Scrumptious Breakfast Granola

I look forward to this guilt-free breakfast every morning; it's one of my favourite discoveries!!

Are you ready to eat the table by 11 o'clock every morning after having a bowl of cereal or toast? Are you bored of the bland taste of healthy breakfasts by Wednesday? I was, so I went on a hunt in the shops for a healthy, filling and tasty alternative for my breakfast. Did I find one?? Somewhat unsurprisingly... no!

I quite fancied having fruit and yogurt, but that still left me wishing my pen was edible about 2 hours into the working day, and granola in the stores is SO bad for you. So, after searching far and wide for a homemade granola recipe that ticked all the boxes and several failed experiments, I came up with this.

TIP: Try adding some small pieces of fruit to the granola mix, to make different varieties of granola. Everyone likes different things in our house, so extras get added in the bowl in the morning. 

You might want to play around with the quantities of each ingredient for your taste - you can't really go wrong. But here's what I do.

Ingredients:
Half a pint of vegetable oil, or groundnut oil
50g unsalted butter
50g brown sugar
25g caster sugar
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
120ml maple syrup
600g porridge oats (or enough to absorb all liquid)

TIP: If you like your granola in lumps, substitute some of the oil for butter. If you like the oats more separated, substitute some of the butter for oil.

Serving: around 15 servings

Method: 

1) Put all ingredients except the oats in a large pan, and place over a low heat until butter has melted and sugar starts to dissolve (3-4 minutes) TIP: don't let the mixture boil or the sugar will burn - yuck.

2) Take off heat and add the porridge oats - add enough to absorb all liquid so that each oat is just about covered. My preference is for it to be fairly dry, but still stick together in lumps when pressed.

3) Once covered, spread out onto a tray (no need for it to be non-stick) and bake in the oven at 160degrees (140degrees fan) for 1 - 1.5 hours, depending on how crunchy you like it. And enjoy the gorgeous smell that's about to waft around your house. Lovely. 

Voila - one zero effort, guilt-free, tasty breakfast. Put in a Kilner jar for a truly country feel :)

Time Saver: Possibly my favourite thing about this breakfast is that I can make a whole weeks worth on a Sunday night without it interfering with my evening. On a Sunday night I make a big batch, which takes around 5 minutes to put together then I leave it in the oven for just over an hour whilst I get ready for bed, turn the oven off before I go to bed and leave the granola in overnight. Then I can look forward to a weeks worth of prepared breakfasts in the morning, with barely any effort.

TIP: Admittedly, none of the ingredients in this recipe are good for you, BUT you eat so little at a time, it really isn't bad at all. I eat this every morning, it keeps me going until lunch, I look forward to eating it, AND I've very successfully lost weight whilst eating it. Have it with low-fat yogurt and some fruit and you too can have tasty, guilt-free breakfasts :) Enjoy, and let me know if it ticks all of your breakfast boxes!