I woke up this morning with the craving for something chocolatey and crunchy. So TADAAA, here we have a homemade chocolate granola. This is my favorite thing about finally having an oven, if I dream up some recipe and it requires roasting, toasting or crisping, I can finally do it! I lived a WHOLE year without an oven so I am in bliss with this new apartment.

The great thing about homemade granolas is that:

• You know exactly what goes into it
• You get to control what ingredients you want in it
• It’s always fresher and yummier!
• It makes your home smell incredible while toasting (very important, of course)

I just threw together what I had in the house but, as I mentioned above, you get to control what ingredients you want. So if you aren’t a fan of some of the ingredients, you can easily replace it with something you do like. Or if you are dying to throw in some dried fruit or sunflower seeds then do it, girl!

You can easily add any of these additional ingredients below to this recipe:

• cocoa nibs
• hemp hearts
• chia seeds
• sunflower seeds
• pumpkin seeds

I like to have this handy for the days where I want to quickly throw together a quick breakfast but do not want a sugary store-bought cereal and I am out of my homemade cocoa puff cereal. Throwing it in a bowl with some creamy milk (or plant based milk if that floats your boat) is so incredibly delicious.

You could also use it for a yummy topping for a smoothie bowl. And it works well for both fruit and non-fruit smoothies.

Crunchy Chocolate Granola

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup mixed nuts (I used walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, and almonds)
• 1 heaped tablespoon cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons nut butter (I used peanut butter)
• 1/4 cup dried Cranberries (optional)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons flax seeds
• 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 140 degrees Celcius
2. In a large bowl, throw all of the ingredients together and mix until well combined and everything is evenly coated
3. You can line your tray with baking paper to ensure your pan does not get ruined and the granola does not get burned easily (I would highly recommend doing this as it is very easy to burn granola)
4. Spoon the mixture out onto the tray and spread it out to cover the whole surface area of the tray and stick it in the oven for 10 minutes
5. You will be able to smell that it is toasted and the nutty oils are giving a lovely aroma. Run a spoon through it to toss the granola then leave it in the tray for 10 minutes to cool and toast further.
6. You can now enjoy it with yogurt, milk and fruit, or as a topping for a smoothie bowl