I love cereal.
When I was a kid I could eat 2-3 massive bowls of cereal and not be full… Probably because they were filled with a shit load of added sugar, preservatives, and weird chemical ingredients concocted in some laboratory somewhere rather than real ingredients. And while my awareness of the food industry has changed, my love for cereal has remained the same. The problem is even the health food cereals are full of sugar and wheat/grain products. All of which I am trying to stay away from as much as possible. I haven’t done any fancy schmancy food allergy test with the exception of a whole 30 a couple years back, but I have enough awareness now to know that when I eat them, my stomach hurts. I’m bloated, and gassy – hot right?
So I figured out how to make basic granola, and then went to work on finding an equally delicious wheat, grain, and added sugar free version for those people like me who want the delicious cool crunch of cereal and milk (almond or coconut 😉 ) without all the crap!
I would love to tell you that I spent hours in the kitchen over several days trying to get it just right… but honestly it didn’t take long. I literally omitted the wheat/grains and sugar, added more coconut, cinnamon and chia seeds and voila. I had some nomnom’nola.
Prep time:
10-15 mins
Cook time:
40-50 mins
Total Time:
60-65 mins
Ingredients:
- 1 cup coconut (I prefer chips rather than shredded for the crunch)
- 1 cup whole almonds
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup cashews
- 3 Tbsp chia seeds
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 3 tsp cinnamon
How to make the magic happen:
- Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.
- Take approx 1/2 cup of the whole almonds and place them in a blender/food processor and blend until half of those almonds have become flour consistency, the other pieces will be slightly smaller which is fine. If you don’t have a blender/food processor you can substitute by using almond flour, or coconut flour. This flour will help bind the bits of ‘Nola together.
- If you have whole walnuts, crush them so they are a quarter of the size. Don’t worry too much about this as the exact size won’t matter a whole lot.
- Add all ingredients in a bowl, adding the coconut oil LAST.
- Stir the ‘Nola until the coconut oil is evenly spread throughout.
- Fill a baking sheet with the ‘Nola – approx 1-1.5cm in thickness throughout the pan.
- Place the unbaked ‘Nola in the oven and let it sit for about 40 minutes.
- Take the ‘Nola out of the oven and let cool for 30 minutes before breaking into pieces and serving or putting into a jar for later.
Serve your NomNom’Nola with almond or coconut milk as a cereal, sprinkle over your favourite yogurt or non-dairy yogurt substitute, eat it as a snack, and if you really like it maybe you can ask it out and see how things go. You never know.
Hope you enjoy! Feel free to post your comments below.
