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This Low Carb Homemade Granola Recipe (Cinnamon Toast Crunch Copycat) is crunchy and sweetly satisfying, and reminds us of the sugar-heavy cereal bowls of our youth…without the sugar!
Most of us grew up on sugar heavy-cereals for breakfast. And the beauty of it was that a bowl of Cap’N Crunch, Honey Smacks, Super Golden Crisp, or Cinnamon Toast Crunch could also double as a snack, or even a late-night dessert! Back in the day, there was no time that wasn’t good for eating sugary cereal, which of course now we realize is a huge issue. But back then it was a way of life.
We love keto for so many reasons. It makes us feel good, and it’s easy to follow once you understand it. Not least of all, how we can remake so many of our favorite pre-keto foods into keto-friendly versions that are actually nourishing, like this Cinnamon Toast Crunch Low Carb Homemade Granola Recipe.
Is Granola a Low Carb Food?
Many granolas contain whole grains, such as oats, and sweeteners, such as sugar, honey, and/or maple. Weren’t not saying there’s anything wrong with these ingredients, it just means that it’s harder to fit granola into a low carb or keto lifestyle. That being said, our version of low carb homemade granola will blow your mind. It actually tastes like Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal with the texture of crunchy cereal!
Carbs in Honey
One common sweetener used in granola is honey. We truly love honey and appreciate our honey bees! But the thing is, when you’re eating keto or low carb, honey can be difficult to fit into your macros. According to the USDA National Nutrient Database, 1 tablespoon of honey has 64kcals, 0.06g protein, 0g fat, 17.3g carbohydrates (with 17.25g sugar), and 0g fiber.
Instead of using honey, we slightly sweeten our low carb homemade granola with packets of a stevia/erythritol blend.
Is Banana Low Carb?
It’s not unheard of to sit down to a breakfast bowl of the following: whole-grain granola with milk, topped with sliced banana and a drizzle of honey. The carb count is through the roof on this meal, but before going keto, we actually thought of this as a healthy breakfast, not realizing the spike in blood sugar and later energy plummet it created.
There’s nothing wrong with banana and if it’s important to you to eat it, you can work with you doctor or nutritionist to find a way to integrate it into a keto lifestyle! But, similar to honey, banana is high in carbs and for a lot of us trying to limit our carbs, it can be a hard fruit to include. As per the USDA National Nutrient Database, 1 medium banana has 105kcals, 1.29g protein, .39g total fat, and 3.1g fiber.
What is the Best Thing to Eat for Breakfast on Keto?
A balanced keto breakfast can look like scrambled eggs with mushrooms and cheese. Or how about a keto English muffin topped with avocado or nut butter? When it’s cold out, we love a bowl of keto oatmeal (aka low carb oatmeal or noatmeal) with a pat of butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon. If you have a sweet tooth, toasted coconut chia pudding tastes like dessert. Or when we’re going for something simple, a bowl of blackberries topped with freshly whipped cream hits the spot. And of course Low Carb Homemade Granola is a great option!
Ingredients in Low Carb Homemade Granola
There are different ways to make low carb homemade granola. You can use a lot of different seeds and/or nuts, different flavorings, such as vanilla or cinnamon, and different healthy fats, like ghee or coconut oil. Here are the ingredients we use:
More Healthy Low Carb Breakfast Recipes:
- Healthy Java Chip Frappuccino Recipe from Lara Clevenger
- Low Carb Overnight Overnight Black Forest Mocha Chia Seed Pudding from Healthy Sweet Eats
- Keto Breakfast Biscuits Stuffed with Sausage and Cheese from How to This and That
- Keto Vanilla Cream Bulletproof Coffee from The Keto Queens
- Low Carb Keto Quiche Lorraine from An Edible Mosaic
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Low Carb Homemade Granola Recipe (Cinnamon Toast Crunch Copycat)
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw sunflower seeds
- 2 cups flaked coconut
- 4 tablespoons golden flaxseed meal
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 packets stevia
- 5 tablespoons avocado oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Toss together the sunflower seeds, coconut, flaxseed meal, chia seeds, cinnamon, salt, and stevia in a large bowl, and then stir in the avocado oil.
- Spread the granola out onto a large baking sheet and bake until golden, about 15 minutes, tossing once halfway through.
- Cool to room temperature, and then store in an airtight container for up to 1 month.
Notes
Nutrition
I love adding granola even to my oatmeal. It’s so good.
Thanks for the delicious looking recipe. Can we use xylitol in Stevia‘s place? If so, might you suggest the amount we could use? Lastly, we recently tried a different granola with Chia and flax seed, but we’re not crazy about the texture. Are these serving as binders? If we don’t use them, might you recommend another source? Thanks for your help.
Anne, Thanks so much for leaving a comment! We haven’t tried this recipe using xylitol instead of stevia, but it may work. Xylitol has a similar sweetness level to sugar, but is less sweet than stevia so you may want to adjust the amount of xylitol accordingly. Yes, the chia seeds and flaxseed meal act as binders in this recipe; you may be able to use an egg white instead, but we haven’t experimented with it. If you decide to play with the recipe, please let us know how it goes!
This is amazing. I love how simple and cost effective the recipe is.
Hi Alexis!
We’re glad you liked it!
This stuff is addicting! I couldn’t find raw sunflower seeds so I bought a bag of baked and salted kernels. If I do that again I will leave out the added salt. But even tho they are bit salty – my fault, not the recipe’s… they taste great!
The only downside is getting the chia seeds in my teeth! Have to be careful when I’m sneaking in a few bites at work! lol
This is a really good snack to have on hand when you don’t want to eat nuts.
Thanks for another awesome recipe! So far I’ve tried 4 of yours and have loved each one!
Sherrie, Thank you so much for your sweet comment and for trying so many of our recipes! We’re thrilled to hear that you’re enjoying them! xoxo
I am confused how you got 1 net carb and 182 calories. When I entered the recipe into CarbCoutner, it came out as 4 net carbs and 339 calories for 1/12 of the recipe, as it states in the directions that the serving size is 12. Can you advise?
Jess, Thank you so much for your comment! We just double checked our nutrition plugin and it was wrong; we adjusted it in the recipe above. Sorry about that!