Healthy Granola ?

I love granola, and as a child I could through down some granola cereal. Did you every have Sunbelt granola cereal. This was my favorite cereal growing up, cheep, tasty and filling.

But now that I'm trying to be more conscious of what I eat, I found that granola can get pretty fattening and usually has tons of sugar. So, I went on a mission to see if there's such a thing as a low sugar, low fat granola and surprisingly I found a lot of recipes! The recipe I choose was from "Motivated Mama" on Food.com.  I picked it because it had very little sugar content and i was able to substitute half of the brown sugar it called for with stevia.

 

Making this granola was so easy, I don't believe I'll ever buy granola from the store again. It was delicious alone or with yogurt. If you like your granola a bit sweeter, I tried it with some agave nectar over yogurt and it became my healthy, cheep, tasty and filling breakfast. Try it out.  

 

Yummy, Healthy Granola

Adapted by Motivated Mama

• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Total Time: 25 mins
• Serves: 64, Yield: 1 large batch

Ingredients

• 4 cups steel cut oats 
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup Stevia 
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 6 oz bag of Tropical Trail Mix (dried pineapple, banana chip, raisins, dried papaya & coconut
• 1/2 cup of cashew or any other nut that you like
• 1/2 cup flax seed meal

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Put oats in a microwaveable bowl and cook for two minutes, stirring after one. (This warms the oats helping to melt all the ingredients together).
3. Add remaining ingredients, except the dried fruit, and stir until very well blended.
4. Pour mixture into two large oven safe dishes and bake for about 40 minutes, stirring every five. Make sure to keep your eye out so it doesn't burn. The original recipe says 20 minutes in the oven, but I found it needed more time to cook to achieve that granola crunch.
5. After it's done mix in dried fruit
6. Spread on wax paper to cool.