Skip to main content

Healthier Pumpkin Granola

By

Who doesn’t love a good granola?  That sweet crunchy goodness full of healthy ingredients and flavor.  If you’ve taken a second to read the labels on most store bought granolas, you will find they are loaded with refined sugars and ingredients. But wait! Granola is so easy to make yourself.  Once you try it you’ll never go back.  You can customize it any way you like and take comfort in knowing exactly what is in it.  

I am a lover of all things pumpkin, not so much the weather that comes with pumpkin season, but definitely the foods and flavors.  I wanted to make a pumpkin granola for our breakfasts and snacks for the week but couldn’t find quite the right recipe, so I adapted an old one from Budget Bytes to create this gem.  Enjoy!

Healthier Pumpkin Granola


Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

- 1 small can pumpkin puree
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 5 cups old fashioned oats
- ½ cup dried lentils
- ½ cup buckwheat groats
- ½ cup quinoa
- ¼ cup raw unsalted pumpkin seeds
- ¼ cup raw unsalted sunflower seeds
- ½ cup dried cranberries

Instructions:


  1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a small saucepan, cook dried lentils in 1 cup of water.  Let cool.
  2. In a small bowl combine the pumpkin, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla and cinnamon. Stir until combined. 
  3. In a large bowl, combine the dry oats, quinoa, buckwheat groats, cooked lentils, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds.  Pour the pumpkin mixture on the dry ingredients and stir very well until the dry ingredients are evenly coated with pumpkin. 
  4. Line 1 or 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and spread oats evenly on them.  Bake the oats in the preheated oven for 45-60 minutes, or until they are mostly dry. Stir the oats once at 30 minutes, and again at 45 minutes. The amount of time needed to bake the granola will depend on how thick they are on the baking sheet.  
  5. Once the oats are finished cooking, add dried cranberries, stir and then press granola into pan.  Leave granola in the pan to cool. Once cool, store in an air-tight container for up to a week.
  6. Enjoy over yogurt, as an oatmeal or smoothie bowl topping, over icecream, with a splash of milk or on it’s own as a nice treat. 



Fun ways to customize your granola:

1.    Use pumpkin Pie Spice instead of cinnamon.
2.    Add chopped pecans or other nuts. 
3.    Add more maple syrup for a sweeter granola or use honey instead.  
4.    Omit anything you don’t like. 
5.    Add anything you think would make it amazing!




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pelvic Health Series: Our journey to regaining strength, alignment and function Kellie - part 2

By
Hello! I am starting this post with a huge thank you!! Jamie and I are incredibly humbled by, and grateful for the beautiful messages we have received since opening up about our journeys through this pelvic health blog series. Amongst your notes, we have found joy in knowing that you are becoming more aware of the changes occurring within your body. Many of you have even sought assessment because of our journey and we could not be more proud of you for doing so. Truly! If you have not read our previous posts in the series, please check out Jamie’s first and second installments as we as my first that precedes this post! Also, I wanted to remind all of you that there are so many incredible women’s health physiotherapists in Edmonton and surrounding area. Jamie and I are both seeing Jillian Palmer, from Bounce Back Physical Therapy , because we had started to develop a professional relationship with her through referring clients. We appreciated her approach, and her proximity ...
2 comments
Read more

5 Healthy Tips for the Holidays!!

By
During one of my last boot camps of 2010 I asked each of my participants to come up with a plan to keep up with their hard work over the holidays. We do not want to ruin your hard-earned results during Christmas, however, this does not mean that you cannot still enjoy some holiday favorites! Here are some tips and tricks to stay fit and not feel any food-guilt over the holidays: 5) Bring a side dish of your own! Offer to your host that you bring a side dish to accompany their meal. Not only are you helping them out with less to cook, but you are offering your family and friends a delicious and nutritious recipe! 4) Use a smaller plate. Sometimes, we do not have choice of what will be served, and we do not have a way to bring our own healthy recipe. By choosing to use a smaller plate, you will eat less and still enjoy all of the delicious food provided for you! 3) Sample, do not indulge. Around the holidays, we are surrounded by cookies, cakes, and all types of delicious treats. So, ins...
1 comment
Read more

Pelvic Health Series: Our journey to regaining strength, alignment, & function Kellie - part 3

By
This has been a humbling journey for me. Not only seeing a physiotherapist for assessment and treatment, but also journaling about my journey through this blog series. Writing about my experience has allowed me to reflect and dig deeper into learning about my own body. My last blog post explained my initial assessment with Bounce Back Physical Therapy and diagnoses. If you didn’t read it yet you can find it here ! I want to now take you on my journey through my “homework”, three follow-up visits, and what being “discharged” means to me. Homework At each appointment – the initial and follow-ups – Jillian gave me a series of stretches, exercises, and tips to implement into my daily routine. As the list grew, I would often feel overwhelmed with how to sneak it all in. What made it feel more manageable was when I remembered our discussion about how it’s okay to be imperfect and really that our goal is to have perfect alignment and engagement available to us. I actually came t...
Post a Comment
Read more