Iron-Packed Homemade Granola

Ok, so I admit it, I can be pretty neurotic at times. Especially when it comes to worrying about things, that I probably don’t need to worry about. Nevertheless, I still worry about my child’s iron intake – more often than not.

But in defense, we don’t eat meat and I have the most peculiar eater, ever.

So naturally, I googled ‘foods high in iron’ and found tons of ways to easily get it into her diet. At first, I decided to make these cute little grab n’ go bags full of nuts, seeds and raisins for whenever Els wanted a snack. But that ended up being a total fail as she ended up just picking out all the raisins and tossing the rest. Literally.

So then I thought, I’d try making this:

Homemade granola packed with goodness.

Every single one of these items above are full of iron! Oats, raisins, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cashews, almonds, dried apricots and coconut. (Sesame seeds as well, not pictured).

I chopped up the cashews and cut the dried apricots into quarters. I left the almonds whole, but it might be nice to cut them in half or use slivered almonds instead.

Total Ingredients Used:

Rolled Oats – 4 cups
Unsalted Cashews – 1/3 cup
Raw almonds – 1/3 cup
Pumpkin seeds – 1/2 cup
Sunflower seeds – 1/3 cup
Dried Apricots quartered – 1/4 cup
Organic Raisins – 1/3 cup
Unsweetened Coconut – 1/2 cup
Sesame Seeds – Sprinkled on top
Maple Syrup – 2 tbsp (If you want sweeter go for 1/4 cup)
Cinnamon – 1/2 tsp
Olive oil – Just to coat the tray (more generously than not)

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 325 degrees. Pour oats, seeds and nuts into a large mixing bowl. (Leave out the apricots, raisins and coconut.) Add in the maple syrup and cinnamon and mix well. Coat a tray with olive oil, pour the mixture into the tray. Distribute well. Bake in oven for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Add in the apricots, raisins and coconut at the end of the 30 minutes and bake for another 5-10 minutes. Cool and Serve!

It came out quite nicely. Not clumpy, but still a perfect snack consistency. Els gobbled it up entirely, nuts, seeds and all.

What’s great about this granola, is that it’s the exact opposite of what you will find in a store. It’s only a tad sweet without all the sugar and unnecessary ingredients. I like to eat mine plain – just grab and go. Same with my 2 and a 1/2 year old. My husband likes his over fruit and yogurt. So many ways, it doesn’t matter. What matters, is that I worry less. I guess.

For more granola recipes, check out our perfect little granola bite recipe!

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