Health Nuts

To a lot of people the words ‘health nut’ brings images of granola. I’ve never really been a granola fan, except for the large chunks of granola from Whole Foods. One of the reasons it’s so delicious is that it’s made with lots of honey. Honey is delicious and great in small quantities but too much of it is just empty calories. Granola is very high calorie because it’s made from nuts and seeds but a lot of packaged granolas add too much rolled outs making it high in carbs and sugar which means you can kiss goodbye to the health benefits of seeds and nuts.

In theory it’s a great snack, tons of nutrition even a small amount. So I made my own. Originally the plan was to make granola bars but that would have required either xantham gum, which I didn’t have, or large amounts of honey, which I was trying to avoid.

Here’s what I used:

½ cup walnut (try pecans if you want it a little sweeter)

½ cup almonds

2 tbsp. pepitas

1 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp. Sunflower seeds

2 tbsp. unsweetned, shredded coconut

2 tbsp. raw cacao nibs

1 cup rolled oats

2 tbsp. raw local honey (use an extra tablespoon if you want it on the sweeter side)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Splash of sea salt

I wish I would have thought of adding goji berries.

Mix it all up and put it on a greased baking sheet so that the honey doesn’t stick. Try using coconut oil to grease the pan, or you can just spray it. I pulsed the seeds and nuts in the food processor a few times because I don’t like large pieces of nuts in my granola, you can skip that step.

I intended to roast it for 10-15 minutes at 350 but I was feeding Annabelle her adzuki bean lunch when I put it in the oven and forgot about it until I could smell the roasting, so I’m not really sure how long it took. You’ll probably want to check your after 10 minutes and toss it.

I’m keeping mine in a Tupperware container in the fridge, my guess it’ll be good for about a week and it’ll probably be all gone by then anyways. It was delicious on top of some plain organic yogurt with fresh raspberries!