Do you love granola, but hate paying the high prices for a little bag at the store? Make your own granola, it’s easy and way less expensive! This homemade granola recipe gets most of it’s protein from nuts and oats. I love a little granola on a bowl of plain Greek yogurt with some honey and fresh berries. It’s one of the easiest and healthiest breakfasts you can have and takes no time to put together. Give this high-protein granola a try and I’m sure you will not be disappointed.
Why you should start making your own
I’ll be honest, I only started making my own granola this past year. We took a trip to California to see family and my brother in law prepared and shared his sister in-law’s granola recipe while we were visiting. I was sold from that day forward! This recipe is adapted from that one we tried and loved. You could make this on the weekend with 10-15 mins hands-on time and 30 minutes of baking, that’s it.
The Cost of Store-Bought
Once I saw how easy it was to make homemade granola I thought about how much money I could save! Now that grocery prices have inflated so much and I’m seeing more and more “shrinkflation” (packages shrinking in size while prices remain the same making you pay more per unit), I’ve been making more homemade granola! It’s crazy how much you can spend now on a small bag of granola. You’ll easily spend $5 for only about 11oz./ 1.375 cups of granola! This recipe makes 9 cups of granola with the bulk of it being made from old fashioned oats which is really inexpensive. With current prices, you can buy a little over 5 cups of oats at Aldi’s for $4. It’s a win-win making your own!
How to make homemade granola
Making granola is easy enough for anyone to handle. If you know how to work your oven, you can make granola. Start out adding your dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl: old-fashioned rolled oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, protein powder, cinnamon, ground ginger and sea salt. Give it all a stir to combine and then add the wet ingredients; maple syrup and coconut oil. Stir it well to make sure you’ve moistened all of the dry parts. Then add the granola mixture to 2 large baking sheet lined with parchment paper and spread it out in a nice even layer; I’d say about 1/4-1/2 inch thick to allow the mixture to roast well.
Is Granola Healthy?
Granola is as healthy as you make it. Making your own you always have more control as to what goes into it which definitely makes it healthier. This granola has a base of old-fashioned rolled oats which are unprocessed and high in fiber and protein. Some store-bought granola, especially the cheap ones have high fructose corn syrup which I try to avoid at all costs. It’s hard to avoid all artificial sweeteners, but this one is usually obvious.
Can you eat this granola as cereal?
Absolutely! This granola is perfect for yogurt, but it’s not clumpy like some store-bought granola so it’s great to enjoy a small bowl with your favorite milk as well. It’ll be quite filling so you won’t need a lot to feel satisfied. If you’re like my husband though, you won’t need a bowl of milk, just pour it right into your hands and enjoy. Ha!
Is granola high in protein?
Protein in this granola comes from rolled oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds and protein powder. Rolled oats are a great source of fiber and protein. I opted for almonds in this recipe because they are one the highest in protein out of nuts. Once roasted, I can hide them from my kids. Peanuts are high in protein, but my kids are aren’t fans and I can’t hide the taste of them as well. Here’s a great article from Healthline about 8 high-protein nuts to add to your diet if you want to learn more about how much protein is in each type of nut. I add sunflower and ground flax seeds as well. Here’s an article giving run downs on seeds and grams of protein in each of the seed types in, The Beet’s The 6 Seeds with the most protein if you want to learn more.
High Protein Granola Ingredients
- Old-fashioned Rolled Oats– do not use quick cook oats, they’ve been processed
- Almonds– use raw almonds, not roasted. You will be roasting them yourself in this recipe. If you can find raw sliced almonds, that’s even better, but sometimes you pay a lot more for someone else to do the work for you.
- Sunflower kernels– The kernels are the “meat” of the sunflower seeds and they are actually high in protein. I love these because they are also very small and I can hide them from my picky “taste testers,” i.e. the kids.
- Ground flax seeds– aka flaxseed meal. Flax seeds are very high in fiber besides protein so they’re a double whammy health-wise.
