Chai granola (experimenting with low cal granola)

bemott
bemott Posts: 180
in Recipes
Am trying to make a no oil, lower calorie granola. Found some cute little packages of Lavish and Mom's Best instant oatmeal on sale and got inspired to try a nut free granola (made one with nuts last weekend that came out decent but calorie count was much higher, bou). I made a granola with the chai package and some no bake energy balls with the dark chocolate, though you can make either as either. Will post the dark chocolate energy ball recipe in another post.

Chai Granola:
1 package Mom's Best Spiced Chai oatmeal
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup Original All Bran (or any healthy crunchy cereal you like)
1/2 small banana melted in microwave
3 tablespoons Skinny Taste pumpkin butter or just pumpkin puree (though it will be less sweet. Can also use apple sauce)
1/4 cup Gourmet Golden Raisin mix (it's just different sized and colored raisins) OR diced dried apples or both mixed.

Mix everything except the raisins/apples together in a bowl, dump onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet (with rim), and bake at 325 for about 30 min (I burnt it at 375 after only 30 min, so not sure of temp and time now, sorry!). Stir granola every 15 min or so. Keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn. Okay to lower your oven temp and cook longer too. Stir in raisins/apples after it comes out of the oven.

84 calories for 1/4 cup (this makes about 7 servings, perfect for a single person)
I might add unsweetned coocnut flakes to this too, can't decide yet, it's still baking. Only about 2 tablespoons or 3. 3 I think makes it 99 calories for a 1/4 cup.

Of course you can add slivered almonds, pepitas, sunflower seeds, coconut (add this during last 15 min or so of baking) but the calorie count will go up. I wanted to keep this one simple. Obviously you could use another dried fruit, apricots, craisins, dried cherries, etc...or not use any at all.

The combos are endless. You don't have to use the instant oats package, it just adds flavor and sweetness that is already combined.

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