When we start thinking outside the cereal box, homemade granola makes a wonderful, delicious breakfast option.

The bought stuff is mostly high in sugar with industrialised oils and lots of other less than ideal ingredients, so just don’t go there!

This version has wholesome goodness by the mouthful. Filled with fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals galore from the oats and coconut flakes, healthy saturated fat from the coconut oil, protein from the nuts and seeds plus texture and that all important crunch, the cinnamon balancing out your blood sugar.

Granola is pretty forgiving, you can tweak and change to suit any taste. I personally go for a more less sweet, more crunch vibe, but go ahead and add in some sultanas or goji berries if that takes your fancy.

Serve as cereal with your favourite milk, or with yoghurt and fresh fruit. My kids also love grabbing it by the handful as an easy snack. You can also make this lunchbox friendly by using just seeds instead of nuts. Or my favourite way is as a parfait including chia pudding and fruit in the layers. This breakfast keeps me full until dinner time!

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh, and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Print

My Favourite Homemade Granola

Prep Time 5 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 2 cups gluten-free whole rolled oats
• 3 cups coconut flakes/chips
• 1.5 cup mixed nuts chopped - I love a mix of brazil nuts, hazelnuts, cashews
• 1/2 cup mixed seeds - I love pepitas sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and chia seeds
• 1/2 cup sulphur free chopped apricots or you can use dates
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder or extract
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 cup coconut oil melted
• 1/4 cup brown rice syrup maple syrup or raw honey- or add sweetness to taste

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 160 C
• Line two baking sheets with baking paper
• Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl
• Add coconut oil and sweetener and stir well
• Spread the mixture over the two baking trays
• Place in oven for 15 minutes until edges start to golden, then stir around and pop back in oven for another 5-10mins or until golden brown. Stir a couple of extra times during cooking if necessary.
• Keep in Mason jar in cupboard or fridge for up to 2 weeks.

If you’re looking for more recipe inspiration, take a look at my recipe ebook getting rave reviews, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes.

It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar-free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved!

Check out this post for other delicious ‘think outside the cereal box’ breakfast ideas

Bren x

<em>

It was great to see so many people eager to get inspiration to move away from nutrient-depleted boxed cereal, and onto much healthier wholefood options.

As a treat, I thought I would develop a bliss ball recipe especially for the participants, and to show them how stuck we tend to get, into boxing our meals into the morning, noon, and night time slots.

A big bliss ball (or two) isn’t just a snack or healthy treat. Because it is much more nutrient-dense than say, Weet Bix, it can be eaten for breaky along with a green smoothie or big glass of milk. There’s really no need to time-of-day define it.

The cacao powder in the bliss ball acts as a powerful antioxidant and immune-booster in its raw state.

The nuts and seeds offer a great source of fat and protein (chia seeds are very high in Omega 3s), and the dates provide a natural source of sweetness and an easily digestible source of fiber.

Coconut oil is great for boosting the metabolism and helping us feel satiated, as well as being anti-viral, anti-fungal. What a great immune booster!

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is of amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh, and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

180 Nutrition Chocolate Protein Powder
Medjool Dates
Cacao Powder
Cinnamon Powder
Chia Seeds
Almonds
Nut Butter
Desiccated Coconut
Coconut Oil
LSA

Print

Brenda's Breaky Ball

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Servings 10

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup 180 Nutrition Chocolate Protein Powder optional
• 8 Medjool dates
• 1 tablespoon cacao powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon ABC nut butter
• 2 tablespoons desiccated coconut extra for rolling
• 3-4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon LSA optional
• 1 cup raw almonds

Instructions

• Pop almonds into food processor or Thermomix and grind to a meal.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and process for approx 1 minute
• Roll into large balls in your hands, then roll in some desiccated coconut.
• Store in a container and pop in the fridge to set.
• Best left in fridge or freezer.

If you’re looking for more recipe inspiration, take a look at my new recipe ebook which is getting rave reviews, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes.

It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar-free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved!

If you make this recipe and share on instagram remember to tag me @brendajanschek. Otherwise, feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook.

Some other delicious breakfast recipes you might like are Brenda’s Big Batch Bircher Muesli and Anti-Oxidant Smoothie.

So when I found some “need to be used” coconut cream and ginger in the fridge, I decided to throw it into the batch of rice I was cooking that night. The end result was a delicious and subtley infused rice.

This rice was perfect with a simple red kidney bean, sweet potato and kale casserole for dinner and with the leftovers I made a winter-warming rice porridge for breakfast.

So keep in mind this recipe made enough rice for 1 dinner and 2 breakfasts for a family of 4 (or 2 dinners & 1 breakfast).

If you decided to cook only 1 cup of rice, then add 1 cup of water and 1 cup of coconut cream.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Basmati rice
Coconut cream
Chia seeds
Sunflower seeds
Cinnamon
Vanilla powder
Raw honey or maple syrup or coconut sugar
Cashews
Coconut flakes
Brown rice syrup

Here’s what I did…

Print

Coconut & Ginger Infused Rice Porridge

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 2 cups basmati rice
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup coconut cream
• 3 big slices of ginger
• 1 cup of chia seeds
• A good handful of sunflower seeds
• Both are quite neutral tasting for difficult for the kids to detect, otherwise you could grind them up
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla powder
• 1 tablespoon of raw hone pure maple syrup or coconut sugar for serving
• ½ cup almond flakes
• ½ cup cashews
• ½ cup coconut flakes
• 1 tablespoon brown rice syrup honey or maple syrup

Instructions

• Put the rice, water, coconut cream and ginger into a saucepan and stir.
• Bring to the boil and then turn down to low & cook for approximately 20 minutes until rice is ready.
• Discard the slices of ginger.
• You can now serve for dinner and/or save some or all for breakfast.
• In the morning put desired amount of cooked rice into a saucepan with double the amount of milk.
• Add chia seeds, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, vanilla powder.
• Put on low heat for 10 minutes to heat and absorb some of milk.
• While this is warming up heat a small to medium frying pan and toast up the almond flakes, cashews and coconut flakes in the dry pan.
• Just before the nuts were lightly toasted, added a tablespoon of brown rice syrup and stir the mixture around for a further minute.
• Serve the rice porridge in bowls, topped with the nut mixture and some slices of banana or your favourite fruit.

If you’re looking for some lunch inspiration, take a look at my recipe ebook, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes. It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved! 

Stay warm.

Bren x