Easy Homemade Vanilla Granola
This homemade granola is simple, quick and delicious. Made with rice cereal, oats, maple syrup and protein powder, this easy breakfast is ready in less than 15 minutes and lasts up to two months.
Store-bought granola is riddled sugar and fat and can quickly turn your healthy breakfast into a calorie overload. This one is low in both calories and sugar, making it the perfect recipe for granola lovers who want something lighter.
Follow my easy recipe or add your favorite mix-ins to make it how you want it. I add it to acai protein bowls, over high protein yogurt bowls or just eat it with a bowl of milk. It’s all delicious!
Why you’ll love this crunchy granola recipe ..
- Simple ingredients.
- Only 104 calories and 2g of sugar 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 vanilla granola.
- Old Fashioned Oats: also known as rolled oats. Do not use quick cooking oats or steel cut oats as they won’t bake properly.
- Puffed Rice Cereal: any brand.
- Vanilla Protein Powder: I used Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey Vanilla Ice Cream. Use a scoop of your favorite brand.
- Coconut Oil: or melted butter.
- Lite Pancake Syrup: pure maple syrup or honey.
- Vanilla Extract: I like to use a good quality extract for the best flavor.
Variations
- Make this into a trail mix and add chocolate chips or yogurt chips, almonds, walnuts, and cranberries.
- Add sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried fruit or spices.
- Add almond butter or a drizzle of low calorie peanut butter syrup.
Dietary Modifications
- For dairy-free, use a dairy-free protein powder.
- For gluten-free, use a gluten-free puffed rice breakfast cereal and make sure to use gluten-free oats.
How to make this easy vanilla granola
Step 1: preheat and prep
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the oats, puffed rice, vanilla protein powder and salt in a large bowl and whisk together.
Step 2: melt coconut oil and add wet ingredients
Melt the coconut oil in a small bowl and add to the bowl with the oat mixture. Add the syrup, vanilla extract and stir together so everything is evenly coated.
Step 3: bake
Spread the granola mixture onto the prepared 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 8-10 minutes, remove and mix up the granola. Place back in the oven for 2-3 minutes, checking to ensure you do not burn the granola and remove once it is dry and crumbly. Let the granola cool completely on the sheet pan to dry out before crumbling into bite size pieces.
Expert Tip!
Leave a lot of space on your baking sheet. This helps the granola dry out properly.
Recipe FAQs
Store your granola in an airtight container for up to two months.
Eat as a yogurt parfait over Greek yogurt with some berries. Try it as cereal with a bowl of your favorite milk or add to smoothie bowls. There’s always the option of snacking straight out the jar!
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!
Vanilla Granola
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Ingredients
- 1 cup old fashioned oats 80g
- 2 cups puffed rice cereal 34g
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder 31g
- 1/4 tsp. salt (AM Nicoli Vanilla Baking Salt)
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil 50ml
- 1/4 cup lite pancake syrup 50ml
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Combine the oats, puffed rice, vanilla protein powder and salt in a bowl and whisk together.
- Melt the coconut oil and add to the bowl of dry ingredients. Add the syrup, vanilla extract 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 8-10 minutes, remove and mix up the granola. Place back in the oven for 2-3 minutes, checking to ensure you do not burn the granola and remove once it is dry and crumbly.
- Let the granola cool completely on the sheet pan to dry out before crumbling into bite size pieces.
Notes
- Nutrition facts are always an estimate and will change with substitutions.
- Add to milk, over yogurt or as a stand-alone snack.
- I used AM Nicoli Vanilla Baking Salt – use code OHSNAPMACROS for 10% off. This salt adds a delicious sweet and salty flavor.
This granola is delicious!! I love how crunchy it is!
I left a comment on this recipe and it was pulled immediately. This recipe did not work. Nor did the Beef Stroganoff with yogurt. This is not good customer service. I bought two of your books. I recommend you respond to people that are not happy with the outcome of your recipes.
Your comment was not immediately pulled as you will see below. I was unable to respond within 24 hours as I was out of town and I am the only person who goes through and responds to the hundreds on comments on this site one by one. I’m sorry yours did not turn out chunky enough.
It ended up just being loose cereal. I followed the recipe and nothing stuck together.
My guess would be the granola was spread too thin prior to baking. It should come out looking like the photo with some chunks. With this being a different type of granola from a traditional it will not be extremely chunky but like the photos.
So good and easy!! I usually just buy protein granola because making it seemed like it would be intimidating and a long process but after seeing this one I decided to give it a try. Super quick and easy! Tastes delicious too!