I’ll be honest, except for the rolled oats, this is a great mixture of nice fiber-rich and health-fat ingredients. The rolled oats re the only “processed” part of this granola. And you can substitute whole oats if you prefer, but I have yet to make it turn out well. The reason I don’t mind the rolled oats part is that when you eat this together with all the other fiber-ful ingredients (and there are a lot), you’re getting the fiber that will help prevent insulin spikes with the more processed rolled oats.
Why don’t I use quinoa in these kind of recipes? Unless you soak and pressure cook quinoa, it will have toxins that are irritants to the gut lining. So just randomly adding them to everything (as so many “health” nuts do) can be a constant source of digestive stress that I don’t want my clients to experience.
INGREDIENTS
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup sliced almonds
- ¾ cup pumpkin seeds
- ¾ cup sunflower seeds
- ½ cup flax seeds
- ¾ cup honey
- 1 fresh vanilla pod
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- sea salt or Himalayan salt
METHOD
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Warm up honey in pan.
- Scrape vanilla into honey, bring to a soft boil.
- Mix the oats + seeds + almonds well in a nice big bowl.
- Slowly drizzle honey + mix well by slowly churning everything to completely coat.
- Spread on baking sheet + lightly sprinkle with salt.
- Bake 25 – 30 min, halfway through turn the mixture so everything is evenly baked.
- Add the berries + store in a tall glass container.
