Homemade Granola Recipe (using a Slow-Cooker!)
This homemade granola recipe can make your dreams come true! Perfectly crunchy, toasty, sweet, and delicious, granola is king of quick breakfasts! Next time you’re tempted by that “healthy” box of granola, rethink the refined sugar, preservatives, and high price! This healthy granola recipe is easy to recreate at home, all you need is 9 ingredients and a slow-cooker!
A Quick and Healthy Breakfast is Key!
First of all, understand that I am not a morning person. It takes two alarms just to get me out of bed! At this rate, if I can’t throw something together to eat before work; it isn’t happening.
This happens far too often, leaving me starving at work. This causes me to regularly become quite hangry. (not a good thing to be when you work in customer service..)
I needed a solution. Something I could:
- “Mass-produce” in my kitchen,
- Keep huge supplies of, and
- (Most importantly!) throw together in a hurry.
A Homemade Granola Recipe was the way to go!
Without a doubt, granola is one of the easiest breakfasts ever. I love to eat it in parfaits, nice cream, or even plain in some non-dairy milk! The possibilities with granola are endless!
( –Get more Nice Cream recipes here!– )
Furthermore, there are countless homemade granola recipe flavor combinations! The base for granola is the same everywhere, so have fun with your flavor additions! Everyone seems so keen on using coconut flakes, but I can’t stand coconut… so that’s out!
Coconut oil, on the other hand, has a light flavor and is almost undetectable (especially in this recipe).
If you would like, swap it out for a different vegetable oil for a slightly different flavor.
Antioxidant-Rich Berry Cacao Slow Cooker Granola Recipe
Since coconut flakes were out of the question, I brainstormed over which flavors I wanted. I decided upon:
- Organic dried Blueberries
- Dried Black Elderberries
- Raw, organic Cacao
- Hemp Seeds
- Roasted Cashew Pieces
Aside from the mix-ins being extremely high in antioxidants and flavor, they were selected for other specific reasons.
- Elderberry has
- Loads of Vitamin C,
- Quercetin to fight off seasonal inflammation, and
- Works better than prescriptions at fighting Swine Flu
- Cacao has
- Four times the antioxidant power of regular dark chocolate (a whopping 20 times more than blueberries!)
- Also been shown to balance hormonal swings, mood, and energy levels.
- Hemp Seeds are
- extremely high in Omega-3 fatty acids (who needs fish oil!?),
- Magnesium, and
- Vitamin A.
This means you don’t have to feel guilty about your morning bowl of granola! It’s helping you kick free-radicals in the ass with a heaping dose of antioxidant power.
I hate the idea of taking something healthy and pouring pounds of refined sugar into it “for taste”. Therefore, I went for a lightly-sweetened flavor with pure Maple Syrup. If you want a sweeter granola, add a bit of brown sugar to taste.
Homemade Granola Recipe (using a Slow-Cooker!)
Ingredients
Granola Base
- 5 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup hemp seeds
- 1/2 cup cashews heaping scoop raw or roasted
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional Mix-Ins
- 1 cup freeze-dried blueberries
- 1/4 cup dried elderberries
- 1/4 cup raw cacao
Instructions
- Grease the crock-pot with coconut oil. Get every nook and cranny!
- Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl (save the optional mix-ins for the very end!)
- Whisk the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl
- Combine wet and dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly
- Pour into slow-cooker, turn on high
- Cover with lid, leaving 1/4 inch ajar to let excess steam escape
- Stir every 30 minutes, being sure to scrape the bottom and corners
- After about 2 hours, the oats should smell slightly “nutty” and will have absorbed most of the moisture
- Turn off the slow-cooker, and incorporate any mix-ins now. Have fun with it!
- Spread mixture evenly across large (rimmed) baking sheet, allowing granola to cool completely. This will take another hour or so
- Transfer to air-tight container and keep at room temperature for 2-3 weeks.
Notes
What’re you waiting for!? Get in your kitchen, and get cooking!
