Frugal Healthy Breakfasts

About 4 years ago, my husband’s cholesterol was above the recommended levels, with his total cholesterol over 200, high LDL levels, and low HDL.  His Doctor immediately recommended statins.  Not being a big fan of expensive medications with side effects, I asked the Dr. if we could try lifestyle modifications first before jumping on the statins bandwagon.  The Dr. agreed, but asked for a second blood test in 6 weeks time and insisted that if there wasn’t improvement by that time, statins would come into the picture.  I read up as much as possible on lowering cholesterol through diet and exercise and we ate different foods.  When the six weeks was up, cholesterol levels were down and LDL levels had declined by about 24%.  Now, several years later, after revamping our diets, my husband’s most recent blood tests showed remarkably healthy markers for cholesterol with total cholesterol around 160 and total/HDL ratios in the very healthy category.  The Dr. was totally, pleasantly surprised.

I attribute much of the improvement to dietary changes.  I had added several functional foods to our diet including oats, beans, and leafy greens; and we increased healthy fats from nuts and avocados.  Although this is not intended for medical or nutritional advice, my own bias is to search for the foods that seem to be good for us.  We now have oats most of the time for breakfast.  In addition to porridge style oatmeal with fruit and walnuts, we have baked oatmeal with blueberries, and banana and oat bars.  When I was searching for a granola recipe, I was unhappy to find most of them chock full of sugar or refined oils.  I tweaked a number of recipes, until I came up with this one for a low sugar granola.  I like to serve sprinkled over fresh berries and greek yogurt.  If this isn’t sweet enough for you, you can serve extra maple syrup or honey at the table. Making our own granola is certainly frugal.  The bulk ingredients are inexpensive.  And for us, the money saved from expensive medications is worth the effort.

Low Sugar Granola

3 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup of sliced or slivered almonds
3 T creamy all natural- peanut butter
1 T maple syrup
1 T apple juice concentrate
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Heat the peanut butter, maple syrup and apple juice in a bowl in the microwave or in a small pan on the stove.  Stir until the peanut butter is melted and combined with the other ingredients, then stir in vanilla.  In a large bowl, place the oats, almonds, cinnamon and salt.  Stir to combine.  Pour the peanut butter mixture over the oats.  Mix until well combined, (I use my hands).  Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet (I line this with parchment paper).  Bake for about 15-20 minutes until lightly brown and fragrant, stirring once or twice during baking. Let cool to become crunchy and store in airtight containers. Stir in dried fruit after the granola has cooled if desired.

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