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DIY Cereal For A Healthy Snack

March 5, 2010   12 Comments

National Cereal Day is this Sunday. How should we celebrate? How about making your own cereal? I'm sure the people at General Mills will LOVE this idea.

DIY Cereal

Cereal is the ultimate convenience food. All you have to do is grab a box and put it in your cart. Then, just fill a bowl, add milk, and eat. How simple!

Why would you want to make your own? Well, you will save money. Cereal is expensive for what it is and we can all use more change in our pockets.

In the post on Wednesday: Candy or Breakfast? Evaluate Your Cereal, we discussed that many cereals aren't the healthiest option. The boxes lead us to believe that they are good for us - but they really aren't.

If you make your own, you will know what is in it and not have to worry about its composition. Let's evaluate the DIY cereal recipe below.

1. Is the first ingredient whole grain? Yes, it is whole oats - check!
2. Is the second ingredient sugar? No, it is nuts - check!
3. Is there four grams of fiber? No, there are 3.4 grams of fiber - which is close enough for me - check!

You will notice that this recipe is not low in calories. The oil in it drives the calorie content up, but it makes it taste SO good.

This is a trade-off that I am willing to make because it is so nutritious. Calories should be spent when food is nutritious.

This homemade cereal recipe is adapted from a great kids cookbook. Molly Katzen's, "Salad People", starts at preschool age and is a great way to introduce children to cooking.

Homemade Cereal Recipe

(8 cups)
Non-stick spray for pan
aluminum foil for pan
3 cups rolled oats (not instant)
2 cups chopped almonds
3/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey or maple syrup
1 cup raisins or any dried fruit you prefer

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a large rimmed baking tray with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Combine the oats, and nuts in a large bowl. Mix the canola oil and honey and pour onto oat mixture. Spread on baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. After it cools, add the dried fruit.

Do you make your own cereal? Please share below.

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12 Comments:

I would feel GREAT about serving this at the breakfast table! Maybe if they make it with me.......

I make a similar granola recipe all the time, and I love it! Although I haven't tried this myself yet, I've heard that it's just as good if you substitute apple sauce for part of the oil. That would certainly decrease the calories, and add some fiber. You could probably decrease the sweetener too, since apples are naturally so sweet.

I have a similar recipe for granola. I don't each my ceral with milk because of allergies. I will sometimes eat it with yogurt but still have to be careful. I usually pick cerals that are good to eat by themselves, ex. Cheerios.

This sounds AMAZING! Love it!! :)

Anyone try this with olive oil instead of the canola? I am curious if it would still taste okay, etc. I prefer to cook with the olive if I can get away with it. I have even subbed it into cakes and it has worked. I would prefer to use if possible. Let me know if any of you have tried it that way. If I try it that way, I'll let you know how it turned out.

This looks delicious! Would love to try this with grapeseed oil. Tweeted your link in honor of Nat'l Cereal Day! Follow me @BakeWithBarley.

T: I used to make granola using olive oil all the time, and it worked and tasted great.

I made a batch of this on Saturday and had it for breakfast this morning. It's incredible! I absolutely adore it!

Thank you!!

Thanks for the recipe. My kids go through Granola so fast. It will be nice to make it myself.

Lisa, have you tried coconut oil with this recipe? Many nutritionists are singing the praises of coconut oil. When I worked at the inn, we didn't use oil but we baked at 250 and stirred every 20 minutes for an hour.

I wouldn't use applesauce for this recipe. I tried that, and it made bars/cookies. When I first tried it, I used oil, but no brown sugar and it made great granola :) will be using again.

Has anyone tried cutting the oil to 1/2 cup on this? As is, the WW points are 13; if I cut the oil, it drops it to 11. (That's for a 1 cup serving)

I suppose I could just eat less of it. ;-)

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