Homemade Healthy Vanilla Granola Recipe
Why you’ll love this crunchy granola recipe ..
- Quick and easy granola recipe using just a few simple ingredients.
- Make into a trail mix for a complete on-the-go snack.
- Add this vanilla granola to milk or yogurt for an easy breakfast.
- Make double or triple batches and store for up to two months.
I’m on a granola kick and my latest creation from this obsession is this vanilla granola using healthy ingredients. You will never want to buy store-bought granola again after making your own granola. It is filled with notes of maple, vanilla and crunchy goodness using every day pantry ingredients. Perfect with a bowl of milk, as a parfait with berries or as a snack straight from the jar. The best part is it literally takes 5 minutes to throw everything together, bake it for 10 minutes and then you have an amazing breakfast or snack for the week.
Is this granola gluten or dairy-free?
The vanilla granola is dairy-free as long as your protein powder is dairy-free because not all of them are. Orgain makes a popular dairy-free vanilla protein powder.
This recipe is not gluten-free due to the rice cereal. However, there are many gluten-free options for cereals so feel free to use one of those to make this a gluten-free granola.
How to store this granola
If you happen to have any leftovers you can store the vanilla granola in an airtight container for up to two months.
What to pair this granola with
There are so many ways to enjoy your vanilla granola. Enjoy 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. Then there’s always the option of snacking straight out the jar.
Want something a little more like a trail mix? Add chocolate chips or yogurt chips, almonds, walnuts, and cranberries and you have a perfect on-the-go snack for school lunches, long days, or just because.
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: this recipe uses old-fashioned or rolled oats, not quick oats.
Puffed Rice Cereal: you will need puffed rice cereal for this recipe. I like the brand Arrowhead which can be found at my local grocery store on the bottom shelf (in a bag) and at Walmart.
Vanilla Protein Powder: I am using Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey Vanilla Ice Cream protein powder. You can use your favorite vanilla protein powder or other flavors as desired. You’ll need one scoop.
Salt: I am using a small amount AM Nicoli Vanilla baking salt. It adds an amazing sweet and salty flavor to baked goods. Use code OHSNAPMACROS for 10% off. Regular, sea salt or any salt you prefer works here too.
Coconut Oil: to combine the dry ingredients this recipe uses 1/4 cup of melted coconut oil. You can substitute 1:1 with butter.
Lite Pancake Syrup: to combine the dry ingredients this recipe uses 1/4 cup of lite pancake syrup. You can substitute it with sugar-free syrup, maple syrup or honey.
Vanilla Extract: good quality extract makes all the difference.
How to make vanilla granola
Preheat the oven
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine dry ingredients
Combine the oats, puffed rice, vanilla protein powder and salt in a large bowl and whisk together.
Melt coconut oil and add wet ingredients
Melt the coconut oil and add to the bowl with the oat mixture. Add the syrup, vanilla extract and stir together so everything is evenly coated.
Bake
Spread the granola mixture in an even layer onto a parchment paper 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.
Cool and Serve
Let the granola cool completely on the sheet pan to dry out before crumbling into bite size pieces.
Add in ideas!
This easy recipe is great as is but for different variations try adding sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried fruit or spices. If you want granola with a pumpkin pie spice try my Pumpkin Spice Granola.
What is a serving size for this vanilla granola?
Nutrition facts are an estimate. As always, for the most accurate measurement per serving weigh your final dish and divide by the serving amount.
This homemade vanilla granola makes approximately 10 servings at 21g per serving.
If you like this recipe be sure to check out some of our other easy recipes!
- Protein Banana Bread
- Cracked Out Tater Tot Casserole
- Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
- Buffalo Ranch Chicken Salad
- Dairy Free Egg Casserole
Vanilla Granola
📱 MyFitnessPal & MacrosFirst App Users
You can find this recipe and many others on MyFitnessPal and MacrosFirst by searching: Ohsnapmacros – Vanilla Granola
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!