Low Fat, Natural Sugar Granola

Eating a low sugar breakfast is always a challenge for me.   I like eggs, but not every morning.   Yogurt and smoothies get boring.  Making things ahead is such a help.  I like to be able to "grab" something in the morning.  Making a big breakfast takes too much time.  Over the weekend I made a triple batch of waffles and a large batch of breakfast burritos for the kids and hubby.  My plan was to prepare some food for me, but I ran out of time.  I took a few minutes before school to make a few things.  One was a low fat, natural sugar granola.

I combined a low fat granola recipe I had found a few years ago with a formula I found for Basic Granola (see http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/diy-recipe/diy-recipe-basic-granola-formula-011984).

Granola

1 cup pitted, chopped dates
2 ripe bananas, peeled and diced
1/3 cup hot water
1 TBL. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup each buckwheat groats, steel cut oats, sliced almonds, old fashioned oats
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 250.  In a blender, combine dates, water, vanilla and bananas.  Blend until smooth. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Pour banana mixture over dry ingredients.  Stir well.   Spread into 2 10 x15 baking pans in a single layer.    Bake until desired texture, stirring every 15-20 minutes. (usually about 2 hours).   When cool you can add dry fruit or additional nuts.

Note:  I turned the heat down to 175 after about an hour.  Then I cooked it for maybe another 1/2 hour.  Then I turned the oven off and left the granola in the oven for several hours to finish.

This is definitely not a "low carb" cereal.  It is however a very healthy substitute to most breakfast cereals out there.  Check out http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/diy-recipe/diy-recipe-basic-granola-formula-011984 for more "dry ingredient" ideas.  Enjoy!