At our house, we love our cereal, especially on nights when nobody feels like eating leftovers another night, I don’t feel like cooking, or I can’t think of something quick to fix and everybody’s hungry and nobody wants to wait to eat. Being distanced from town and out of store-bought cereal, sometimes this recipe comes in handy.
I try to limit how much processed cereal I eat and encourage my family to do the same, which works some of the time if I have a batch of homemade granola made. It’s one of the ways I get my cereal fix and I know all of the ingredients that are in it. Over the years I’ve used my mom’ s recipe as a base and added and tweaked the ingredients or combined her recipe with other recipes. The recipe I use makes a good size batch but that doesn’t necessarily mean it lasts a long time. It will outlast a few boxes of store-bought cereal though. Here is my recipe with lots of options included.
Start with the basics:
8 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
1 c. cut, slivered, or chopped almonds. I’ve used blanched or salted (whatever you have available will work but I generally chop whole almonds)
1 c. unsweetened coconut flakes (I prefer the wide flakes but use whatever you can find available
1/4 c. raw sesame seeds
1/3 c. salted sunflower kernels
1 c. soy flour (health food stores carry it but I’ve also seen it in grocery stores or order online. Bob’s Red Mill brand is good) *Note* I seldom have soy flour on hand, so I either substitute 1/2 c. whole wheat flour, ground flax, a mixture of both, or I omit completely.
1 c. powdered milk
1 c. wheat germ
Alternative ingredients I have included that I love to add:
1 c. salted green pumpkin seeds
1 c. each dried fruits: dried cherries, blueberries, raisins, golden raisins, currants, or dried chopped mango or apricots
1-3 c. organic variety of bran cereal or 7 whole grain flakes cereal (I used Kashi brand)–the only way I could get it used up LOL)
1 c. other raw nuts like pecans or walnuts
1 T. cinnamon
In a separate bowl, combine until smooth:
1 c. safflower oil (again, this is not a product I ever have on hand, so I use Canola oil)
1 c. honey (I use locally harvested whenever possible. South Dakota is the second largest producer of honey, so I am very fortunate that local honey is fairly easy to obtain).
Mix in with dry ingredients to coat. Spread into 2 of the largest pans you have. I use an extra large lasagna pan and a 9×13 pan or jelly roll pan (but I prefer pans with deeper sides so I don’t spill any during stirring phase). Bake at 300°, stirring every 15 minutes for a total of 45 minutes or until golden brown. Watch closely–burns easily. Cool, then store in an airtight container.
I like the crunchy texture on fruit or yogurt, ice cream, or as a snack like eating dry store-bought cereal.
Give it a shot and see what you think!
Leave a Reply