Gluten Free Paleo Granola

It is no secret, from November 2009 to August 2010 I lost over 50 pounds. Since that time I have been working on maintaining my weight loss. And although people are often amazed when hearing about the tremendous amount of weight I’ve lost the bigger challenge truly is keeping it off. There are times when this is easier than others but I have made the personal commitment to myself to not let things ever get so out of control that my health is once again at risk. For the past few months I have had a bout of terrible eating and little if any exercise. I think these things are cyclical and now I’m ready to get back to my healthy living ways.

My plan is to return to my gluten free paleo way of living and when Walmart asked me to share a gluten free recipe it was the perfect way to get back on track. For me, healthy eating is truly a lifestyle and I’ve found that I am most successful when I transition into cleaning up the food that I eat. I decided to prepare a paleo gluten free granola because I love traditional granola but I know I need to have a healthier (for me) option that I can incorporate into my meal plan.

I found a recipe on Carrots n Cake that fit the bill. She stared with some base ingredients - almond flour, vanilla, cinnamon, honey (all items available at Walmart) and coconut oil. I also added some agave syrup to the mix.

As add-ins she suggested whatever crunchy goodness you like, I added frozen fresh coconut, Great Value deluxe mixed nuts, and dried cranberries. I mixed it all up and baked it for 25 minutes at 275 degrees. 

The results were awesome!

I can enjoy it alone as a snack or with some almond milk in the morning. The granola is really delicious but on the sweet side so I will definitely eat it in moderation. Next time I might just use one tablespoon of agave as a sweetener and not add the honey too. As far as paleo goes, to be truly paleo I’d need to omit the honey/agave completely and quite frankly if you use the mix of ingredients that I did it would probably still be delicious!