Date Sweetened Granola


I love granola. It's probably one of my biggest weaknesses. As such, I knew I needed to create my own, delicious, nutritious, unique granola. I also wanted to make it as IBS safe as possible by not using a lot of oil and keeping the sugar as low as possible. The dates add a light sweetness that is perfect! 

This granola is also free of almost all common allergies: soy, nut, sugar, dairy, coconut, egg, and low fat. It also has easy options for gluten free.

This may be one of the best recipes I've made yet!

It goes great on yogurt, fruit, and oatmeal. Or just by itself! 



I don't know about anyone else, but I have a habit of eating handfuls and handfuls when it comes out of the oven and for the next several days. In order to change that I came up with this nifty little trick: put 1/4-1/3 cup of granola into individual baggies or containers. Then have just one bag each day. It really helps if you don't have any self-control like myself :) 



Date Sweetened Granola
Soy free*Coconut free*Nut free*sugar free*low fat*dairy free*egg free

Ingredients:
            4 cups rolled oats (not instant)
            2 cups, lightly packed, cooked couscous (3/4 cup uncooked)
            5 corn or rice crackers
            ¼ cup flax seeds (optional)
            1 ½ Tbsp. cinnamon
            2 dashes salt
            1 cup + 2 Tbsp. date puree
            3 Tbsp. olive oil
            dash vanilla
            1 cup dried fruit (I used raisins + craisins)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350.

Puree the dates- place unpitted dates in a blender. Put enough water in so that the water reaches the top of the dates. Blend until smooth.

Cook the couscous- boil ¾ cup water. Add ¾ cup couscous and stir until water is completely absorbed and couscous is cooked. Remove from heat and let cool.

When the couscous is cooled, mix the oats and couscous together in a large mixing bowl. Then crumble the corn or rice crackers and mix (I like mine to be bigger chunks). Stir the flax seeds in.
Mix in the cinnamon and salt.

Add all of the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and stir until well combined. If the mixture still has loose oats, etc. add more date puree in little by little.

Stir the dried fruit in.

Lightly spray a cooking sheet with cooking spray, or cover the pan with foil and spread the granola mixture on the pan.

Bake until crispy and golden, stirring every 5-10 minutes. (I think mine baked for 30-40 min.)

*Let cool completely before placing in a container or bag. Even then you might want to leave the bag open overnight to stay crispy.
*Substitutions:
            couscous- quinoa, millet
            crackers-just omit altogether
            flax seeds-chia seeds or just omit
            date puree- prune puree, honey, molasses
            olive oil-any type of oil





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