Chunky Monkey Granola

This recipe is healthy. Trust me.

How often can we draw inspiration for a healthy breakfast from an ice-cream flavor?

This delicious granola recipe is inspired by the famous Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey Ice-Cream. Chock full of banana flavor with chocolate and walnuts to boot, this is crazy good while still managing to be good for you. Living in a family with four banana freaks, it’s morning hit at our house.

This recipe is a part of Making Groceries even though you can’t buy anything like it in the store. Of course there are a few commercial granolas, especially at healthier grocers, but largely the cereal aisle is a vast wasteland of GMOs and corn syrup, all mislabeled as health food. It’s time to re-imagine breakfast. Sure, you can go the egg and toast route, but cereal is so easy and yummy in the morning. The trick it to make it yourself. This is a pretty big batch. It lasts a week or two in my house.

This recipe is full of healthy ingredients and is a great start to any day. It’s lovely stirred over Greek yogurt or with almond or coconut milk. It’s also a great ice-cream topper.

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Chunky Monkey Granola

Author: Rebecca Cofiño for Mamaguru

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas
4 T coconut oil
2-4 T brown sugar (optional)
½ t freshly grated nutmeg
1 t cinnamon
1½ T unsweetened fair trade cocoa powder
½ t sea salt
6 c old-fashioned oats
1 c coconut (optional)
1½ c chopped walnuts
1 c smashed banana chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300°. Puree bananas in a food processor until they are liquefied. Add bananas, oil, sugar, spices, salt and cocoa powder to a saucepan and heat over a medium flame. Stir until sugar is melted and everything else is mixed. You may want to taste before choosing to add sugar.
In a large bowl combine oats, nuts and coconut. Stir until well mixed. Pour chocolate mixture over the oat mixture and stir until everything is coated evenly. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. Spread the mixture over both pans.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, until granola is nicely toasted and dry. Every 10 minutes, stir the granola and change the pan rotation in your oven. Once ready, allow the granola to cool completely. Stir in banana chips. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks. Enjoy!

The Bottom Line

I’m not going to do a price comparison, because it just isn’t equal. It costs about $6 to make this entire recipe. If you buy ingredients in bulk, the price goes down for your wallet and the environment.

It’s amazing that you can serve yourself or your kids chocolate for breakfast and call it a health food, but it really is. Sure, it takes a bit of time to make this. I make it while cooking dinner, so I’m already in the kitchen to keep stirring. It’s not too much effort for me. If you wanted, you could team up with another family and take turns making large portions to share.

Let’s bring breakfast back to the kitchen, and keep it out of the laboratories once and for all.