Homemade granola ingredients
Making homemade granola is super easy and costs half as much per batch compared to brand name granola. It takes 45 minutes (including cooking time) to make a batch that will last you two weeks. Here’s my recipe.
Ingredients
6 c. whole oats
1 c. chopped walnuts
1 c. chopped almonds
1/2 c. sunflower seeds, unsalted
3 Tbsp. brown sugar or honey
3-4 Tbsp. canola oil
1 c. raisins
1 c. chopped dried fruit (I like apricots and apples)
Preheat oven to 325. Mix oats and nuts and spread between two 9 x 13 brownie pans or trays. Mixture should not be more than 1-inch deep. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Mix the sugar and oil and sprinkle over the oats, stirring to spread. Stir in dried fruit. Let cool completely before storing in an air-tight container. Makes 10 cups, or about 40 ounces of granola.
A 12-ounce bag of Bear Naked granola sells for $6 on Yummy.com (admittedly, this is one of the more expensive brands of granola). I spent about $8.50 to make 40 ounces. I converted the recipe amounts from cups to ounces using the packages’ gram totals and searching online for the gram to ounce conversion of each ingredient. Who knew the stoichiometry I learned in high school chemistry would be so useful as a blogger?
Bear Naked granola = $6 for12 ounces = $.50 per ounce
Homemade granola = $8.50 for 40 ounces = $.21 per ounce
So it’s more than twice as expensive to buy brand name granola. Plus, I’m betting my recipe has much, much less sugar. Homemade granola is even cheaper if you add fewer fruit and nuts, but then it doesn’t taste as good. My other favorite frugal recipes include this fresh strawberry dessert, and this homemade hummus recipe. What’s your favorite frugal recipe?
August 9th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
I always make my own granola, but my favorite part of this post was learning the word “stoichiometry”.
August 9th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
@Magpie Yeah, it’s basically a fancy word for changing units!
August 10th, 2010 at 5:27 am
Love your tips., Walgreen in the Tn area does not except coupons on some products from the manfacturer. How can I get past this ? Please tell me
August 10th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
I’ve never been a great fan of granola or trail mix. However, I do like oatmeal, and make enough to last for a week. I include chopped dried fruit (cranberries, prunes, cherries, blueberries, whatever I have on hand) mixed in with the whole oats. I sweeten it slightly with natural or brown sugar and a dollop of maple syrup. Making it in a microwavable bowl which can go in the fridge makes this very handy. I just reheat 1/2 c. or more, depending on how hungry I am, for succeeding breakfasts. Simple and very inexpensive.
August 11th, 2010 at 5:26 am
[...] 5: Make your own cereal or granola, which takes a little time but often tastes better and has less sugar. Plus, you can get exactly [...]
August 12th, 2010 at 9:00 am
One way to save a little money on ingredients for this is to buy the Great Value tropical trail mix at WalMart. It has a lovely assortment of nuts, white raisins (which I like better than dark ones) and big chunks of papaya, pineapple, and some other tropical fruit. Pulse just a bit in a food processor to make it fine enough to use in a cereal, and then add your own grains. I don’t have a bag handy to see the size, but it’s more than will fit in a quart zipper bag for $4.98.
August 12th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I love making my homemade granola. I like to add maple extract to mine and I always use unsweetened applesauce instead of the oil. I know it sounds weird but it works! I mix everything together and cook it low and slow stirring every 20 min. for a total of just over an hour. Comes out super crunchy!