I love cereal, but I rarely buy it. Because if I bought it, I would eat it. And the kids would eat it too. Now of course I don’t think cereal is inherently bad or purposefully tries to be evil, but it’s just too damn easy to sit down and eat 600 calories worth of Heart to Heart in a single sitting before you finally stop going back to the box for another bowl.

What? Is that only me?

Thus! I prefer to resist temptation at the grocery store.  It’s a hell of lot easier to avoid diving head first into the box of Peanut Butter Puffins standing in aisles at Wegmans than it is at home on Thursday night while watching old episodes of 30 Rock on Hulu.  Yes, let’s just leave that boxed cereal on the store shelves where it belongs, shall we?

But then sometimes, a girl wants something sweet and crunchy to throw on top of her organic blueberries and greek yogurt. Is that too much to ask? I mean really.

So what’s a girl to do? What’s a girl to do? Think. Think. Think.

Hmmm, what about what Michael Pollan says:

Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

I like it. Let’s do it.

I’ve made my own cereal before, and granola too. This is basically the maple pecan granola recipe I use, except made with my beloved coconut oil in lieu of nuts and butter.  Now I love nuts as much as the next girl *snicker* but I get plenty of nuts in buttered form… almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower butter – I don’t need any more nuts for crying out loud!  All I want it something a little sweet and a little crunchy.

Just some toasted oats please!  Except not these kind of toasted oats.

Toasted Maple Oats

2 cups rolled oats
2 Tbsp coconut oil
2 Tbsp Grade A real maple syrup
Dash of salt

Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees. If your coconut oil is firm (which mine was NOT in this summer heat) you can warm the jar in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes or in the microwave for a few seconds, until it’s in liquid form. Blend coconut oil, maple syrup and salt together. Stir in oats until well coated in the oil/syrup mixture.

Move oats to a baking pan, I’ve used a cookie sheet in the past or a 9 x 13 inch cake pan works too.

Bake for 10 minutes, stir oats with a spatula and then bake for an addition 10 minutes.  Keep an eye on them toward the end, watching to be sure they don’t burn.  Works out to be about 118 calories per 1/4 c serving.

Presto-chango your oats are now toasted!

I loaded a spatula full of still warm and toasty oats onto a 1/2 c or so of Chobani 2% plain greek yogurt and locally and organically grown, farmers market fetched blueberries.

Store remaining oats in an air tight container in the fridge.  It’s probably good for quite a while, but I’m not the one to ask that question of, ours never lasts more than a couple days.  Fortunately the kids love this too, and for whatever reason, I don’t feel the urge to submerge my head into this pile of oats over and over again.  Just once is enough.