Granola Recipe! (Money Saving Breakfast, and healthy too!)

When people find out that I make my own granola cereal for breakfast, a lot of people ask me for my recipe.  I haven't ever come up with an actual recipe, as I usually just guess on every amount and keep tweaking until it works... until now. 

I have officially come up with my Banana Granola recipe, that will save some money on healthy breakfasts.  I'm not sure if this recipe is actually cheaper than purchasing puffed rice or corn flakes, but I can guarantee you that it's much more healthy!  And for the price of the higher quality cereals, I think you'd be better off making your own!

This recipe has a banana base, rather than an oil base like so many other granola recipes.  If you really want to save money, check for the overripe, brown bananas that the grocery stores will sell you at a discounted price!

Banana Granola

Preheat the oven to 300

Blend the following ingredients until liquified:

• 6 overripe bananas
• 1 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup honey

Once those are well blended, add:

• 1/2 cup of oil

Don't mix the oil for too long or it will make the mixture thicken into a mayonnaise texture!  I usually mix for about 10 seconds on a low speed just to incorporate the oil, and then I stop.

In a separate bowl, or directly in the roasting pan you will use, mix together the following ingredients

• 2.25 kg of rolled oats (about 24 cups)
• 6 cups of unsweetened coconut
• 2 cups of ground flax seeds
• 8 cups of unsalted peanuts
• 1 cup of bran flakes

 Bake in a large uncovered roasting pan (the kind that you'd cook a turkey in!) for somewhere around an hour, making sure that you mix well at 10 minute intervals.  When you stir the baking granola, make sure that you scrape the bottom and sides very well as the molasses and honey likes to burn onto the corners of the pan if you aren't careful.  Thoroughly stirring the granola also ensures even baking.  The granola is done when it is  looking a medium brown color, and looks fairly crispy.  The granola needs to sit uncovered for up to 24 hours (cover with a sheer towel if you are worried about bugs) so that it can dry and crisp up nicely.

Once properly cooled and dried, this granola will keep very well for a couple of weeks (we've had it for up to 3 weeks) in a sealed, clean container stored in a cool dry place. 

Variations:
This recipe is extremely easy to change by adding and subtracting ingredients, and switching them with what your family prefers.

Raisins and other dried fruits can be added, but only after the granola is cooked and has cooled for a couple of hours.  If you add the raisins directly the recipe before cooking, they will all burn and you will have black little burnt raisins all through the granola.  It's not very tasty that way!

You can add wheat germ, oat bran or rice bran in place of, or in addition to the flax seeds and bran flakes.  If you want to add more than a couple cups of dry ingredients in this recipe, make sure you add another banana to the original blending mixture to offset the additional dry ingredients. 

Instead of or in addition to peanuts, you can use almonds, cashews, walnuts, or any other type of nut that you like.  Or, if you and your family don't do nuts, switch out the nuts for some nutritious seeds like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and/or sesame seeds.

Instead of vanilla flavoring, feel free to try some other flavors that will better match the other ingredients.  For example, if you use walnuts, try using maple extract instead of vanilla.  You can use almond extract as well to enhance the addition of almonds.

I like to limit the sugars that I use in my baking, so I am careful to use unsweetened coconut.  "Normal" coconut has icing sugar in it.  If your family prefers a sweeter taste, you can add more honey, 1/2 cup of corn syrup, sweetened coconut, or 1 cup of brown sugar to the mix. 



So there you have it!  If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to leave a comment here and let me know what you think.

Frugal Edmonton Mama Ebook Special!

For a limited time, if you haven't read the guide to using coupons and saving money in Edmonton, you can get the Frugal Edmonton Mama E-Coupon class for only $4.99!

You will learn where to get the coupons, how to use the coupons and where you can start to get FREE items too. Just in time for the holiday season, you can change the way that you shop and be on your way to saving more money on your next trip to the supermarket - just by learning to time when you shop and other simple methods.

Check out Frugal Edmonton Mama's post for more info!