- Protein powder– I like to use vanilla protein powder since it has the least obtrusive flavor out of protein powders, but you can of course switch to another flavor or unflavored if you like. Chocolate would be great too!
- Cinnamon– Cinnamon is heavy in this recipe. It’s good for you and tastes great here.
- Ginger– I go heavy on the ground ginger here because I think it’s so good that way, you can tone it down if you want.
- Salt– I use fine sea salt for this recipe, but if you use regular table salt, use a tad less.
- Vanilla extract– Optional, but a delicious addition!
- Maple syrup– you can substitute some of the maple syrup with honey which is great. I’m just going for a Vegan version of granola for this recipe. You can also opt for a little brown sugar in place of some maple syrup if you like as well since it is less expensive.
- Coconut oil– I like coconut oil for this, but you can absolutely use sunflower oil or any other oil you prefer.
- Cranberries– I like cranberries for this recipe, but you can substitute or add any other dried fruit you prefer. Raisins or dates are great for this as well. If you’re looking for lower sugar, I recommend dried cranberries that are unsweetened, but those can be hard to find.
Granola Flavor Combinations
Fall Vibes Granola:
Replace Cinnamon with Pumpkin Pie Spice and replace the almonds with pecans.
Coconut Chocolate Granola:
Replace vanilla protein powder with chocolate. After baking, add chopped up dark chocolate chunks with unsweetened coconut flakes.
Optional Granola Add-Ons
- Hemp seeds
- Dark Chocolate Chips– well, because it’s chocolate and everyone loves a little of that sweet chocolate flavor. Good quality dark chocolate chips would be recommended.
- Chia seeds– chia seeds are so good for your gut and blend in well without much flavor.
- Coconut Flakes– some people are not fans of coconut, but I love it, so I’m happy to add it on. Unsweetened is preferred if you don’t want to add sugar.
- Dates– chopped up dates would be delicious and a great addition with natural sweetness.
- Pumpkin seeds– I’m not the biggest fan of pumpkin seeds always, but for those who like them, they do have great benefits like, you guessed, it, protein!
- Nut butter– any sort of nut butter you like, for instance, cashew butter, almond butter or good old fashioned peanut butter. This could make your granola clumpier if you like it that way.
- Seed butter– sesame seed or sunflower seed butter.
- Real Honey– I love honey, my sister’s a beekeeper so I can definitely appreciate honey. In this recipe I just try to go for the deep rich, subtle sweetness of maple syrup.
- Agave Syrup– this is also a vegan option you could use in place of maple syrup if you prefer. It should
You might enjoy these recipes as well!
Homemade High Protein Granola (Cereal with Nuts)
Ingredients
- 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats not quick oats
- 1 1/2 cups almonds coarsely chopped
- 1 cup sunflower seeds
- 3/4 cup protein powder
- 1/2 cup ground flax seed meal
- 1/4 cup cinnamon
- 1/2 Tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract optional
- 3/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 1/2 Tbsp coconut oil
- 3/4 -1 cup dried cranberries- DO NOT BAKE can sub. for raisins or chopped dates
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Mix together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl: oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, ginger, protein powder and salt. Stir well to combine, coating everything.
- Add maple syrup, vanilla extract & coconut oil and stir until all of the mixture looks wet.
- Transfer mixture to 2 large baking sheets, lined with parchment paper . If not using parchment paper, just spray the sheet pans with some cooking oil.
- I like to pack down the mixture to about 1/4-1/2."Â This allows the mixture to roast evenly and gives the bottom a little crisp.Â
- Roast for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. (After you stir it, make sure it's all evenly dispersed.Â
- Once the granola is done baking, remove from the oven and add the dried fruit, in this case, cranberries and stir it up again. Allow to cool completely to room temperature and then store in an airtight container.
I’ve been using this recipe for my granola. I do add a stick of butter instead of coconut oil. I did not mix it every 10 minutes one time and it did not turn out good. So be sure to stir every 10 minutes like she said.
Awesome! Glad you like it. I’m sure butter is great too! Butter makes everything good! Thanks for the comment on the stirring as well.