For as long as I can remember Earl Grey has been my tea of choice. It was always in the cupboard and my Mother never used anything else so I guess the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree…Or you just get accustomed to what you are given at a younger age, one of the two! I rarely have a bowl of granola for breakfast, more of an eggs girl but after making this, it’s crept its way into my mornings pretty rapidly! The crunch of the nuts and chewiness of the dried fruit coupled with the Earl Grey undertone is simply scrumptious. It’s making my mouth water thinking about it!
One alteration I made with classic granola was to swap the oats for spelt flakes. Reason a) was because it’s what I had in my cupboard! but b) Rolled spelt flakes compared to rolled oat flakes are fewer in calories and fat per 100g of each. It’s a relatively nominal difference but certainly one that should be accounted for if granola if your daily breakfast.
If you’re wondering whether it’s worth making your own granola, trust me it is. Shop bought granola you can pretty much guarantee is full of added sugar, preservatives and unhealthy oils. It will give you a huge sugar kick in the morning that will leave you feeling hungry an hour later and not to mention cause a quick release of insulin into your blood stream that will store that excess sugar as fat. The difference with homemade granola like this one is that you know exactly what is in it and can therefore count on the whole package being healthy. Most importantly you are able to control the factors that dub breakfasts like granola being an ‘unhealthy start to the day’. You do that by balancing out the high natural-sugar dried fruits with protein and healthy-oil rich nuts and seeds. They slow down the absorption of the natural sugars into your blood stream meaning your blood sugar will not peak and therefore you will not store it as fat, success! Also remember to buy unsweetened dried fruit, they have enough natural sugars in them.
Serve with organic whole fat milk or unsweetened almond milk for a cereal. Please don’t use the low-fat milk! When our body’s are eating well, taking on the few extra calories for whole fat products is far better for you then eating the processed and high sugar ‘low-fat’ counterparts! Since fat removal also strips the milk of all its fat-soluble vitamins, skimmed milk (low-fat) must be fortified with vitamins A, D, E and K to make up for the loss of nutrition. Fat is also tasty and filling! Therefore eating reduced fat foods although lessen your calorie intake by for example 10% in that meal, there is evidence to suggest you actually end up snacking and eating more a few hours later because you are not satisfied and still hungry.
It’s all about eating naturally and clean – and enjoying what you have. Don’t restrict yourself with products like tasty full fat milk, just don’t eat the processed sweets!
