Homeschooling comes with plenty of challenges, but it’s also got a handful of perks.
One of my favorite perks? We quite often get to enjoy leisurely mornings at home – by design, really. I’m a morning person, but that doesn’t mean I’m uber-excited to run out the door first thing in the morning on any given day of the week.
More accurately, I’m not uber-excited to get kids out the door first thing. I’ll happily head out in the wee morning hours in my running sneaks, but a) I’ve only got to get myself ready and b) I don’t need to be reminded to brush my hair before I leave and c) I don’t have say CAN YOU PLEASE GET YOUR SHOES ON ALREADY three times before I finally do it.
Most any organized activity we choose to participate in doesn’t start until late morning or early afternoon – so that means I quite often have time for a leisurely (yet substantial) breakfast.
And today was Homemade Cereal Day! A substantial breakfast was most definitely in order given today was also Help Out At Your Kids Homeschool School Day.
(a homeschool school – yup, that’s exactly right.)
I spent my afternoon in a classroom with 15 homeschooled 5 and 6 year olds – so oh yes, I needed a breakfast that was going to hold me over until snack time.
(and oh yes, it totally got the job done.)
I’ve made a slightly different version this before, so this is a breakfast re-run. It’s been a while, and I was happy to dig this one up from the breakfast archives – especially because I did not remember just how awesome it was until I was chowing down as we were all managing to get our shoes on and hair brushed before heading out for the day.
Pear and coconut oil were two of today’s ingredient swaps compared to last time. (For an apple and canola oil.)
Blackstrap molasses was another addition (hiding up there next to the agave nectar) – an ingredient that’s a packs a serious nutrient powered punch! POW!
Today’s Homemade Granola Cereal looked a little something like this:
Wet Ingredients:
1/4 c coconut oil (melted in the microwave)
1 – 2 Tbsp blackstrap molasses (iron! its flavor is intense, so err on the side of caution if it’s your first time.)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 – 2 Tbsp agave nectar
Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 c rolled oats
1/2 c pumpkin seeds (zinc!)
1/2 c sliced almonds
1/3 c sesame seeds (calcium!)
dash of cinnamon
+ one chopped pear
Combine wet ingredients and then pile in dry ingredients and fruit and stir until all dry ingredients are well coated.
Make a homemade cereal mountain on a lightly oiled cookie sheet.
Flatten your mountain into a granola cereal flat land and then bake at 250 degrees for about an hour.
Shovel straight into your bowl, hot from the oven if you like – but eater beware! This is REALLY calorie dense with all these nuts and seeds –
fortunately it’s also REALLY tasty and REALLY satisfying and worth every one of those dang calories. Topped with more blueberries this morning and a pour of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
Who needs Blue Dye #1 when blueberries will happily turn your cereal milk blue?
This probably makes 5 or 6 servings, I highly encourage you to mix and match any and all ingredients – you could easily never make the same re-run twice. Works great as a yogurt topping in place of granola too.
Put what’s left into an air tight container, store in the fridge for up to two weeks –
that is, if it lasts two weeks. Personally, I’m already predicting another breakfast re-run tomorrow.