Crunchy Nut & Seed Granola
Deciding what to eat for breakfast can be a difficult choice if you are trying to have more protein and less carbs because most of the typical breakfast foods we gravitate towards are higher in carbs and/or sugar like cereals and toast or pancakes, waffles, and French toast. Eggs are great if you can eat eggs every single day. Unfortunately, I am cannot. Can you? If you cannot eat eggs every day and are trying to avoid gluten, sugar, and/or high carb foods then you probably often run out of breakfast ideas also. Maybe it’s gotten to the point where you just decide to engage in intermittent fasting (might not be a bad thing either depending on your health status).
I find myself rotating between oatmeal or eggs which starts to get boring after a while. To twist things up, I decided to make some granola which has fibre, healthy fats, and protein. To make this breakfast more satisfying with more protein, eat it with Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, or non-dairy yoghurt. You can even mix it with your favourite nut or seed butter too.
Granola is great because it can be eaten alone like a cereal, mixed with yoghurt, added as a topping to smoothies, or mixed with fruits into a parfait. A perfect Summer breakfast food.
This contains lots of healthy fats and some protein from the almonds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, cashews, walnuts, coconut and oils.
It is also sweetened with natural sweeteners.
Oats will increase the carb content but they are whole-grain and are rich in fibre so a greater percentage of the carbohydrates in oats is dietary fibre. The fibre is known as soluble fibre which slows glucose absorption into the blood helping with blood sugar balance and satiety to minimize mid-morning snacking. Oats can also be part of a healthy diet aimed at lowering cholesterol levels because the soluble fibre binds bile for elimination through poop. This makes the liver take in more cholesterol from the blood to make new bile, in turn, lowering blood cholesterol levels. The fibre can help with bowel movements. If you are sensitive to gluten, choose gluten-free rolled oats. To know if you have a sensitivity to oats or gluten, book an initial naturopathic consultation and we can determine if you have a food sensitivity or intolerance through the intake assessment and/or food sensitivity testing.
Crunchy Nut and Seed Granola
Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
¾ cup sliced almonds
2-3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
4 tbsp hulled raw sunflower seeds
2-3 tbsp raw cashews
2 tbsp raw walnuts pieces
½ tsp ground cinnamon powder
Unsweetened desiccated coconut as desired
½ tsp sea salt
¼ cup mix of cooled, melted coconut oil and olive oil [you can opt for one oil only]
¼ cup of honey and maple syrup combined [you can opt for just one sweetener]
½ tsp vanilla extract
Dried apricot pieces or other dried fruit, as desired.
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Mix all the dry ingredients together (oats, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cashews, walnuts, cinnamon, salt, and coconut).
Add the wet ingredients (oil(s), sweetener(s), vanilla extract) into the dry ingredients and mix well until it is well combined.
Spread the mixture on the cookie sheet in an even layer.
Place on the middle oven rack and let is bake for 11 minutes.
Remove and mix everything with a wooden spoon and spread it out again. It will feel soft but that is because it is warm and may start to look light brown.
Bake for another 11 minutes.
Remove the cookie sheet and mix everything up again. At this point, the colour should be a toasted light brown colour but it will still feel soft as it is warm. Once cooled, it will become crisp. If you want a crispier, crunchy granola then see step #10.
Feel free to spread it out again and bake it for an extra 3 minutes to make it extra toasty but still golden brown. This way once it is cool, the nuts and oats have an extra crunch to them. This is what I did.
Once the granola is completely cooled, you can add dried apricot pieces or other dried fruit. Just know that the granola might become sticker and a bit soft. Alternatively, store it without dried fruits to keep the crisp and crunch. Add the dried fruit as a topping when you are consuming it.
