Last week we were fully sustainable, meaning that everything we ate for 7 days straight was made from scratch in our kitchen. No ordering in dinner, no buying breakfast on the way to the subway, and no grabbing a mid-afternoon snack at work…and we think that if everyone knew how easy it actually is to do this, even for busy people like us, more people would be eating healthier, saving money on food, and feeling great knowing they’re sustaining themselves.
Granola Balls
These granola balls are delicious, nutritious and easy to make from cheap ingredients. They travel well, so grab some on your way out the door in the morning and turn to them to rescue you from that afternoon energy dip. Each ball packs about 70 Calories. There’s a quick jolt of accessible energy (from the maple syrup and dried fruit) and enough complex carbs to keep you going (from the peanut butter, seeds and whole grains); 2 or 3 make a great, well-rounded snack. This recipe requires about 30 minutes of work and yields 54 granola balls, roughly 30 seconds per ball.
- 1 cup grade B maple syrup
- 3/4 cup crunchy natural peanut butter
- 2.5 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup ground flax meal (ground flax seeds)
- 1/2 cup wheat bran
- 1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
- 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 2 T black sesame seeds
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon
- pinch of salt
- Preheat oven to 325F. Mix maple syrup and peanut butter in a large bowl until smooth. Mix all other ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Stir in the dry mixture into the peanut butter/maple syrup mixture until it is well incorporated.
- Scoop out the mixture with a small cookie scoop (this is pretty essential if you want to get uniform balls.) Since they don’t change shape while they bake, I put them pretty close to eachother–I fit 9 X 6 on a standard 1/2 sheet pan.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes and cool completely before packing in a large zip-lock bag. They will stay good for 7-10 days at room temp, and for months in the freezer.
NOTE: You can play around with the recipe, substituting any the same amount of dried fruit and nuts in whatever combination you’d like. The only essentials are the peanut butter, maple syrup, flax and wheat bran.
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10 Comments
Nice one! I will definitely try this, I’ve been meaning to make granola- but who can deny the balls??
Yummy! I’d have to substitute something else for the oats and wheat bran (gluten-free), but these sound like a great breakfast to-go idea!
You know, I suppose I forget just how much most Americans don’t eat “sustainably”. We rarely eat out anymore, and most everything we eat, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, is prepared from scratch. It does help that I like to cook, and want to know what ingredients are going into my body. That fuels most of the drive to eat this way. But it’s certainly cheaper! I cringe at the idea of how much we used to spend on eating out!
Alta, thanks for the comment. Can you tolerate spelt?? Maybe substitute spelt flakes for oats, don’t use the wheat bran, and double the flax? Let us know how it turns out, and what substitutions you use. Keep up the cooking from scratch–And use the money you save on something special for the kitchen!
Could I use another kind of nut butter as long as it is crunchy? Perhaps almond butter? I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE! I think I’m up for it…
Jennifer: You can totally use another type of nut butter–crunchy or not…Almond or cashew would be delicious!
Rosie: There is no denying the balls! Enjoy!
This didn’t work for me as I couldn’t get the mixture to form into balls; it was too crumbly. But, it did make the most AMAZING granola. I’ll be making another batch tomorrow. Have some in a cup with milk in the morning…yummy!!
Thanks for the comment, Lori. I use a small ice-cream scoop that really packs the mixture together into balls, and I’m wondering if that’s what’s needed to make it stick? I’m glad it made great granola, though!
I ended up using cashew butter for my 1st batch and they were awesome. The second time I made them I ran out so I had to mix in some almond butter(a little runnier) and I also ran out of syrup so used honey. This made them come out sweeter, I think, but still good. Incidentally, I also didn’t have enough dried cranberries so I put in some blueberries. They were yummy but when they heat up they burst so were harder to scrape off the pan. Hope you wanted to know all of that:)
Jennifer: Of course I wanted to know all that! I’m glad that you tried to mix/match with what you had in the house. Cashew butter sounds like it would taste really good–I’ll have to try that variation. Thanks!
This was a great recipe! I opted out of the wheat bran due to gluten sensitivity and used almond butter instead of peanut butter. They were so… delicious. I will make them again.