Smart Eating: Homemade Granola

I love granola. Add in some Greek yogurt and you have my go-to breakfast most mornings. The two together are a great mix of protein, dairy, healthy fats, and carbs. But granola is expensive. In my experience its at least $4.99 for 12oz of the good stuff. Even with coupons that's hard to justify! So I did what any cash strapped, fashion-loving blogger would do: I made it myself.

The foundation for my granola was this Cooking Light recipe, but I took the liberty of mixing in my own dry ingredients. For example, instead of buying almonds, walnuts, and cranberries I bought a mix from the grocery store that had sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, pumpkin seeds, and cranberries mixed together.

The granola was delicious and I loved having full control over the ingredients that went in it but I'm skeptical as to whether this is the cheaper route for the long-term. As you can see below some of my cost-savings was achieved by already owning 2 of the ingredients.



Ultimately, I think I will continue to make my own granola. First of all, it's so easy its stupid. Second of all,  it's really fun when people ask "What kind of granola is that?" to say "Oh, I made it.". And finally, I have some tricks up my sleeve to help keep the cost down.

1. Buy nuts and dried fruit in bulk (That's what she said?): Seriously though. I did some price comparisons. A 32 ounce bag of sliced almonds at my local wholesale club is around $9.00 while 6 ounces at the grocery store can cost as much as 4.99. That equals a savings of 55 cents per ounce! Keep in mind, this option is only great if you plan on making granola often or using the nuts in other recipes. You can also search sites like amazon for deals on nuts and fruit. 

2. Ditch the Vanilla: At $4.99 a bottle this ingredient is totally worth replacing, or just ditching altogether. I found another recipe that don't require use of the spice at all.

3. Swap out Honey for Maple Syrup: Both ingredients serve the same purpose to sweeten and congeal, (aka make clumps), so if I alternate, I can take advantage of sales and coupons to drive the unit price lower on the homemade.



Do you have a great recipe for homemade granola? or maybe tips for saving money on the ingredients? Share it in the comments-- I want to hear.