried fruit, even chocolate chips if you want....it all depends on what you want for your end product. Add the seeds and nuts before you bake, but save the dried fruit until you have completely cooled the granola and add it before you put it into a container. 

I don't know about you, but this bowl of breakfast looks a whole lot better to me than a bowl of overly sugared, puffed up GMO cereal. YUM!
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