Prep Time: 5 minutes/Cook Time: 30 minutes
Serves: approximately 10 (1/2 cup servings)
I’ll admit it, once I make a recipe once, I want to try to make 10 different versions of it. Just like when I taste a new food once, I want to go try it in five different places, tasting the nuances of how each person made it their own. So when I made a pumpkin spice granola recipe a few weeks ago, I knew it wouldn’t be the last granola recipe.
A couple nice things about granola: 1) You can add or remove things you do or don’t tolerate. Say you can’t do almonds – fine, just remove them and add more pecans or another nut. 2) It’s breakfast cereal. If you’ve been working on healthier lifestyle or a SIBO diet, you’ve probably been avoiding breakfast cereal. Typical off the shelf breakfast cereals are pretty much all fortified carbs – about as far from whole foods as you can get. But with making your own granola, you can have a lower sugar breakfast cereal that is delicious. Ok, and this one has dark chocolate – kinda devilish. But if you don’t do well with chocolate chips you can leave those out. For those with IBS or SIBO, start with smaller amounts because nuts, seeds and coconut can be hard to digest for some people.
Ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened large coconut flakes
1 cup raw slivered or chopped almonds
1 cup raw pecan pieces
1 cup raw walut pieces
1/2 cup raw pepitas
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup chia seeds (optional)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup dairy free chocolate chips
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil
- Place the coconut flakes, almonds, pecans, walnuts, pepitas, sunflower seeds, chia, cranberries, sea salt, coconut oil, maple syrup, cocoa and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Mix everything together well.
- Spread evenly on the baking sheet.
- Bake the granola for approximately 9 minutes.
- Stir the nuts and then make sure they are evenly spread across the pan.
- Bake for another 9 minutes.
- Remove the granola from the oven and then let it cool for approximately 5 minutes on a wire rack.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir them into the granola. As they melt they should spread out somewhat evenly.
- Let granola fully cool and then serve immediately or store in a Mason jar or other airtight container. Keeps for approximately two weeks on the counter.
