I first made my own sugar-free breakfast cereal a few years ago when I started paying more attention to sugar content. I noticed that pretty much all breakfast cereals in the supermarket are loaded with sugar. I hated this as cereal tends to be marketed as healthy and a great way to start your day but most of them are not. If you’re not someone who has the time to scrutinise ingredients and nutritional information you’d likely never know and just believe all the good things mentioned on the front of the box such as “high in fiber”, “wholegrains”, “antioxidants”, “high in iron”, etc. And while a lot of those are probably true, what isn’t in big writing on the front is the insane amount of unnecessary sugar.
And by the way I’m not even talking about your Fruit Loops, Coco Pops or Nesquik. I’m talking about the “healthy” ones such as Just Right, Sultana Bran, and Special K. There are some good ones though such as Blue Frog, Clean Paleo, Little Bird and some of Ceres Organics, however the downside is that these cost around 2 to 3 times more than the other not so healthy brands. I have managed to find only one breakfast cereal which is low in sugar AND cost, and that’s Jordan’s Granola. Weet-Bix is also low sugar at only 2.8 grams of sugar per 100 but can be a bit bland without added sugar or fruit etc. If I’ve completely missed a cereal which is also low sugar and low cost I would love to know so please mention it in the comments!
So anyway, with all of this in mind, I decided I’d create my own cereal. That way I know it’s not loaded with sugar, it has no dairy or other animal products (as some do), and if I want to make it gluten free that’s super easy. Plus I can control the cost.
Mine consists of relatively low cost ingredients such as oats, seeds and nuts. You can also change up my recipe to suit your taste and budget. I used dried fruit in mine – currants, prunes and coconut as that’s what I had on hand – but you could omit the fruit completely to make it even lower sugar. If you do choose to use dried fruit look for ones which don’t have added sugar.
I find it so odd that SO many dried fruits contain extra sugar. There’s enough natural sugar in fruit already especially in a dried, concentrated form, why add more?! But it can be a bit of a challenge to find ones without and for that reason I often end up choosing fruits which aren’t necessarily my favourites to add. I really should get a food dehydrator and make my own, that would solve a lot of problems.
The great thing about this, well the other great thing, is it makes one big batch. Then you can just store it in airtight container and that’s your breakfast sorted for the week! It’ll last 2-3 weeks but is better the fresher it is.
I love this cereal with soy milk and a big spoonful of coconut yoghurt.
If you liked this sugar-free breakfast cereal and are looking for more breakfast ideas, why not give this Smoothie Bowl a try!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190℃
- In a bowl mix together 1C of the oats, 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp of ginger, and all of the vanilla, coconut oil, maple syrup and salt.
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Spread out onto a lined baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes until starting to brown. (Note my accidental but kind of awesome Australia shape)
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Meanwhile, use a mortar and pestle to break the nuts up into smaller pieces (try to get a variation of sizes, even leaving some whole)
- When the oat mixture is cooked, remove from the oven and let cool for 10mins, then break up into pieces.
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Put the remaining 2C of oats and all nuts and seeds onto a baking tray and bake until the nuts are browning but are not burnt, stirring halfway. Note: if using chia seeds you don’t need to roast these just add at the next step.
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Once cool, mix the second oat/nut/seed mixture with the crunchy first oat mixture. Add remaining spices, cacao and dried fruit and mix or shake well. I find it easiest to mix everything up on the baking tray used to toast the oats, nuts and seeds mixture.
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Store in an airtight container or jar for up to 2 weeks.
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