I ♥ Peanut Butter - Granola

I have been putting peanut butter on and in everything lately! I'm seriously obsessed with it. I wanted to share some of these recipes with you, but it would have been a bit of an overload to put them all in one post so I'm starting an "I ♥ Peanut Butter" series that will run every Tuesday (seemed like a good day to me!) until I run out of peanut butter recipes. Good idea? :)

I've always liked granola, but I hardly ever bought it because it was so expensive and because it's usually loaded with sugar. In fact, it's usually so sweet that, though I enjoy it, I end up feeling sick after eating it. I decided to try to make my own with low/no sugar.

I started with this recipe and got the brilliant idea to add peanut butter here.

I love this stuff. It's not too sweet, and I got my peanut butter, oatmeal, nuts, dried fruit, honey and cinnamon in bulk at Costco so it's way cheaper than just buying granola.

Here's my loaded up shopping cart at Costco on Friday. Notice the peanut butter and the sleeping baby inside?

Plus, this way you can put whatever you want in it, and it's a lot better for you than most cereal!

I've decided that it's going to be my reward for getting up early. I get to have it before my workout in the morning, and that's it! I like it with milk and a little cut up banana like cereal, or just by the handful. In fact, I have a really hard time not grabbing a handful every time I walk by the cupboard. YUM! Enjoy!

Honey Nut Granola

Ingredients

5 cups regular oats
1 cup ground flaxseed
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chopped slivered almonds

1/2 cup sunflowr seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Mix together in a very large bowl, set aside.

Combine the following in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat until the peanut butter is all melted and it's well combined.

2/3 cup applesauce
2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pour honey mixture over oat mixture, stirring to coat. Spread mixture in a thin layer onto a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 300° for 30 minutes or until golden brown; stirring well every 10 minutes. Dump into a bowl and add 1 cup dried fruit. Cool completely.

Note: Store completely cooled granola in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. (if it lasts that long!)

If you don't want peanut butter in your granola (I can't imagine why not) you can substitute 4 teaspoons coconut oil, canola oil or butter for the peanut butter, and add 2 cups of dried fruit immediately after you bake it.

I love it with cranberries like the original recipe, but this time I split the batch and did half of it with apricots and half with blueberries. It's really good like this on plain yogurt!

Let us know what you think if you try it, or what you decide to put in yours!

PS - I came across this article today about why fat does not make us fat, and is, in fact, very good for us. It's the sugar and processed food we need to watch out for!

Also, I am ridiculously sore from yesterday! I really shouldn't have done that many squats and lunges! I just did a recovery swim and trainer ride today. I have to run 8 miles tomorrow! Ouch. Hopefully I can pull it off.