Eating a heart healthy, reduced sodium, REAL food diet can be really beneficial for your health but it can also be SO very hard on your wallet!
I’ve been trying my best to find opportunities to feed my family for less. One great discovery – Granola. Why on earth did I ever buy granola? It is so very easy to make plus I can make a conscious effort to reduce the sugar and sodium as well as boosting things that are good for our heart such as nuts (protein), flax and chia seeds (high in omegas) and pumpkin seeds (Huge source of magnesium)!
Possibly the biggest upside to Granola is that you just throw everything on a sheet pan and throw it in the oven – it couldn’t be much simpler than that.
Makes: 1 liter Mason Jar full
Prep time: 3-5 minutes
Cook time: 15-20 minutes
Total time: 18-25 minutes
Ingredients
3 Cups Oats (doesn’t matter what kind – quick, rolled, old fashioned, etc – the only thing this changes is your cooking time)
1 cup Seeds of choice I like to use a combination of sunflower, pumpkin, chia, and flax seeds
1/2 cup Nuts of choice I use mostly almonds (slivered for easy mixing and eating) but walnuts would be delicious. I just don’t always have them on hand.
1/4 cup Fruit In this batch I used dried cranberries and raisins but really any dehydrated fruit would work
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup coconut flakes or desicated coconut – unsweetened
1 tsp honey
1 Tbs coconut oil, margerine, or no-salt butter
Instructions
Combine everything and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Mix everything around and cook for another 10 minutes until everything is toasted. Let cool and store!
This granola is full of magnesium, omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, monounsaturated fat, fiber, protein, antioxidants (dried cranberries) and iron! It is also low in saturated fat, has 0 trans fat and carries with it a measly 9 grams of sugar for the whole lot of it!
Sprinkle granola on yogurt, smoothie bowls, toast with nut butter or just grab a handful!
Our Transplanted Life 