Nourishing recipe for homemade oats & honey cereal as a healthy breakfast alternative to overly processed, commercial brands including those using organic ingredients.
Knowing how to make healthy cold breakfast cereal is an important skill as commercial versions are some of the most toxic processed foods on the market.
Some people are surprised to learn that literally ALL cold breakfast cereal brands are unhealthy.
This includes organic brands that have just a few ingredients listed on the nutritional label.
Why is this?
It is the processing of cold breakfast cereal that is the most important issue. It’s not just about the ingredients, although those are certainly important too.
The violent factory extrusion of grains required to make boxed cereal destroys the integrity of the protein molecules.
Eating this stuff is essentially akin to “allergies in a bowl”.
Taking cold breakfast cereal out of the diet is hard, however, as they are very convenient and incredibly addictive.
Thus, you will likely need some tricks in the tool bag to wean yourself off. In my experience, homemade versions are an effective way to eliminate them for good.
You will find this recipe for oats and honey cereal below to be extremely filling quite unlike the experience of commercial brands that are easy to overeat and don’t keep you feeling full for very long.
Love the idea of making your own cold breakfast cereal? Here are more recipe suggestions to try in addition to the oats & honey recipe below.
Homemade Oats & Honey Breakfast Cereal
Nourishing recipe for homemade oats & honey cereal as a healthy breakfast alternative to overly processed, commercial brands including those using organic ingredients.
Ingredients
- 4 cups organic sprouted rolled oats
- 10 cups filtered water
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp expeller pressed coconut oil
- raw honey
Instructions
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In a large pot, bring water and sea salt to a boil.
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Stir in sprouted oats. Reduce heat to low, cover with cracked lid and simmer until soft, about 10 minutes.
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Grease two large cookie sheets with expeller pressed coconut oil.
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Remove cooked oatmeal from the pot and spread out very thinly onto cookie sheets.
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Place cookie sheets in preheated 250 °F/ 121 °C oven and toast for 2 hours.
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Remove cookie sheets from oven and using a spatula, carefully flip the toasted oatmeal to the untoasted side.
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Place cookie sheets back in the oven and toast for two more hours.
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Remove cookie sheets and test the consistency of the cereal. If it is not fully dried, flip the cereal again and continue to toast for two more hours.
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Remove cookie sheets from the oven and cool for 15 minutes.
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Remove toasted oatmeal from the cookie sheets and pulse in two batches in the food processor until cereal consistency.
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Place finished cereal in a container with a lid and refrigerate.
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Enjoy a half cup in a bowl drizzled with 1 tsp of raw honey and whole milk. Add raisins, sliced banana, soaked nuts or soaked seeds if desired.
Recipe Notes
You may substitute virgin coconut oil instead of (flavorless) expeller pressed coconut oil in this recipe, but it will likely add a slight coconut flavor to the cereal.
I’m glad to know how to safely use sprouted oats for a variation on granola. Thanks for the recipe!
Is it really necessary to refrigerate the finished product?
If you live in a cool and dry climate, the pantry is probably fine. I live in Florida where it is humid and quite warm much of the year, so I always refrigerate otherwise it goes stale pretty quickly.
Made this last night and unless I did something wrong (please let me know) I would say the yield is slightly less than the input in oats. I scaled it up to 5 cups rolled sprouted oats and it yielded just about 4.875 cups. The resulting cereal has a texture like Grape Nuts cereal. Quite firm which I enjoy.
I left it in the pantry with a desiccant packet and will post if I have an problems. Guessing it will be fine for up to 3 months in our cool but humid climate this way.
Thank you for the recipe and comment.
I’m experimenting with oats in my kitchen.
I used to get terrible blood sugar spikes when I ate oats in my younger years so just stopped eating them for many years. That was before I knew about the imperative need to soak and cook them. So my question Sarah: If I soak and sprout the oats myself with some Apple cider vinegar for 3-4 days, do you think this would be enough to just make cookies with them … without boiling and dehydrating them? Thanks! Geri
Oats need to be cooked thoroughly in water to be safe to eat. Sprouting and soaking is insufficient and risks intestinal health if a regular practice.
Is the expeller pressed oil really necessary, or is plain organic oil okay?
You can use the organic virgin coconut oil, but the cereal will have a coconut taste (which I don’t prefer).
I wonder if you can make this like a granola and not cook first? Especially if you have the sprouted oats- is there a necessity of cooking the oats before baking?
Granola is terribly unhealthy and very bad for the gut. You must cook the oats thoroughly before dehydrating. Toasting the sprouted oats is insufficient to eliminate the anti-nutrients. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/truth-about-raw-oats/
I make almost the same thing Sarah! After making our normal soaked oatmeal for breakfast (with lots of butter and some maple syrup) I stir in some peanut butter and dehydrate. When finished we break it up in large thin chunks and my kiddos eat it for snacks. A few of them crumble like you do and eat for breakfast. Great minds think alike!
Thanks for sharing your yummy variation!
Do you dehydrate your oatmeal on parchment paper? At what temperature and for how long? Do you flip during the drying process?
I dont have sprouted oats to hand. Can you use regular oats in this recipe? Thank you so much
Yes you can … just soak the oats overnight before cooking them. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/video-how-to-cook-oatmeal-the-right-way/