Peanut Butter Granola: 21 Day Fix Approved

If you are label reader like me, you will notice that sugar is in EVERYTHING!!  Even plain Greek yogurt has around 9 grams per 8 ounce serving.  Of course, sugar makes everything taste appealing, but if you are trying to lose fat, you are going to want to stay away from it as much as possible.  Sugar is very addictive and when consumed causes the blood glucose to rise.  The body's response is to produce insulin which then drives the blood sugar back down.  When you hit that low, you then begin to crave....SUGAR!  It's a vicious cycle, but it can be broken.  Once you start eliminating refined sugar from your diet, your body will stop craving it.

My children have a rare blood sugar disorder called Glycogen Storage Disease and in their type of GSD, their livers do not store glycogen.  We have to get really creative because they should only be consuming around 15 grams of sugar PER DAY!  Sweets are out of the question, and even a lot of fruits. :( However, as we are learning to cope with this, we are finding and tweaking recipes so that they can still have a cookie every now and then, but their version will be a lot healthier and without sugar.

My attempt at making peanut butter granola cookies did not turn out the way I expected, and instead of just throwing the mixture away, I decided to turn it into granola!  Apparently sugar does play a significant role in binding the ingredients together...oops!

So here you have it, my version of a ZERO SUGAR peanut butter granola.  It's probably not as sweet as the granola you are used to, but if you are trying to stop that sugar craving cycle, this is going to be a much better option for you.

21 Day Fix portions:  1 cup serving = 1 yellow, 1 blue, 1 tsp.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup coconut oil or butter

1 cup of Stevia in the Raw - OR - 2 tsp. powdered or liquid stevia

1/2 cup all natural peanut butter

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups of oat flour (2 cups of rolled oats pulsed in the blender or food processor until it becomes powdery)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. himalayan salt

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

3 cups of old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup raw nuts (almonds and cashews)

DIRECTIONS:

• Using a mixer, cream together coconut oil, stevia, and peanut butter. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine oat flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats.
• Spread onto a cookie sheet, sprinkle nuts on the mixture, and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes

Enjoy with yogurt as a parfait, or just by itself!  You could also add some dried fruits and/or dark chocolate cacao nibs, but keep in mind that will be adding sugar.