Lets talk Cereal. Cereal was a staple of my childhood and I had passed on the love and fondness to my children. I always thought I was doing so well by getting them to love cereal like Life and Honey Bunches of Oats...theyre the healthy ones, right? I thought I was doing them a service by not exposing them to Fruity Pebbles and Lucky Charms...those are the sugary unhealthy ones, right? Not so much! The ingredients are all practically the same. And as I learned what so many of those unknown ingredients were, I was stopped in my tracks! Most all of them are packed with artificial dyes....even cereal like Life, which has no color in it, yet it has Red dye #40. The dyes are so harmful to our kids. They impact their behavior, ability to focus, and ability to learn. Then theres a little preservative called BHT or BHA. Its in almost all prepackaged goods. It allows the food to sit on a shelf, nearly forever, without going rancid. This stuff is banned in so many other countries. In a nutshell it causes cancer. My first resolution to this problem was to buy the more expensive, but organic cereals. They have fewer ingredients over all and certainly dont have these harmful chemicals. The next thing I did was a drastic cut back in cereal. My kids have cereal twice a week at the most. And finally, I found this recipe from 100 Days of Real Food. Its a homemade cereal/granola with wholesome ingredients. My husband, Megan, and I all love it! Its wonderful with milk, and super wonderful on top of yogurt, or just as a snack. Granola Cereal 3 1/2 C rolled oats 1 C raw sliced almonds 1 C raw cashew pieces (Ive subbed with chopped pecans also) 1 C unsweetened shredded coconut 1/2 C raw sunflower seeds 1/2 C raw pumpkin seeds 2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 6 Tbsp unsalted butter 1/2 C honey 2 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp salt Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Cover a rectangular baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix the dry oats, almonds, cashews, coconut, seeds and spices together in a large mixing bowl. Heat the butter and honey together in a small saucepan over low heat. Once the butter melts, stir in the vanilla and salt. Pour the hot liquids over the dry ingredients and stir together with a rubber spatula until evenly coated. Spread mixture onto prepared pan in one even layer. Bake for 75 minutes. As granola cools it will become crispy. Break into pieces and store in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. This makes a pretty large batch...you could easily cut the recipe in half to give it a first time try. Enjoy!!
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 14:48:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015