Saturday, March 3, 2012

Goodwin Granola


 My family LOVES this granola. They cannot get enough of it. It’s SO much cheaper and SO much healthier than even the healthiest of store-bought breakfast cereals. Go ahead – try and find a cereal in the store that your kids will eat that doesn’t have sugar added to it. (And news flash: evaporated cane juice is still sugar…just a little less refined than normal sugar.) Today I tried omitting the chocolate chips (to make it completely sugar-free) and added two tablespoons of vanilla protein powder to make it extra filling...and it was delicious! (If you don't have or use protein powder at your house, not to worry...it's just as fabulous without.)

What I have found is that you get a more crunchy granola when you use chunky peanut butter, and I would imagine the same would go for chunky almond (or other nut) butter. When I use creamy almond butter (which I actually prefer) it has a sweeter taste, but it's not quite as crunchy. You can also add any other dried fruit of choice in place of the raisins if you wish...you might want to wait until the granola is cooked and then add the fruit at the end. Make it how you want it and have fun with it (and try to resist...er...snacking on it!).



Goodwin Granola
Gluten-free, casein-free, egg-free, can be sugar-free and nut-free, yeast-free, vegan

2 cups GF old-fashioned oats
¼ cup flaxseed
¼ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup raisins
¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
¼ cup sliced or chopped almonds (optional)
¼ cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips (optional)
½ cup almond butter (or other nut/seed butter of choice)
½ cup agave
5 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon GF vanilla extract
                                                                                                                                                                              
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Heat almond butter, agave, and coconut oil together in a saucepan on low heat, just until melted and combined. Stir in the vanilla and remove from heat. Pour over granola mixture and spread onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes. The granola will get more dry and crispy as it cools. Break it up into smaller chunks and store in an airtight container. I think it will keep up to a couple of weeks, but since it always gets eaten within a couple of days at our house, I wouldn’t know!
                     

6 comments:

  1. Would love to 'pin' this on www.pinterest.com!

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    1. Go for it, Sue! Pinterest has a button you can install on your toolbar so that anytime you are websurfing, you can just click "Pin it" and pin from my site. I have't figured out how to have a Pinterest button on this little ol' blog yet, so until I do, that's the way to pin this on Pinterest! I've already pinned this to my own pinterest boards, if you'd like to check them out, I'm on Pinterest as Courtney Goodwin. :)

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  2. Made it and loved it! I've always wanted to make homemade granola but couldn't find a recipe without sugar, etc. Tks Courtney!

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  3. I love that it's called Goodwin granola!!!

    -Alexi

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  4. Okay! I'm putting this together today for the week ahead.

    How many servings does this make? Roughly?

    Kasey

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    1. Kasey, that's a tough question because does taking a handful of it every time you walk past the pan as it cools count as a serving? (I hope not, but let's face it, it probably does.) I will tell you this: this recipe makes enough to cover one baking sheet pan in a single layer. I always double this recipe and make two baking sheets worth, because it goes so fast. One pan is probably (guessing here) 6 servings? As a side note - when I made this on our vacation, I added craisins and threw in probably twice the coconut and almonds that the recipe called for. I also made it with peanut butter instead of almond butter, and I don't ever make it with chocolate chips anymore. Hope this helps! Let me know how it turns out!

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Thank you SO much for your comment! Have a fabulous day! :-)