I made a new kind of granola last week. It is sweetened only with pineapple and banannas. It could use some stevia but really isn’t bad with a few raisins. My goal was for a very crunchy, mildly sweet granola that clumped when cooked. I succeeded! Here’s the recipe:

5 cups thick cut rolled oats
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup whole almonds (roughly chopped)
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup wheat germ (to encourage clumping)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum (to encourage clumping)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
dash salt
1 cup canned crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
2 ripe bananas (not previously frozen)
1/2 cup coconut oil

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a large bowl combine first 8 ingredients and mix well. In a blender add pineapple, bananas and soft coconut oil. (Next time I will add 1/2 teaspoon pure stevia extract or 6-8 packets stevia blend.) Mix until smooth and whipped. Pour pineapple mixture over oat mixture and stir until completely moistened.

This is how it looked just before baking.

Spread in a single layer onto two large greased cookie sheets. I fisted some of the mixture to encourage clumping.

Bake for 15 minutes, then stir and switch racks for the cookie sheets. Repeat 3 more times. For the last 15 minutes, turn the oven off and let it cool down naturally with the granola still inside. Watch for over browning the last 15 minutes. Set the pans out to cool. When completely cool, mixture will be nice and crisp.

Makes 10 cups of granola
Nutrition–per 1/3 cup: Calories: 168 Protein: 4.6 Fat: 9.8g Carbs: 25 g including 5.2 grams of fiber and only 1.7 sugar grams