My husband was asking for an easy breakfast cereal recently, because occasionally I just don’t want any breakfast and he doesn’t want me to cook when it’s just for him. So I created a very tasty cereal for him. This stuff is great for just snacking, too! The slight yellow hue to the coconut is due to the pumpkin in the recipe, but trust me, I can’t really taste pumpkin (or the coconut, for that matter) in there. I taste the spices, nuts and fruit mostly. 🙂 This recipe is not suitable until Atkins Phase 2 OWL when nuts are introduced.
NOTE: Just wanted to add that this keeps AMAZINGLY well over time. I stored mine in a Tupperware canister and 6 months later it was still good! It was still dry and we finished it off as a snack food rather than cereal. DEElicious! 🙂
INGREDIENTS:
½ c. roasted sunflower seeds, unsalted
½ c. roasted pumpkin seeds, unsalted
2 T. chia seeds
1½ c. large flake coconut, unsweetened
1 c. walnuts, coarsely cut
1 c. pecans, coarsely cut
1½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
¼ tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. sea salt
2 T. erythritol
5 dried prunes, chopped fine like tiny dried currants (I use DelMonte which has no added sugar)
1/3 c. liquified coconut oil
¼ c. sugar-free maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. canned pumpkin puree (do not use the pie filling!)
DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 300º. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Measure the first 12 (dry) ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir well. In a small bowl, stir the last 4 (wet) ingredients well. Using a rubber spatula, pour the wet ingredients evenly over the dry and with the spatula, stir and toss to coat all the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. When well-blended, pour half the mixture onto each paper-lined pan. Spread evenly. You will need to bake until it is dry and somewhat crisp to the touch, or about 1½ hours (longer for some ovens). Stir ever 15-20 minutes to be sure it is cooking evenly. Do not allow to overly brown or the nuts will taste burned. Turn off oven and let the granola dry in the oven as it cools. Break it apart into smaller clusters if you like. I like mine in larger clusters, as I eat it more as a snack than a cereal. Transfer to an airtight container or zip-loc gallon bag. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE IT IS FULLY COOLED BEFORE STORING. Otherwise it will “sweat” and get soft (just rebake to crisp it up again). This stuff is delicious, so do ENJOY!
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 9 cups total or eighteen ½ cup servings. Each ½-cup serving contains:
214 calories
19.6 g fat
7.5 g carbs, 3.21 g fiber, 4.29 g NET CARBS
4.89 g protein
42 mg sodium
Buttoni's Low-Carb Recipes 
Here in Australia we don’t have canned pumpkin. What could I use instead? If I steam a batch of pumpkin until tender and stick blend it would that do?
That’s what I always do if I need “canned pumpkin” & the recipes I use it in come out great. (I’m in NZ.)
Thanks, Melanie! One of my frustrations with some recipes are the fact that we can’t get a lot of the ingredients they have in the US.
I think that will work, Anneke. Hope you like this! It’s real good. If you like a drier granola, you can reduce the amount of pumpkin. 🙂
I just wanted to write again and tell you that this recipe is FABULOUS! I have made it a couple of times and am ready to make a new batch. I try to keep all the ingredients on hand now. (I did have to pick up the prunes and chopped pecans last time). It is so delicious and crunchy! I use it (with unsweetened almond milk and a sprinkling of erythritol) for cereal. Also, true to your word, it lasts a long time – if I don’t eat it all first! I just wanted to let you know it is now one of my new favorites Peggy!
Well that’s just wonderful, Patty. I love to just nibble on it for a snack, too. Makes a lovely topping for baked peaches or apples with some cinnamon and butter sprinkled on them. , too. 🙂 So glad you like it and thanks for your review for my other readers to see.
Can the prunes be left out?
Sure! Or other homemade dried fruits (without added sugar) can be substituted if you just don’t like prunes.
Thank you. No, I don’t eat/use any dried fruit as it’s just concentrated sugar. Glad to know I can leave it out without it affecting the recipe.
I don’t mind coconut oil but don’t like actual coconut. Would it be fine to just leave that out?
You can, but you’re going to want to increase the seeds and other nuts to make up for the lost 1½ cups of volume in the recipe. That will totally screw up your nutritional numbers so YOU will have to recalculate that based on what you add for the 1½ cups volume.
Brand new to this way of wating/cooking/comprehending….so question: What do you men by “sugar-free maple syrup” ? Can you suggest a name brand and waht ingredients are acceptable in it?
I have used Cary’s s/f maple syrup for years and that is usually what restaurants serve when diabetics ask for it. But my grocery quit stocking it last year. I don’t care for the Walmart brand of syrup, but have found the I-Hop s/f syrup is pretty good. I can’t know what ingredients are “acceptable” as I’m not familiar with all the brands. The IHop uses sorbitol, sucralose (Splenda) and acesulfame potassium as the primary sweeteners, gums to thicken and preservatives to prolong shelf life. It all depends on whether you tolerate those sweeteners well or not. We can’t do anything about comercially processed fods and the preservatives they must use. You want to avoid maltitol as a sweetener as much as possible as it will be inclined to spike blood glucose more than sorbitol.
All the sugar alcohols (except erythrital) raise my blood sugar, so I thought I may just have to use maple flavoring, but I found Walden Farms brand at Wegman’s that uses only sucralose (which doesn’t seem to bother me).
I got carried away when adding the pumpkin (because I was thinking about making the pumpkin bake) and used the whole can instead of 1 cup. Still came out fine 🙂 I used a little bit of my home dried fruit instead of the prunes, and used less so I decided the carb count was a wash.
Glad you liked it, Arm2008. The extra pumpkin probably only required a little extra baking time to dry it out. Yes, erythritol is the only sugar alcohol I tolerate well. The others actually upset my stomach. Too much glycerine will do that, too, so I never could eat the Atkins bars. 🙂
It sound great. My only concern is the amount of fat 19.6 g.
Nuts and coconut have a lot of fat in them, Edith……..but GOOD, HEALTHY fats. You might be able to reduce the oil and increase pumpkin by the amount you deduct from the recipe. But remember, it’s the high fat that keeps low-carbers in ketosis so they continue to lose weight. So unless you have some specific health reason you can’t consume fat, the nuew thinking is that high-fat is NOT bad for you as was once thought.
I miss cereal in the morning. After a quick run to pick up a few of the ingredients, I will be making a batch! I’m so excited. THANK YOU so much for sharing and your contribution to my low-carb diet Peggy.
I’m certain you’ll like this cereal, Patty. When my picky husband goes back for more, that’s a pretty good indicator it’s a winner for even the fussiest palates (not sayin’ your is). And thanks for the kind words of support. So glad you like my recipes. It’s nice to know my creative side has an impact on other low-carbers’ability to stick-to-it!
Peggy, thank you for this! One of the things I miss the most on my low-carbing is granola. I will definitely give this a whirl and it’s great to be able to use pumpkin right now. Can’t wait for this one to come out of the oven.
I knew I was going to like it. But I was flabbergasted my picky husband liked it, too! Hope you do as well!