Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Easy Not-Too-Sweet Granola


It's still absolutely freezing in DC, which generally calls for hot breakfasts: oatmeal, cinnamon raisin bagels toasted with cream cheese, those reduced-fat turkey bacon sandwiches from Starbucks... Unfortunately, though, most of my favorite hot breakfast options start the day off on a really heavy note.  Even Weight Watchers-friendly oatmeal feels too dense for right now.  I want light!  I want fresh!  I want spring!

Ah, there's the crux of it - I want spring.  I want weather that doesn't demand comfort food.  And that, at the moment, seems impossibly far away.

So let's fake it, shall we?  Cook light and the warm weather shall come.  And therefore I give you my new (cobbled together from a few different recipes around the web using things I already had in the house) granola.  Sprinkled over half a cup of fat-free Greek yogurt with a sliced banana, half a cup of this delicately sweet and perfectly crunchy granola brings us to a 6 PlusPoint breakfast and, hopefully, spring.

Apple Sauce Granola
serves 12

2c Cheerios
3c quick oats
6 tbs honey
1/2 tbs vegetable oil
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
113g unsweetened apple sauce

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spread the Cheerios and quick oats out on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes, tossing once halfway through.

Meanwhile, mix all the other ingredients together in a medium bowl.  When the grains come out of the oven, pour them into the bowl and combine well.  Spread the granola evenly across the baking sheet, trying to keep as many clumps together as possible and bake again for 15 minutes, tossing once again and checking regularly in the last 5 minutes.  You want the granola to get as brown as possible without burning.  Remove from the oven, let cool, and enjoy as preferred!




7 comments:

  1. This looks good! I'm also impressed that the recipe has so little processed sugar in it- I tip my hat to you, Betsy (:

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  2. I love me some good sugary granola - which is weird because I hate sugary cereal - but this is sweet enough as is!

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  3. so easy to make! why didn't I realize that before?

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