Super quick granola

Happy Friday Everyone!

This week I whipped up a quick batch of granola and thought I'd share it with you. Granola can be a great snack between meals or even breakfast. You could even sprinkle a little granola on top of a salad for some crunch! Another great thing about granola is that you really don't have to stick to a specific recipe, I just threw together a few things I had on hand.

For this recipe I used a bag of nuts/dried fruit mix (sunflower seeds, pecans, almonds, raisins, dried apricots) and used very little sweetener. I also decided to through in some multigrain cheerios, those little round guys are delish!

Start by preheating your oven to 350F. You'll only need 1 bowl and 1 fork to get this recipe going!

Whisk together 1 egg, 2 tbsp of honey, 1 tsp almond extract, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract together. Add 1 cup of oats and 1 cup of multigrain cheerios to the mix. Let the egg mixture lightly coat the oats/cheerios. The oats will start to clump together, that's fine! Spray a baking sheet with non stick spray and spread out the mix. It'll look like this before you pop it in the oven.

While the oats/cheerios are baking away for about 20-30 minutes (you'll toss them half way through). Put 3/4-1 cup of the dried fruit/nut in a tupperware, then wait! Once the oats/cheerios are done and cooled add them to the nuts and shake, shake, shake!

It's as simple as that! Feel free to use dried apples, cranberries, hazelnuts, whatever you have on hand. You can even wish up some peanut butter into the wet ingredients to give it extra flavor and add some more protien to the mix. This granola is high in fiber and low in added sugar. Foods high in fiber help keep us full longer, they also help control our blood sugars over a longer period of time, that's a good thing! The nuts provided protein and heart healthy fats to the mix. This is lower calorie granola than most you'll find at the grocery store because it doesn't have excess sugar added for sweetness and it also wasn't roasted with oil. I like to eat it plain or over greek yogurt, but you can get creative!