DIY – Homemade Oat Bran Cereal
I have a confession to make, I LOVE cereal. When I lived in Seattle and San Francisco, I would eat a bowl of cereal every morning, and sometimes especially if it was hot and I didn’t feel like cooking I would have it for dinner as well! As I continue on my quest to wellness and eating real food that doesn’t come from a box, cereal is one thing that I have had a hard time giving up mostly because it is my staple breakfast!
My go to cereals are usually Special K or Honey Bunches Of Oats, however if you read the ingredients, there are usually a bunch of things I can’t pronounce, and added sugar. These cereals also just really have a bunch of carbs, little fiber, and not much protein. Since starting upping my workouts, I am now working out in the mornings as well as the evenings, which means that I need something to fuel these tough morning workouts, which my standard boxed cereal and its measly 2g of protein just isn’t going to cut it! Making my own cereal meant not only reducing the sugar amount to 1g but also upping the fiber to 6.5g and the protein to 8g!
I decided that I was going to make it myself, I did a little searching to see what I might want to add into my flakes and then gathered up the ingredients that I wanted in my cereal.
To start I added in all of the dry ingredients that I wanted to use. This included Organic Oatbran, Organic Buckwheat Flour, Almond Flour, Chia Seeds, Organic Vanilla Powder, and Baking Powder.
Next I added in my Almond Milk and Water to make a dough. The key to this was making sure that while it was wet enough to form on a baking sheet, it was not soaking wet. I then used a rolling pin and parchment paper to make my dough into a really thin layer. Thin is the key here! We want the thickness to be as thin as you can get it to get nice crisp bran flakes.
Once you get it all flattened out, it should look like one giant bran flake. At this point you pop it in the oven at 350F for 10 minutes, flipping half way through. Once the 10 minutes is up, pull it out of the oven and let it cool while you cook the remaining portion. With all of the ingredients, it took me 3 sheets total to make it all as thin as I wanted it to be. Once it has cooled a bit, you can now break it into the flake size pieces that you want.
Put your flakes back onto the baking sheet and turn down the oven to about 275F, now we want to get the cereal crisp, and the thickness of your pieces will come into play here. I wanted my cereal to be very crisp, so I baked it for about an hour, flipping it every 20 minutes. You will want to continue to check on it and be sure to lower the temperature so it does not burn.
After it is the crispness that you want it, just let it cool and store it in an air tight container! You now have your very own homemade cereal! Mine made 6 servings that have a whopping 9g of protein! I will post the nutritional information and an easy to print version below!
I would LOVE to hear if you have ever made your own cereal, or if you try this recipe what you think of it! I added blueberries and almond milk to mine and it was a really tasty breakfast! You could also add fruit in when you are baking it for a little different flavor!
Homemade Oat Bran Flakes Cereal
Makes 6 servings
Ingredients:
120g (1 cup) Organic Oatbran
120g (1 cup) Organic Buckwheat
80g (2/3 cup) Almond Flour
1 TBSP Chia Seeds
1/2 tsp. Organic Vanilla Powder (optional)
1 tsp Baking Powder100 ML (1/2 cup)
Unsweetened Almond Milk
Water as needed to make dough (I started in increments of 50ML and added in 150 total or 5/8 cup)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.Combine ingredients in a mixing bowl until smooth dough batter.Spread on parchment paper or silicon baking mat and use rolling pin to thin out to an almost transparent thin large flake.Bake for 10 minutes, allow to cool and bake remaining sheets.Once cooled, break into flake sized pieces and return to baking sheet.Reduce heat to 275F and place flaked sheets into the oven. Bake for 1 hour turning every 20 minutes or until desired crispness.
Nutrition:
Calories: 219, Fat: 9.5g, Carbs: 26.5g, Fiber: 6.5g, Sugar: 1.2g, Protein: 8.1