Banola - Granana - Fruitola - You Decide

I eat granola most day. I am gluten free so I have gotten into a simple routine for most of my meals except for dinner. I usually eat granola, a banana, maybe some berries and yogurt for breakfast. I may snack on granola during the day as well.


There are three types of granola that they sell at Walmart that are Gluten free that I enjoy.  One is by "Vans" which is a sticky more clumped granola with cranberries in it. I usually eat this when snacking during a movie or something as I can get my hands sticky eating it. It isn't really good for snacking if you don't want to get sticky hands.They sell a "Chex Mix" one that I don't enjoy but Princess Four likes it.
 
The other brand is "Natures Path" and I really enjoy this brand. It is a little more but you also get more as it doesn't have the weight of the honey making it heavy and it has dehydrated berries and yogurt pieces in it so you do get more as the fruit is actually freeze dried and doesn't have much weight. 
 
It has a good flavor and texture as well. They just came out with a new flavor which I don't enjoy as much as the Berry. The Cranberries one is just under $4. The Chex on is between $3 and $4 if I remember right and the Berry one is near five in cost.

Princess Five likes my granola even though she isn't gluten free. I saw this huge can of granola for about $12 and thought it would be a good way to get her her own stash for cheaper than the gluten free bags.

I got it and she tried it but it was more like a hot cereal as it didn't have anything in it to bind them together into a snack. It was OK on yogurt but she likes to snack on mine as well. 


I have been cleaning out the garage a little at a time recently trying to rotate my storage and freezers and with that, I clean out the kitchen cupboards and she hadn't eaten much out of the can so I called Princess One who makes her own granola and asked what she would do to make the granola more enjoyable for Princess Five. 


She suggested that I make it sweeter and clumpier by adding brown sugar and or honey and so I used a cookie sheet and put brown sugar in with the granola and "candied" some. I had her taste and try it when she arrived home at lunch and she enjoyed that. She told me to go ahead and make the rest that way. I did that but after heating it, a thought came into my mind. 
 
I invented something today that will be something we make from now on. I thought of ways to make it more like a trail mix and I noticed three ripe bananas on the counter. I thought to myself, "She loves dried bananas and granola, I think I will mix the two." Check out my video at the top to see more details. 
 
I have to tell you she said it smelled "Heavenly" when she came home and started eating it right then while it was still very wet. She kept snacking on it all evening until bed and wants to take some to school for a snack tomorrow. We have a HIT on our hands. It is "Delicious!" to quote her. 


I used the silicon fruit leather trays and basically mixed three bananas with five cups of granola. I will probably make some gluten free for myself using gluten free oats, several types of nuts and some freeze dried fruit and maybe I will even dehydrate some yogurt to throw in like the yogurt I purchase. 

I dried it at 125 degrees for about 18 hours flipping it and taking it off the sheets and just putting it on the non-stick air trays, (Click here to see how I make them.) and it clumped and looked great, has a great texture and I tried some of the nuts in the mix and it was good. I don't usually like dried banana so it was interesting that I do like this. 

I want to try peaches instead of bananas when I make mine as I LOVE dried peaches. I bet even if you used canned peaches, it would be good. 

I think the key to this was the roasting them before hand in coconut oil so they are a bit crunchy. This way they don't get soft and mushy when you add the fruit. I don't think I need to add the sugar next time but since I had already added it before coming up with the idea, it has that but I think it would be sweet enough without added sugar and just using ripe fruit. 

I don't know how long it would store because it has oils in it but if you kept it in the fridge, I am guessing it would store for many months. Storing it in the freezer would be even better. 

The more I think about it, the more excited I get. I have some dried cranberries that need to be used and you can only add so much to salads. I am going to try that and maybe even a few chocolate / yogurt chips after it is dried to mix it up.

I am grateful for inspiration. Now we have a new treat she likes, it is easy to make and in the end it is cheaper than purchasing mine for us both. I will let you know how the gluten free versions goes.