Inexpensive Ready to Eat Cereal: Homemade Muesli and Granola
Store bought ready to eat Muesli or Granola can run you $4-5 per small box! Most kids’ dry cereals are too low in calories, protein and fiber to be a healthy meal. You can make your own healthy and filling cereal for far less $$.
These are great recipes to make with your kids! Even a preschooler can dump ingredients into a bowl and stir.
Homemade muesli and granola are high in fiber, good sources of protein, and low in added sugar (you add no sugar to muesli). The recipe below adds about 3/4 Tbsp of the honey and sugar mixture for each 1/2 cup serving of the granola (9 grams of sugar); you can decrease this, or cut it out altogether for a lower sugar granola.
Muesli is an especially good cereal for a person with diabetes, because it is very high in fiber and has no added sugar. Both cereals have heart healthy fats from the nuts and seeds; the oil in the granola is a heart healthy fat.
Muesli is made from uncooked rolled oats or other grain + dried fruit + nuts and/or seeds.
Use whatever you like. For the recipe below, I used rolled oats, dried cherries, chopped dried dates, walnuts sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. Make this gluten free by using gluten free oats.
- 2 cups oats, 1/2 cup dried cherries,
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts,
- 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds and
- 1/3 cup sunflower seeds.
- Mix together and voila, you have Muesli.
- Store in an airtight container. If you don’t think you’ll use it all in a couple months, store in refrigerator or freezer. (Nuts can become rancid if they are at room temp for a long time.)
- Use it as a topper for yogurt, add milk for cold cereal or cook it as a hot cereal (1 cup water to 1/2 cup Muesli; bring to a boil, add a little salt and cook for about 5 minutes).
Granola can be made with the same ingredients as Muesli
Just add oil and sweetener and bake until crispy
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Start with 1 1/2 – 2 cups Muesli in a large mixing bowl.
- Melt together 2 tbsp oil (canola, grapeseed, avocado, walnut or other nut oil) + 2 Tbsp honey + 1 Tbsp brown sugar. (You can melt it in a pan on the stove, or in a small container in your microwave).
- Pour the oil, honey, sugar mixture over the Muesli and mix well.
- Spread on a heavy, shallow baking pan. Line the pan with a silicone baking mat (a silpat) or parchment paper to prevent sticking.
- Bake for about 15 minutes. Stir mixture every 5 minutes while baking. This is REALLY IMPORTANT! It is really easy to overcook and end up with charred dried fruit!
