Low Fat Homemade Pumpkin Spice Granola (nut-free)
This easy to make pumpkin granola is a crunchy blend of oats, rice cereal, protein powder, pumpkin pie spice and a touch of syrup to hold it together. With the flavors of fall in every bite, it’s the best way to indulge in all things pumpkin.
Grocery store granola can be expensive, high in calories and overloaded with unnecessary sugar. Making your own at home is super easy and you can skip all the added unnecessary ingredients. Serve on top of yogurt, as a cereal with regular or non-dairy milk or on top of a smoothie bowl with fresh fruit.
When you start getting sick of pumpkin (as if) try our other granolas like, s’mores granola and healthy vanilla granola. Throw it in a mason jar and you’ll have plenty of lightened up granola for months.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Simple ingredients.
- Only 100 calories per serving.
Ingredients and Substitutes:
These are the main ingredients and substitutions. See the recipe card below for the full ingredients list and instructions for this homemade pumpkin granola.
- Old Fashioned Oats: also known as rolled oats. Don’t use instant oats or quick oats; the texture will be off and won’t get the classic granola crunch.
- Puffed Rice Cereal: a fancy way of saying Rice Krispies.
- Vanilla Protein Powder: I am using Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey Vanilla Ice Cream protein powder. Use your favorite or experiment with other flavors.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: this homemade granola uses store bought pumpkin spice seasoning. You can also use homemade.
- Coconut Oil: or butter.
- Lite Pancake Syrup: sticks everything together while keeping the sugar and calories low. You can use pure maple syrup or agave syrup.
Variations
- Add sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds or hemp seeds.
- Add chocolate chips or white chocolate chips.
- Add peanut butter syrup or almond butter.
- Add a tsp. of vanilla extract.
Dietary Modifications
- This recipe is dairy-free as long as your protein powder is dairy-free.
- For gluten-free, use a gluten-free oatmeal and gluten-free rice cereal. Be sure your protein powder is gluten-free.
How to make this pumpkin granola recipe (a step-by-step visual guide):
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine the oats, puffed rice, vanilla protein powder and pumpkin spice in a large mixing bowl (image 1) and whisk together to combine (image 2).
Step 2: Melt the coconut oil and add to the bowl of dry ingredients. Add the syrup and stir together so everything is evenly coated (image 3).
Step 3: Spread the granola onto a parchment lined large rimmed baking sheet in a thin layer (image 4). Ensure there are no large clumps and leave a lot of space between the granola. This will help it dry out while baking. Bake for 15 minutes, remove and mix up the granola. Place back in the oven for 2-6 minutes, checking every couple minutes to ensure you do not burn the granola. Remove once granola is dry and crumbly.
Expert Tip!
Make sure to spread the granola out in an even layer to ensure everything dries out. If you have large clumps, some will be cooked and some still soggy.
Recipe FAQs
Once baked and cooled, place this pumpkin spice granola in an air tight container or sealable bag for up to 2 months, although I doubt it’ll last that long.
This pumpkin spice granola is great with vanilla yogurt or your favorite flavor of yogurt. You could also add it to protein shakes and on top of ice cream.
Check out some of our other easy recipes!
If you make this recipe, please leave a rating and/or comment! Tag me on Instagram @ohsnapmacros, I love hearing from you!
Pumpkin Spice Granola
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Ingredients
- 1 cup Old Fashioned Oats 80g
- 2 cups Puffed Rice Cereal 34g
- 1 scoop Vanilla Protein Powder 31g
- 2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil 50ml
- 1/4 cup lite pancake syrup 50ml
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Combine the oats, puffed rice, vanilla protein powder and pumpkin spice in a bowl and whisk together.
- Melt the coconut oil and add to the bowl of dry ingredients. Add the syrup and stir together so everything is evenly coated.
- Spread the granola onto a parchment lined baking sheet so that there are no large clumps, leaving a lot of spaces between the granola. This will help it dry out while baking.
- Bake for 15 minutes, remove and mix up the granola. Place back in the oven for 2-6 minutes, checking every couple minutes to ensure you do not burn the granola and remove once it is dry and crumbly.
- Break into chunks and enjoy your pumpkin spice granola!
Notes
- All nutrition facts are an estimate and will change with any substitutions.
- Arrange granola in an even layer, breaking up clumps. This will help it dry out while baking.
WOW! Just WOW! This recipe is so good. I look forward to my yogurt snack all day now because of this granola recipe. Literally, I could eat it like a snack just on its own, like popcorn. I may eat the whole tray if left unsupervised.