Huggies Diapers - $16 off!!!

So I did it!!! 

I bought a $20 pack of diapers for $4.04.  How?  Armed with 4 coupons and a Zellers flyer, I made my way to London Drugs.  I was admittedly pretty nervous, wondering if this could work!  I was so nervous that I totally forgot to step into Superstore and pick up my fifth coupon which would have brought the price down to $2.02. 

I went and found the diapers that I wanted, and went to the customer service desk.  I used the Zellers flyer to price match the diapers from $20.99 down to $9.99.  Then I set out the coupons.  I must have looked like a total coupon amateur  as I sat there nervously watching the clerk read through the coupons.  She scanned them and said, "That's $4.04 please." 

I tried to act all casual, but inside I was literally leaping and dancing, screaming, "IT WORKED!!!"  I had visions of myself dancing through some flowery meadow, receipt in one hand, diapers in the other, cash still left safely in my wallet.

I paid, and then left the store before my excitement came bursting out through my skin. 

I am hooked.  I purchased a couponing how-to guide for $12.99, and just saved $16 in one single transaction.  I am so excited, if I can save money on diapers alone, I will be saving around $40 a month, if not more! 

So my dear readers, if you want to start saving some big money, take a peek into the world of couponing.  Not just using a coupon here and there, but look into actually figuring out the system and how you get stuff for free or at a very low price!

Couponing in Canada

Alright, so for a long time I have believed that it is virtually impossible to do couponing in Canada.  Yes, I could save a buck or two for each grocery trip, but really, is that worth it?  And I'd probably be buying the higher priced stuff anyways, where I could just use the store brand and save more!!

I used to think that. 

Then I came across http://www.frugaledmontonmama.com.  She helps people get free groceries over and over again!!!  She claims that with her course, (only $12 for the e-course) she can teach you how to reduce your grocery bill by up to 90%!!!  I think it's time I take the course.

With some tips from her site, I'm armed and ready to go get some nearly free Huggies diapers.  If I could do nothing else but get my diaper costs reduced, I would save hundreds of dollars a year. 

I will let you know how it goes... and I'll let you know when I decide to take the course.  I may take her in-class course, which is more expensive, because I want to be able to ask questions- or even interrogate!!  ...Nicely of course.  :D

Check out the site for yourself, you might be pretty surprised at all the deals to be found here in our own city!

No analog TV signals means I have to get cable?

So, as most of you have noticed, there are no longer any analog TV signals- which means that those of us who have old TVs and relied only on "peasant view" TV, are hooped! 

With winter coming, the kids spend less time outdoors, and a little more time in front of the TV.  That may be bad mothering on my part, but it's pretty much a fact of life in this house.  I like to monitor when and what my kids are watching, but with all the TV signals disappearing, they have really missed some of their CBC Kids shows!!

I looked into getting cable or satellite, but was seriously turned off by the high monthly prices!!  In order to get the few shows that would actually be worth watching, we'd end up with a bill of at LEAST $50 a month.  But really, as far as bills go, the sky is the limit!  It's crazy... totally insane.  I cannot believe that people spend that kind of money so that they can turn on the TV and watch! 

But... I too was going to go down that route in order to at least have something that the kids could be entertained by when I needed it.

My brother mentioned that if there were just a few shows that my kids wanted (Word World, Busy Town, Little Bear, etc.) I should look into Netflix.

Netflix is definitely the answer to my dilemma!  With a free trial offer for the first month, and $8 each month after that, we decided to give it a try.  I was immediately pleased with the results!!  We use my computer or the Wii to view our shows, I don't have to worry about any commercials or shows that I'd rather my kids not see, and we don't have to wait until a specific time for them to watch what they want to see!

I've noticed that Netflix changes their lineup quite frequently... they used to carry all the Mythbusters episodes, but recently dropped those.  My kids LOVED WordWorld, but in the last week, those are gone too.  However, it's not like the kids won't find something decent to watch, there's always Veggie Tales movies, Little Bear, or even Dora.  Steve and I have enjoyed seeing all the Blue Planet shows, and other nature style shows.  If we want, there's a ton of movies to choose from as well.

