Healthy Honey Nut Granola

 
Today’s recipe is sponsored by Nature Valley. They make the gluten-free Roasted Peanut & Honey Simple Nut Bars that give this granola its irresistible crunch!

During my junior year of college, I became obsessed with granola. I added some to my bran flakes every morning, nibbled on it as a snack in the afternoons, and grabbed a handful as part of dessert after dinner. No cup of yogurt was complete without a generous sprinkling either!  

As someone who loves classic and traditional options, I almost always gravitated towards warm, cozy flavors of granola with lots of cinnamon and crunchy clusters. Those big chunks were my favorite part, and many times when I poured a bowl, I often picked them out to snack on separately.

Granola never lasted long in my apartment, but the cost of buying multiple boxes at the grocery store every week quickly added up!
 

 
So I started to bake my own batches at home instead. I purchased big canisters of old-fashioned oats and crisp rice cereal, honey and molasses, and a huge container of ground cinnamon. Nearly every Saturday afternoon, I stood in front of the stove, stirring the clusters around the pan every so often while they baked, which filled my apartment with comforting smells.

When it came to mix-ins, I either sprinkled a few handfuls of raisins over the pan or nothing at all. With the store-bought granolas, I almost always picked out all of the dried fruit or nuts inside to eat separately, so it seemed silly to add a bunch of extra stuff to my homemade batches!
 

 
But recently, I started craving a little extra crunch in my granola to go along with the clusters, so I created this Healthy Honey Nut Granola. With just 5 ingredients, it’s incredibly easy to make and perfect for breakfasts, snacks, desserts—or anytime you get hungry!
 

 
The base of this granola starts with old-fashioned oats and crisp brown rice cereal. While the former is fairly predictable in granola recipes, the latter may surprise a few of you! I always add crisp rice cereal to my granola recipes because it provides an extra crunch without excess oil or calories. If you take a peek at your store-bought granola, many of those include crisp rice cereal too!

To sweeten the clusters and bind them together, you’ll use egg whites and honey. The egg whites add a little extra protein, which is always a plus in my book! Simply whisk those two ingredients together; then pour them over the cereals and toss with a spatula until everything is good and coated.
 

 
Now comes the hard part… Waiting for the granola to bake! It takes about 45 minutes to finish, but you’ll need to stir every 15 minutes to ensure that the granola bakes evenly and the bits closest to the sides of the pan don’t burn. Be very gentle while stirring! Vigorous stirring will break up the clusters too much and result in lots of itty bitty pieces instead.
 

 
To finish off the granola, sprinkle chopped nuts on top in the form of these gluten-free Nature Valley Roasted Peanut and Honey Simple Nut Bars. With just seven clean eating ingredients, they’re the perfect pair for our crunchy granola clusters! Even better, these bars contain three different types of nuts—peanuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds—so they’re great for indecisive people like me who can’t pick just one nut to mix into the granola.
 

 
Now grab a spoon and dig in!
 

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Nature Valley has made 12 of your favorite snack bars gluten-free for even easier snacking! Visit their website to learn more, and enter the Nature Valley Perfect Pair Sweepstakes on Facebook and Instagram for your chance to win a $500 gift card!

 
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Nature Valley. The opinions and text are all mine.