I love granola! Granola is delicious covered in oat milk, sprinkled on yogurt or simply eaten by the handful every time I go by the pantry 😃.
Granola is also completely customizable to taste and by its fat to carbohydrate ratio. Spring and summer is usually racing season, which demands more muscle glycogen, so we increase carbohydrates and reduce fat by increasing the quantity of oats and decreasing the amount of seeds and nuts in our recipe. In the winter, we decrease our carbohydrates by reducing the oats and add a little more fat with seeds and nuts.
I will post the winter granola recipe soon, but I am relishing these last few weeks of warm weather as I watch the days get dark earlier and as we squeeze in a few final races for the year. I made our last batch of summertime granola yesterday and wanted to share it! I hope you enjoy!
Summertime Granola - Vanilla Cinnamon Style
Ingredients:
4 to 5 cups whole grain rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup hemp seeds
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
3 tsp cinnamon (customize & use nutmeg or a little bit of cloves, or even pumpkin pie spice)
1 tsp salt of choice
4 scoops Vanilla Whey Protein Powder (customize & use chocolate flavor)
1 cup fresh Medjool dates, pits removed
1 cup water
1 TBS vanilla
3 TBS coconut oil
Food processor
Large cookie sheet and parchment paper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl, stir well and set aside.
In a saucepan, place dates and cover with 1 cup water. Simmer for about five minutes, until the dates are nice and soft.
Pour the dates AND the water into your food processor.
Add vanilla and coconut oil. Process until smooth and creamy. It will be thick. (Take a taste, it is like candy, yum!)
Pour the date mixture into the large bowl of dry ingredients. Stir well until the
date mixture is completely incorporated into your dry ingredients. It will take a few minutes but keep stirring until the oat mixture is moist with date mixture.
Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Spread granola evenly onto the parchment paper.
Place in oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove granola and with a wide spatula, stir or turn the granola over, return to oven, bake 10 to 12 more minutes.
Repeat until the granola is nice and toasted brown. Be careful not to burn. You may need to decrease the cooking time in between stirrings if it is getting close to brown. Between 45 minutes to an hour. Remove from oven when you have your desired crunchiness! We like ours extra crunchy so I will bake it until it is dark brown.
Set granola aside and let it finish drying and cooling for about an hour.
Store in an airtight container and enjoy!
We are Coach Al and Trish. Our goal is to share good nutrition and help support healthy lifestyles while keeping it real and simple because we all have busy lives. Nothing fancy, just real food for real life and cycling encouragement for a balanced, healthy lifestyle. Please leave a comment or question! Happy eating and cycling!