Healthy Crockpot Granola

Every bag of granola I pick up in the store is loaded with sugar. And it seemed like the homemade variety burned pretty easily if you didn’t hover over the oven. Until I rediscovered the crockpot!

Turns out that my friendly crockpot has more to offer than soups, stews, and sunday dinners!

The nice thing about cooking granola in the crockpot is that its a lot harder to burn, and it makes the house smell fantastic.

I’ve developed this base recipe to which you can add whatever you want. The base has no trans fat, is low in sugar, and is loaded with whole grain goodness and nutty protein.

Base Recipe:

5 cups rolled oats

1 cup nuts (I like slivered almonds in mine)

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/8 cup cinnamon (or more if your taste buds desire)

Throw it all in the crockpot and cook on low for a few hours, maybe 3 or 4. It’ll start to toast up. Try to stir every 30 min to an hour. I like to set the oven alarm to remind me. The almonds are the only part that might be prone to burning, so sometimes I wait to add them until an hour before the end. The granola crisps up a lot after as it cools, so don’t try to cook it until it’s crunchy. Just let it go a few hours and then let it cool. It’ll keep for at least two weeks in a sealed container. But it probably won’t last that long! If you like raisens, add a cup or so after it’s done cooking. Dried fruit might shorten the shelf life, however, so you might want to add it into your bowl right before eating.

Variations: other nuts, other dried fruits, shredded coconut, wheat germ, flax seed, chia seed, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc. For the fruity moist stuff, add it at the the end. For the nuts and seeds, add them earlier on.

We love to eat our granola in parfait form: I use plain Fage Greek Yogurt sweetened with my homemade fruit jellies, or honey. Yumm!