I'm pleased!  For $8 a month I can choose when and what my kids watch, without having to sign up for a cable or satellite connection that would cost me a lot more!  

Electricity Calculator! How much does your stuff cost you?

When I opened my Epcor bill last month, I nearly fainted.  $180???  Are you kidding?  We didn't really do anything differently, I certainly didn't have the AC running for the month of September, and I didn't really have the furnace on a lot either. 

As I sat there staring at the bill, I do realize that electricity costs fluctuate, but for the most part, I wanted to make sure that what I was doing wasn't causing our bill to rise.  I am pretty clueless when it comes to knowing what electricity costs... and even what it all does and how it all works.  I had no idea how to know what used more and less electricity, and I didn't even know how to lower our usage! 

I found this handy calculator that did all that funny math for me, and was very useful to my limited knowledge self!  :)  FortisAlberta offers this electricity cost calculator on their website.

After typing in my numbers, I was shocked... I had no idea it cost me about a dollar for every hour that my oven was used.  I didn't realize that to let my printer stay on in stand-by mode all day and night, it was about $10 a month.  I had no idea that using a small burner on my stove used half the electricity as a large one. 

I'm sure some of you are shaking your head right now at my ignorance, but I'm also sure that there some of you who are having a "light bulb moment" (okay, bad joke...) and are also learning the same things I just did.

If I'm to save money on electricity, I need to know what things are most effective in doing that.  Obviously things like the furnace fan, some lights, and other odds and ends aren't going to change.  But I can use my crock pot instead of my oven, and I can set my dryer to a setting that will leave the clothes dry, but not bone dry.  I can limit the amount I use my dishwasher, and make sure that the lights aren't on when they don't need to be. 

Here's hoping for a smaller electricity bill next month!! 

Do you have any realistic tips on how to save electricity?

On to Step 3a!!!

We are now pretty much done Dave Ramsey's baby step 3.  That means that if Steve got hurt or lost his job, we'd have enough cash in our savings account (Tax Free Savings Account...) to hold us for 5 months.  Over the next couple of months we'll top that up to a full 6 month savings account, but we kind of put it on hold for a bit to do some much needed spending.

For example, my dear husband allowed me to go out and shop for some clothes!!  After having my third baby, nothing fits me anymore.  It would be so easy if every pregnancy lasted through the same seasons, and after every time I snapped back quickly to my old body shape.  And it would be even nicer if each time was the same shape before, during, and after pregnancy. But no, it's just not like that.  So... I had virtually no clothes that I could feel pretty in.  Nothing fit me well, and certainly nothing was new, especially after doing the whole Financial Peace University (FPU) for the last year!! 

I bought a bunch of new clothes, and then it was Steve's turn. He also bought some new stuff to make him feel great too.  Now we are getting back on track though, after a small detour, and we will be much more frugal again to make sure we don't waste everything we've worked so hard to attain!

We are now on Baby Step 3a. What's that, you ask?  Well, Dave Ramsey outlines this on his website (but not in the FPU) as the step you can take to save for a down-payment on a house.  We currently have a home, but in order to move up to something that will comfortably fit us, (we are sitting at 650 square feet... pretty small,) we want something somewhere around next year.  If we want to keep our payments similar, and not feel house poor, we need a much bigger down payment than the equity that we have in this home so far. 

Basically, we are now going to push as much as we can into more savings accounts so that we can save for our down payment. 

So that's the update... we'll keep you posted!

Oh... and we've now had the privilege of leading a FPU course.  We are on week 3, and it has been great!  We know that we can expect the participants to make the hard choices because we did it ourselves.  We've been there... we are still sort of there.  Now that we are coming out on top, it's much easier to keep making those right choices, but it still means denying ourselves what we "want" now, for what we can easily attain later.